Chinese Cuisine - Features And Chinese Regional cuisine

Chinese cuisine has evolved from unique tradition and technique of Chinese cooking. Chinese food are economical as well as nutritious. Chinese culinary art has given me through thousand years of refinement and development but the unique Chinese way of cooking and and preparing food remained basically unchanged. The dish is made up of more than one ingredients because because a single item usually lacks contrast. The food items are healthy and nutritious and found in every corner of earth . Chinese love to eat and dishes includes large variety of Ingredients.

Rice is the staple food of China in the south while wheat based bread and noodles are staple in the north. The most popular meat is pork though they eat meat of beef , mutton , duck , pigeon e.t.c. green seasonal vegetables and leafy vegetables are also very popular. Rice is the major staple food for people. Steamed rice , usually white rice is most commonly eaten form which is also used to make beer , wine . Chinese eat with chopsticks so sticky rice is preferred ( high gluten rice). Around 45 billion pair of chopstick is used in China annually as chinese eat with chop stock instead of cutleries. Noodles and soyabean Product are also popular in China. Noodles is usually made of rice flour or wheat flour and comes in both dry or fresh in variety of shape , size , texture. Tofu made of soyabean is very popular that supplies protein . Chinese eat almost anything that moves.

FEATURES OF CHINESE CUISINE

Colour , smell and taste are traditional aspect to describe Chinese food. Chinese food emphasize harmony of five flavours. There are five basic flavour in Chinese cuisine:-

1. Salty : flavouring agents sou sauce are used

2. Sweet : sugar , Honey and jam are used

3. Sour : vinegar , tomato sauce and plum sauce are used

4. Hot : chilli , chilli sauce , pepper , ginger are used

5. Bitter : orange peel and herbs are used.

Similarly for more than one flavour ;

Salty and sweet - salt , sugar and soy sauce
Salty and hot - soy sauce , chilly sauce
Sweet and sour - salt , sugar, vinegar
Hot and sour - chilly and vinegar
Aromatic and salty - salt , Sichuan pepper.

Similarly, Harmoniously blending of colours, aroma , flavour , shape and texture in one dish is also feature of Chinese cuisine. The flavour is blended with contrasting colour and flavours.

The cutting of ingredients is another element of Chinese Cooking for which slice is matched with slices, shred with shreds , chunk with chunk , cube with cube in uniform shape , size and thickness

A dish may have just one or several texture such as tenderness , crispiness, crunchiness, smoothness and softness. Texture such as hardness , stringiness are avoided.

Cutting of various ingredients into different size , thickness and shape is also important feature of Chinese cuisine.

The Chinese divide temperature of heat into military ( high, fierce or medium ) and civil ( low , gentle and weak ). Proper control of temperature and cooking time is key to success or failure. High heat is used for quick cooking for tender food.

Chinese cuisine varies from region to region and is distinguished clearly based on flavours.

They don't need broad cooking equipment to cook in compared to western Cuisine. Usually - cleaver , chopping block , work and stirrer are used.

Food items are cut into bite size for chopstick eating and food items are prepared with simple and easy method of cooking and retains nutritional value and natural flavour.

Also in Chinese cuisine , The main ingredients flavour dominates the dish while supplementary flavour provides lighter taste.

Chinese Regional Cuisine

Chinese Cuisine is Rich and diverse.chinese Regional cuisine are the different cuisine found in different provinces. Chinese food meant different things to different people with so many regional variations. There are 8 major Regional cuisine which is influenced by staple crop , tradition and local people. In general , Sichuan and Human cuisine are Hot and spicy , anhui and Fujian cuisine includes wild food from mountain. Cantonese, Fujian , zheijiang and Jiangsu Cuisine are light sweet and includes lot of sea food while shandong Cuisine is fresh , salty and includes a lot of sea food

Shandong Cuisine :- It is also known as Lu Cuisine and Features seafood ingredients such as scallop, prawn , squid. Shandong Cuisine is known for its fresh , salty , tender and Crisp flavour . The cusine is fresh, salty and uses lot of sea Food. They use bread instead of rice and use onion as seasoning. Quick fry and deep fry are popular Cooking technique used in shandong Cuisine . Popular dishes includes bird nest in clear soup , sweet and sour carp , lotus flower and shrimp, de zhou grilled chicken.

Beijing Cuisine :- Beijing Cuisine is influenced by variety of china cooking style. It is famous for imperial court cuisine which is originated from imperial kitchen where food was cooked for royalty and official.

Cantonese Cuisine :- Cantonese Cuisine focuses less on spices and more on freshness and natural flavour. The food has mild taste and most of its dishes uses sweet sauce. Popular dishes includes dim sum , wonton , spring roll, suckling pig roast.

Fujian cuisine : Fujian cuisine is also known as Min Cuisine . This cuisine is characterized by wild food from mountain and great seafood of sweet and light flavour. It is famous for its abundant ingredients from sea and mountain , fine slicing techniques and various soup . Fujian dishes are slightly sweet and sour and less salty. Dishes comes with soup . West Fujian dishes are slightly spicier while south Fujian dishes are spicy and sweet. Popular dishes includes Monkey jump over wall , oyster Pam cake , braised shark fish.

Zheijiang cuisine :- This Cuisine is famous for its freshness , softness and smoothness with mellow fragrance. It uses elaborate preparation and varying technique of cooking with nearly half of dishes including bamboo shoot. The meat are usually marinated in vinegar and sugar.

Anhui cuisine :- It is also known as Hui cuisine and famous for wild food from mountain. It uses both plant , animal and ultra fresh ingredient. The cooking method usually are braising , stewing and uses a lot of oil. Elaborate choice of wild ingredients are featured and most ingredients are from mountain. Popular dishes includes bamboo shoot with sausage , crispy pork with pine nut , anhui style smoked duck

Jiangsu Cuisine :- Jiangsu Cuisine is also known as SU cuisine . It is known for its sweet taste with moderate saltness and sweetness. Ingredients mainly Come from river , lakes , sea and famous for sea food which are normally sweet , light favour and have tender texture.popular dishes includes- crab shell meat ball , jinling sauteed dried dick

Sichuan cuisine :- It is well known for its fish dishes and offer more beef dishes than any other Chinese cuisine. It is from Sichuan province and famous for numbing and spicy taste resulting from liberal use of garlic and chilly , chilli pepper as well as flavour of Sichuan peppercorns. Popular dishes includes Kung pao chicken , mapo tofu , dandan noodles.

Hunan Cuisine :- Hunan Cuisine is also known as xiang Cuisine and known for its rich , moist and creamy dishes that are generally hot and spicy. Smoked and cured food are typical in this part of country . The dishes are even more hotter than Sichuan Cuisine. This region has greater variety of ingredients available to cook as land is fertile and suitable for Agriculture. Popular cooking techniques includes braising , stewing , steaming and smoking. The most popular seasoning are soya sauce , tea seed oil. Chillies are used extensively. Some popular dishes are orange beef, spicy frog leg , crispy duck e.t.c