The old Chinese saying goes, "people take food as heaven." It expresses people's love of food. The pleasing colour, aroma and flavour all together make up a seductive dish. Chinese cooking has possessed a vital position in Chinese culture throughout the history.

Chinese dishes are known for their variety and abundance. By some counts, just the best known ancient and modern Chinese recipes amount to over 8,000. The ingredients fall into more than 600 categories, and there are about 50 different basic ways of cooking such as roasting, stir-frying and boiling.

Colour, Aroma and Flavour

In Chinese cooking, colour, aroma and flavour share equal importance in the preparation of every dish. Normally, a main course will combine three to five colours, selected from ingredients that are light green, dark green, red, yellow, white, black, or caramel-coloured. A dish with a fragrant aroma will most certainly entice one's appetite. Ingredients that contribute to a mouthwatering aroma are scallions, fresh ginger root, garlic, Chinese prickly ash, and chilli peppers. The most important thing in cooking any dish is freshness and the natural flavour of its ingredients.Equally important is to rid the dish of any undesirable fishy or gamy odours. While lemon is often used in European cooking to remove fishy smell, scallions and ginger serve a similar function in Chinese cooking. The right amount of soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, and other seasoning add richness to a dish without covering up the natural flavour of the ingredients. A well-prepared Chinese dish should taste rich to those who like strong flavours, but not over powering to those who seek a milder taste. It should seem sweet to anyone who has a sweet tooth, and hot to those who like a piquant flavour. A truly well made dish can be enjoyed by people with different taste buds.

Colour, aroma and flavour are not the only principles to be followed in Chinese cooking一nutrition is another important concern. The principle of harmonization of foods can be traced back to the Shang dynasty(1600-1046BC) scholar Yi Yin. He related the five flavours,sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, and salty to the nutritional needs of the five major organs of the human body: the heart, liver, spleen/pancreas, lungs, and kidneys. Many of the plants used in Chinese cooking, such as scallions, fresh ginger root, garlic, dried lily buds, and tree fungus, are believed to have properties which prevent or alleviate various illnesses. Chinese people have a traditional belief in the medicinal value of food. This opinion could be regarded as a forerunner of nutritional science in China. Notable in this theory is the concept that there is a correct proportion of meat to vegetable ingredients which should be maintained; one-third of meat-based dishes should be vegetable ingredients, and one-third of vegetable dishes should be meat. In preparing soups, the amount of water used should total seven-tenths the volume of the serving bowl. In short, the correct ingredient proportions must be adhered to in the preparation of each dish in order to ensure its full nutritional value.

There is a wide choice of foods that are used in various ways to promote good health. It is estimated that there are more than 600 different food resources with medicinal value to draw from, ranging from cereals, fruits, vegetables, meats and marine products.Some of these resources will not be familiar to people in the west who may be reluctant to try them; however,they all possess certain medicinal value.

Medicinal cuisine can be classified under four functional categories: health-protection, prevention,healing and therapeutic.Health-protection cuisine refers to the reinforcement of required nutritional food to maintain good health. For example, pumpkin and almond soup is believed to help with weight loss, and porridge made with ginseng is said to give more energy.Mung bean soup is commonly used as a guard against heat stroke. Lotus seeds, lily, yam, chestnuts, and pears can assist in the prevention of dryness and cough in autumn and help to build up resistance to cold in winter.

Healing cuisine uses food to help with recovery after severe illness while therapeutic cuisine aims at the specific pathology. Fried potatoes with vinegar help with hypertension and carp soup with Tuckahoe is said to be helpful in reducing swelling.

Four Major Styles of Chinese Cuisine

China is a vast country with diverse climates, customs, products, and diet habits. People living in different regions display wide variations in their diets. People in coastal areas consume more aquatic products and seafood, whereas those in central and northwest eat more meat and fowl. Food varies from north to south, and typical local dishes may even astonish strangers, such as snake and white rat eaten in Canton. Tastes also differ regionally because of climatic differences. People in variable places have made their own specialties to suit their tastes. However,different people hold different views about the classification of Chinese cuisine styles. A commonly accepted one is that they can be roughly divided into the Northern and Southern cuisine, and categorized into four major styles, namely the Lu Style (Shandong cuisine), the Sichuan Style, the Jiangsu Style (Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine) and the Cantonese or Guangdong Style.

In general, Northern dishes tend to be more greasy, and the use of vinegar and garlic is quite popular.Wheat, processed into pasta, also plays an important role in Northern cuisine; noodles, steamed or fried dumplings, and steamed and stuffed bread buns are just a few of the many flour-based foods enjoyed in northern China. Most dishes are high in calories, necessary for the cold northern climate. Well-known Beijing dishes include Peking duck, shuan yang rou (sliced lamb cooked in a hot pot and dipped in sauce), roasted lamb and a variety of seafood.

Shandong cuisine dates to at least the Spring and Autumn Period, more than 3,000 years ago. Due to its coastal location and fertile plains, aquatic products and grains are abundant. The cuisine, which is known for seasoning, gradually spread to northeast China, including Beijing and Tianjin. It mainly comprises dishes of eastern Shandong and Jinan (the capital of Shandong province). Some popular Jinan dishes are sea cucumber with meat balls and onions, braised shark's fin with shredded chicken, clam in egg white, and fried oysters. Shandong cuisine is characterized by its quick cooking methods such as frying, stir frying, and braising. Its dishes are crisp, tender, delicious, and greasy with salty and some sweet and sour flavours. People in Shandong like to eat onions and use onions as a seasoning. Food made from wheat flour, such as steamed buns, baked buns, pancakes, and crisp bread stuffed with minced meats, are also local favourites.

Representative of the Southern cooking styles are Sichuan and Hunan cuisine, famous for their liberal use of chilli peppers. When Sichuan or Hunan cuisine is talked about, people immediately think of it as being spicy. Sichuan cuisine can also be sour, sweet,and salty; and is known for the tongue numbing effect from the use of Chinese prickly ash. Actually, some of these flavours were introduced only in the last 100 years, and initially were popular only in the lower strata of society.

Hot pepper, an important spice in Sichuan cuisine, was introduced into China only 200 to 300 years ago. Dated records indicate that the people in Sichuan liked sweet food in ancient times. During the Jin Dynasty(265-420), they preferred to eat.Food favored by ethnic Hui people pungent food, which at the time referred to foods made with ginger, mustard, chives, or onions. Hot pepper is widely believed to help reduce internal dampness; therefore, it is used frequently in Sichuan cuisine. Typical Sichuan dishes include twice cooked pork with chilli sauce, shredded pork with fish flavoured chilli sauce, Crucian carp with thick broad-bean sauce, and boiled meat slices. These are common dishes favoured by every family.

In Sichuan cuisine, and few were cooked with pungent and mildly hot flavourings. Even today, some popular Sichuan dishes, like velvet shark's fin, crisp duck roasted with camphor and tea, minced chicken with hollyhock, boiled pork with mashed garlic, and pan seared carp, have kept their traditional mild flavours.Sichuan cuisine tends touse methods of quick stir frying, dry braising, and dry stewing. In quick stir frying, the food is cooked over a hot fire in a short time.Typical dishes are dry stewed fish and bamboo shoots. Sichuan cuisine also offers many delicious snacks such as Bangbang chicken, chicken with sesame paste, noodles with chili sauce, and rice dumplings stuffed with sesame paste.

While all Southern cuisines, including Jiangsu and Zhejiang styles and Cantonese style, emphasize the freshness of ingredients, Cantonese, also called Guangdong cuisine, offers more variety.Rice, noodles, cakes and cookies form the typical foundation for Southern cuisine.

Jiangsu refers to the part of Jiangsu south of the Yangtze River while Zhejiang refers to the western part of the province including the famous city of Hangzhou. Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine stresses the use of vegetables, bamboo shoots, and mushrooms which gives the food a light, refreshing taste. Vegetable dishes are important in both common people’s daily meals and famous restaurants. These dishes include cabbage heart cooked in chicken fat, braised fish slivers, spring bamboo shoots braised in oil, spinach flavoured with shrimp sauce, West Lake live fish steamed with vinegar, and water shield soup. Vegetables are also added when cook fish or meat. Fish, shrimp, crab, and mussels from the rivers and lakes are served as delicacies. In this area fish and shrimp are often kept alive until they are cooked, so the foods served in restaurants are very fresh.

Jiangsu and Zhejiang dishes are slightly sweet and less salty, some dishes are cooked with sweet and sour flavours. The use of distiller's grain is a special feature of the cuisine. The grains are used to get rid of unpleasant smells. According to historical data, crab and goose pickled with distiller's grain were among the foods available in Hangzhou during the Southern Song Dynasty.

Cantonese cuisine is unique among the various Chinese cuisines. Its raw materials, cooking methods, and flavourings differ greatly from the others. Bordered by the mountain ranges to the north and the South China Sea to the south, it has long been separated from the Central Plains. The dietetic culture of Guangdong retains many eating habits and customs of the ancient people, such as eating snakes. Many of these strange foods no longer appeal to today's refined tastes, and some are no longer consumed out of respect for people in other areas, but some strange foods such as snake and pigeon are still eaten.

Cantonese cuisine has incorporated many of the cooking techniques of the West, as well as those of other Chinese regions, into its own unique methods.The most distinctive cooking methods are cooking in salt and wine, baking, and frying.

Ethnic Cuisines

In addition to the various cuisines of the Han Chinese, the other 55 ethnic groups each has its own special cuisine. With different religions and geographic areas, the diets exhibit great variety and are interesting.

Food for Special Occasions

Special occasions call for special food. On birthdays, for example, young children are served noodles because the long noodles symbolize longevity. Elderly people are given peach-shaped cookies for birthdays as they symbolize longevity and immortality.

To celebrate a wedding, it is customary to serve Chinese dates, peanuts, longan and chestnuts together, as the combination conveys best wishes for the couple to have a baby boy.

To most Chinese people, a home coming after long absence or a departure on a long journey are both significant. One is served dumplings for the farewell and greeted with noodles upon returning. Such a tradition is especially popular in the northeast part of China.

In Central China, when a baby is born, the happy father will hand out boiled eggs dyed in red food colouring as an announcement. Eggs with a black pointed end and dots in an even number such as six or eight, indicates the birth of a boy while those in an odd number like a five or seven without a black pointed end are used for a baby girl. Special food is also offered to celebrate certain festivals.

During the Dragon Boat Festival, though many people cannot reach the river zone to watch the boat race, almost all of them eat zongzi, a pyramid-shaped dumpling made of sticky rice wrapped in bamboo of lotus leaves.

On the eighth day of the last month in the Chinese lunar calendar, people enjoy a nourishing porridge called "La Ba Zhou." In ancient times, monks would kindly share all sorts of food grains with people and made them this flavourful porridge. People still keep this tradition, especially in the northern region.

Fish is a required dish for the New Year's Eve dinner for most Chinese families as the word "fish" the same as abundance in Chinese(yu) is pronounced that of "surplus," suggesting an of wealth and prosperity.

Tips for Enjoying Chinese Food

The culture of cuisine is deeply rooted in China's history. It is not hard to find that table manners play so critical role in your meals. It is an admirable custom to respect others at the table, including the aged, teachers and guests, while taking good care of children.The practice of presenting the best or finest food first to the senior members of the family has been observed for countless generations. While hosts are friendly and hospitable, guests need to show their respect as well. At the beginning of a dinner, the host may offer some words of greeting. Guests do not start to eat until the host says, "Please help yourself ' or something similar, otherwise it suggests disrespect. The main dishes are placed at the center and the others are supported around them.

Chopsticks are the most commonly used utensils in China They have been introduced to many ether countries in the world including Japan, North Korea, South Korea, and Vietnam. The invention of chopsticks reflects the wisdom of ancient Chinese people. A pair of chopsticks, simple as they look, can zip, pick, rip and stir food.Nowadays, well-made chopsticks are considered popular gifts for marriage and other important ceremonies.