As part of my culture, let’s start with Chinese cuisine. When it comes to global cuisine, Chinese food is celebrated for its rich history, diverse flavours, and sophisticated techniques. It’s not just about the cooking—it’s about how food brings people together.
In Chinese culture, a typical meal involves a range of dishes including a mix of meats, vegetables, soups, and sometimes rice or noodle dishes being placed at the centre of the table for everyone to share. Unlike Western dining, where individuals usually order their own meals, Chinese dining emphasize on variety and balance, ensuring everyone gets a taste of different flavours and textures.
Meals are designed to work with each other, with a mix of stir-fried, steamed, and braised dishes to balance light and rich flavours. This dining style reflects deep cultural values: family, relationships, and the joy of sharing food together.
With roots tracing back thousands of years, Chinese cuisine reflects deep cultural traditions and regional variety. While many associate it with familiar staples, Chinese cuisine is actually a blend of culinary traditions, which are mainly divided into eight major regional styles, each with its own distinct ingredients, methods and flavours:
- Cantonese (粵菜):
- Known for its delicate flavours, steam and stir-fry dishes that emphasize the freshness of ingredients with subtle seasonings.
- Examples: steam fish, char siu pork and wonton noodles.
- Sichuan (川菜):
- Famous for its bold, spicy, and numbing flavours with the use of Sichuan peppercorns and chilli.
- Examples: mapo tofu, kung pao chicken and dan dan noodles.
- Shandong (魯菜):
- Known for its seafood dishes, hearty flavour, and mastery of braising and frying.
- Examples: sweet and sour carp and braised sea cucumber.
- Jiangsu (蘇菜):
- Known for its refined cooking techniques and presentation, subtle sweetness, and skillful braising.
- Examples: Lion’s head meatballs and squirrel shaped fried fish.
- Hunan (湘菜):
- Known for its hot and sour flavours, with heavy use of fresh chillis and garlic.
- Examples: Spicy stir-fried pork and steamed fish head with chopped chilli.
- Fujian (閩菜):
- Recognised for broths. soups, and light umami-packed dishes.
- Examples: Buddha Jumps Over the Wall and Fujian seafood soup.
- Zhejiang (浙菜):
- Known for light and fresh flavours, often using seafood and rice wine.
- Examples: Dongpo pork and Longjing prawns.
- Anhui (徽菜):
- Focuses on wild herbs and simple, rustic cooking methods like stewing.
- Examples: Stinky mandarin fish and Li Hongzhang hotchpotch
What makes Chinese food unique is its harmonious balance of flavours: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami. This balance is an essential part of Chinese cooking, emphasizing not just taste but also texture and presentation.
Essential Techniques:
- Stir-Frying: Quick cooking over high heat in a wok that seals in flavours and preserves texture.
- Steaming: Used for everything from fish to dumplings, this technique is ideal for delicate dishes which retains nutrients and natural flavours.
- Deep-Frying: For crispy textures, from spring rolls to golden-brown wontons.
- Braising and Simmering: Slow cooking methods that infuse dishes with deep and rich flavours.
- Blanching and Boiling: Essential for soups and noodle dishes.
- Knife Skills: Precision cutting is essential for even cooking.
While exploring the recipes for a range of classic dishes, we’ll study the various tools and ingredients integral to their preparation. This journey will help us understand not only how these elements come together to shape each dish but also the cultural and culinary significance they carry. By focusing on the details of each recipe, we aim to build a solid foundation of cooking techniques and ingredient knowledge that can be applied across cuisines.
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