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China has an abundant supply of foodstuffs. She
is famous for her refined art of the cooking and preparation of
Chinese food. In this country great attention is paid to the
naming of the immense variety of dishes that may be laid on the
table. High store is set by the shape and color of the ultimate
product to be presented for consumption and also for appreciation.
The duration and degree of heating or cooking and the flavoring of
the foods involved are also resolved meticulously.
All this has
rich philosophical implications and a solid historical background.
For example, from remote past down to the present time, the
Chinese food culinary art lays emphasis on the need to preserve
the natural shape of the foodstuff being processed if it is very
beautiful, to preserve the original color if it can arouse an
exquisite sense of delight, and to preserve the original taste if
it is unique and flawless. The underlying principle is that food
processing should only enhance, not reduce, the merit of the raw
material.
For the processing of this kind of Chinese food
special technical treatments will have to be resorted to according
to the traits of the material involved so as to "keep the original
juice with the original
flavor" without any change in
character. The cooking theory of the culinary art emphasizes that
"foodstuffs have each its own taste and flavor, which should not
be made homogeneous through mixing" and that "every material
should be enabled to make its own contribution and every dish
should present its own unique taste and flavor". Some foodstuffs
are very nutritious, but unfortunately they have the peculiar
smell of fish or mutton. In processing this kind of foodstuff
different condiments will have to be added and different cooking
utensils used to carry out various technical treatments such as
stewing, simmering, stir-frying, deep-frying, quick-frying,
quick-frying with vinegar, boiling and steaming so that the
peculiar smell may be eliminated, nutritional value preserved, and
the original deliciousness given prominence to. Chinese food
(dietary) culture has a very long history. It dates back to about
8,000 years ago, when people began to use mud for building pens in
which they bred various animals including the six domestic animals
well known to people everywhere, namely pig, ox, goat, horse,
chicken and dog. Archeological study has proved that since that
time there has occurred the extensive appearance in China of the
cultivation of crops of the grass family such as millet, maize,
rice, sorghum, hemp and flax. During the period of transition from
the Qin to the Han Dynasty (221~200BC), barley, wheat and oats
also came to be cultivated.
There also appeared soybeans, red
beans and black soybeans that were the fruits of agricultural
labor. The technique of growing spring onion, chives, garlic,
radish and more than ten other
vegetables was developed. The
hothouse was used in winter to grow spring onion and hotbed
chives. As for salt, wine, sugar, vinegar and honey, they were
extensively used as condiments. Even the drinking of tea was not
something unusual.
At the time of the Tang Dynasty (618~907AD),
the preparation of Chinese food became almost the same as that of
today. Cooked rice, congee, steamed
bread, boiled dumplings with
meat and vegetable stuffing, steamed stuffed buns,
noodles and
other foods served in soup were all in supply.
Chinese people
attach great importance to care of health and cure of disease in
the processing and serving of foods, which is termed "diet
therapy".
Efforts are made to achieve for every meal the
purpose that staple and non-ataple foods should be truly
complementary, that cold and hot dishes should be properly
matched, that there should be foods which are cooked and
which are eaten in a raw state, which are boiled until they are
dry and which are boiled but with a lot of water or milk left in
them, foods which are sweet and which are salty, and there should
be dishes of meat, fish, etc. and dishes of vegetables. A high
degree of unity of opposites is generally revealed in the
profusion and diversity of quantities of foods and sizes of plates
and bowls.
When concrete problems are to be considered in
reference to the dietary requirements of the four seasons of a
year, still more attention is paid to the time, climate, and
suitability to the condition of the human body in the given
season. In springtime, appropriate amounts of vinegary and
fragrant food should be added in order to keep the body channels
open for passage and to whet the appetite; in summertime, the
proper addition of cool and bitterish food would be necessary to
give those at the table a feeling of coolness and promote the
palatability of the dishes, thus making people oblivious of the
ambient summer heat; in the fall, with the approaching cold
weather, a bit of pungent food would be desirable for the purpose
of fending off the attack of cold wind; and in wintertime, the
rigors of the cold weather demand that salty dishes and hot soups
be added to the daily menu so as to increase the ability of the
human body to defend itself against the severe cold. All this
gives embodiment to the theory of the Chinese classical philosophy
that "nature, place, human being and time" are to be bound into an
inseparable whole.
Chinese people are inclined to use
traditional condiments, which do not include any chemicals. They
generally favor herbs which traditional Chinese medical scholars
approve of and which through long-term culinary employment have
shown themselves to be beneficial to human health, such as spring
onion, chive seedlings, ginger, garlic, aniseed, Chinese prickly
ash, pepper, cinnamon, dried tangerine, hawthorn, and Angelica
dehurica. Other favorite flavorings are: white spirit, yellow rice
wine, long-preserved vinegar, white sugar and honey.
Under the
guidance of traditional Chinese medical theory, dietary health
care has become a highly specialized branch of science which
proves to be of great value in practical applications. For
instance, traditional Chinese medical theory finds application in
the coupling or matching of different foods so as to bring into
full play the health-care effect of certain foods being cooked or
taken together and to shun the taboos that are considered to be
based on really good reasons. Two taboos of this nature are cited
here for your reference. Mutton and plums are not to be taken
together. Carp should not be eaten at the same time as dog,
chicken,
pork liver, and green
soya been. On this foundation was
born a complete set of variegated medicated health-care products
in the form of medicinal liquors, many Chinese food cooked with
medicinal herbs, health teas, etc. All these things are the
concrete manifestation of the achievements of traditional Chinese
medical theory in dietary culture.
Chinese dietary culture has
a very long history. The underlying principle is that food
processing should only enhance, not reduce, the merit of the raw
material.
Chinese people attach great importance to care of
health and cure of disease in the processing and serving of foods,
which is termed "diet therapy".
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