Eat - Chinese Cuisine

Eat

Main article: Chinese cuisine

Food in China varies widely between regions, so the term “Chinese food” is a blanket term, about as descriptive as “Western food.” Still, there are some broad characteristics. Gastronomy has a long history in China, and dishes subtly balance many flavors, aromas, and colors. Each region developed cuisine and techniques based on the ingredients at hand, so you’ll find spicy meat-filled dishes in cooler inland regions, slowly simmered seafood stews in coastal regions, quickly stir-fried fresh vegetables in busy southern ports like Guangzhou, and simple and hearty meat dishes in the Northeast with its notoriously harsh winters. Even many native Chinese find food from outside their home region to be “foreign”.

In southern China, rice (米饭 mǐfàn) is a staple food served with many meals, so much so that its root word 饭 (fàn) means “meal” as well as “cooked grain”. It may be served plain (eaten by itself as a side, or used as a bed to soak up sauce from the main dish), stir-fried with a variety of ingredients to make fried rice, a quick tasty street meal and a common way to use up leftovers at home, or made into congee (粥 zhōu), rice porridge that’s a common breakfast. Noodles (面 miàn) are another important staple, made from either rice or wheat, and served in a variety of methods. Soybeans are used to make soy sauce, a quintessential seasoning in Chinese cooking. They’re also used to make tofu (豆腐 dòufu), which comes in many forms besides tasteless white blocks: some can be as flavorful and crispy as meat, others quite pungent like a blue cheese.

Chinese gourmands place emphasis on freshness so your meal will most likely be cooked as soon as you order it. Searing hot woks over coal or gas fires make even street food usually safe to eat. Indeed freshly prepared street food is often safer than food sitting on the buffet lines of 5-star hotels. Still, use common sense: if it’s a searing hot summer day and the kebab vendor has their raw meat sitting unrefrigerated on the counter, you might want to head elsewhere.

Various types of Chinese food provide quick, cheap, tasty, light meals. Street food and snacks sold from portable vendors can be found throughout China’s cities, good for breakfast or a snack. Western-style fast food is also popular. 24-hour convenience stores are commonplace in most urban areas. You can typically purchase filled rolls, sandwiches, meat buns, and some ready-made meals, all of which can be heated in the microwave provided in-store.

Yelp and TripAdvisor are virtually unknown in China, while the Michelin Guide only covers Shanghai and Guangzhou, and is not taken seriously by most Chinese people. Most Chinese people rely on Dazhong Dianping (大众点评) for restaurant ratings, but it is only available in Chinese.

Etiquette

See also: Chinese cuisine § Respect

China is the birthplace of chopsticks (筷子 kuàizi), which are used for most Chinese food. Chinese cuisine evolved to be eaten using chopsticks, with almost all food prepared in bite-sized chunks or easily picked apart. Eating with chopsticks is a surprisingly easy skill to pick up, although mastering them takes a while. Some chopstick guidelines to be aware of:

• Never place or leave chopsticks upright in a bowl of food (reminiscent of funeral rites), pass something from your chopsticks to another person’s chopsticks (another funeral rite), or drum your bowl with chopsticks (reminiscent of beggars).
• Always use chopsticks as a pair, like a set of tongs; never use just one chopstick at a time (nor one in each hand), hold them in your fist like you would a knife or dagger, or try to “cut” food with them like you would with a knife. Spearing food with your chopsticks is generally rude and should be done only as a last resort.
• Using chopsticks to move plates or bowls is rude.
• Pointing at things with your chopsticks is rude. (Pointing at people in general is rude; with chopsticks, doubly so.) Even when setting chopsticks down on the table, angle them so they’re not pointing at anyone.
• In general, try not to touch food with your fingers. Even fried chicken is picked up with chopsticks and gingerly nibbled, touching it as little as possible. Small bones should be spat onto your plate or bowl, rather than removed using your hands or chopsticks. For foods that are eaten with your hands, disposable plastic gloves may be provided.

It’s normal to pick up any bowl of food for easier eating, and you can put a bowl of rice directly to your mouth to push the last few bites in using your chopsticks. Spoons are used for soups and porridge, and to help with eating noodles in a soup.

In traditional Chinese dining, dishes are shared family style, and at larger tables there is usually a lazy Susan to pass dishes around.

• Communal chopsticks (公筷 gōngkuài) are not always provided; if not, just use your own chopsticks to transfer food to your bowl. It’s not rude to request communal chopsticks from the restaurant, but it may make you look like a stickler for formality.
• Each communal dish should only be served from by one person at a time. Don’t reach across someone to reach a farther dish while they’re serving; wait until they’re done.
• Once you put something on your plate, don’t put it back. Confucius says never leave someone else with what you don’t want.
• Do not start eating until the most senior person at the table has started eating.

Don’t expect to get a fortune cookie with your meal; that’s strictly a Western custom. (Fortune cookies were actually invented in California sometime in the early 20th century.) Most Chinese have never even heard of them.

Regional cuisines

See also: Chinese cuisine § Regional cuisines

Several varieties of Chinese food have enough international popularity that you may already recognize some of them:

• Cantonese cuisine (from Guangdong), is by far the most widely known type of Chinese food abroad. Neither bland nor spicy, Cantonese cuisine will use almost anything as an ingredient, often preserving the freshness by quickly stir-frying in a very hot wok or steaming. Dim sum, siu mei (roast meats, including roast duck, crispy skin roast pork, char siu, etc.), claypot rice with Chinese sausage and wonton noodles are among the most famous Cantonese dishes.
• Huaiyang cuisine (from the eastern area towards Shanghai) is considered a good mix of northern and southern Chinese cooking styles. Dishes tend to focus on a main ingredient, which is often seafood in this coastal region; flavors are often sweet, and almost never spicy. Its most famous dishes include xiaolongbao (soup dumplings), red braised pork belly, drunken chicken, and sweet and sour mandarin fish.
• Sichuan or Szechuan cuisine (from the western inland) is popular with many foreigners for its málà flavors, using Sichuan peppercorns for a tingling numbness (má) and chili peppers for spiciness (là). Using lots of meat, preserved foods, and chili oil, it’s famous for the original form of Kung Pao chicken, mapo tofu, twice-cooked pork, and dandan noodles.
• Teochew cuisine (from the Chaoshan region of Guangdong) is well known in Hong Kong and much of Southeast Asia. Particularly known for its braised meats and steamed dishes.

Other major traditional cuisines include fragrant and vinegary Shandong, tender Fujian, spicy Hunan, herbal Anhui, and delicate Zhejiang. Ethnic minority cuisines in China include Korean, Uyghur, Tibetan, Mongolian, and various cuisines from Yunnan, while Northeastern Chinese cuisine is influenced by both Mongolian and Russian cuisines and includes dishes like potato dumplings and a type of borscht. There is even unique Chinese-style Western food to be found in Shanghai and Harbin.

Dietary restrictions

See also: Chinese cuisine § Dietary restrictions

People with dietary restrictions may have a hard time in China. Halal food can be found quite easily in any major city, but may be difficult to find in rural areas; look for Lanzhou noodle (兰州拉面, Lánzhōu lāmiàn) restaurants or Uyghur food stalls and restaurants selling lamb kebabs (羊肉串 yáng ròu chuàn) and naan (馕 náng), which may have a sign advertising “halal” in Arabic (حلال) or Chinese (清真 qīngzhēn). If you are attending university in China, most major Chinese universities have halal canteens to cater to their Muslim students. Kosher food is nearly unknown, and you will have to do some advance planning; there are Chabad houses in major Chinese cities that you can contact to help with this. Vegetarian restaurants can often be found near major Buddhist temples (look for the character 素 (sù) or the symbol 卍, a Buddhist symbol in this context), but elsewhere you’ll probably need to ask specifically and it may not always be available. Dairy and eggs are little-used in Chinese vegetarian cuisine, so much of it is suitable for vegans, but do pay attention, especially when it comes to desserts. Be careful and make your requirements clear in ordinary restaurants though, as vegetable and tofu dishes can include non-vegetarian ingredients such as oyster sauce, salted fish, dried shrimp or minced pork. Also be careful of bakery products, as traditional Chinese pastries are often made with lard. Awareness of food allergies (食物过敏 shíwù guòmǐn) is limited, and gluten-free foods are virtually non-existent.

Pork is the most popular meat in China, so if you see the character for meat (肉) without any other qualifiers (e.g. 牛肉 for beef, 鸡肉 for chicken, or 羊肉 for mutton), assume it is pork.

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Content adapted from Wikivoyage, used under CC BY-SA 3.0.