Contents. Cooking Culture 1. Characteristics of Chinese Cuisine 23. The Art and Etiquette of Dining 43. Diet and Healthy Living 69.

Transcription

1 Illustrated by Fu Chunjiang Translated by Qiu Yao Hong

2 Contents Cooking Culture 1 Characteristics of Chinese Cuisine 23 The Art and Etiquette of Dining 43 Diet and Healthy Living 69 Local Snacks 89 New Year Dishes 111 Chopsticks 129

3 COOKING CULTURE There is a Chinese saying, Food is the first necessity of the people. Not only do Chinese love to eat, they love to cook too. Chinese cuisine is also well known worldwide, and Chinese restaurants can be found everywhere in the world. 1

4 The History of Cooking In primitive society, food was eaten raw, which often caused sickness. After the discovery of fire, people found that not only did the meat cooked with fire taste better, they didn t fall sick so often too. In those days there weren t any cooking tools such as stoves and pans, so how did they cook? We can get some clues from the cooking habits of some of today s minority tribes. The top part of the word zhi (roast) looks like a piece of meat, and the bottom part looks like fire. It means cooking meat over fire, which is the earliest form of cooking. Bamboo Rice Cut down a bamboo tube and make a hole at one end. Add in rice and water. Cork the hole and place the tube in fire. Burn the tube until it turns yellow, and cut it open with a knife. The rice is ready for serving. 2

5 The Origins of Cooking Tong Yu was the third wife of Yellow Emperor. She took care of the basic needs of everyday life, such as food, shelter, and transportation. Are you all right? I m fine. This happens all the time. They always get stomachaches. Perhaps it has something to do with the diet. I ll go with you on your next hunt. 3

6 Oh no! A storm is coming! Boom Boom The forest is on fire! We re surrounded by fire! We ll be burned alive! Let s not panic. We can take shelter at the cave over there. 4

7 The fire lasted the whole day and night. I m starving. What a nice smell. It s a burned goat. Hmm, yummy! Indeed, it smells good and it s easy to chew too. From now on, instead of eating them raw, we shall roast our kill on rocks first. From that time, Man has understood the basic cooking technique of roasting. My Lady, try this meat from a goat that was roasted on the big rock, it s delicious! 5

8 The First Chef The Chinese food and beverage industry has a tradition of praying to Peng Zu. It has been said that Peng Zu lived to almost 800 years old and had cooked for Di Yao, a legendary monarch in ancient China. Some believe that the Yellow Emperor (Huang Di) was the first chef ever. The Yellow Emperor made a cauldron and taught his people to use the stove to steam millet into gruel. There was also Sui Ren, who taught his people to start fires through friction. That was how Man learnt how to use fire to cook. In the early days of the Shang Dynasty, a God of Cookery appeared. He was Yi Yin, prime minister to King Cheng Tang. Yi Yin once carried his cooking utensils and used cooking methods and flavourings to persuade King Cheng Tang to take up leadership of the state and successfully overthrow the corrupt Xia Dynasty. 6

9 Yi Yin Explains The World Through Cookery Your Highness, some food items have repulsive odours, yet they can be transformed into delicious dishes. That is due to the five flavours and three materials (water, wood and fire). Once you boil the food, the flavour will undergo a change. There are guiding principles in adding seasonings. They cannot be added too soon or too late, too much or too little. Such principles will affect the taste of the food in the pot. The intensity of the flame will also help to rid of the odour. 7

10 A good chef must be able to roast the food for a long time without burning it, and he must boil the food till it is done but not overcooked. He must be able to grasp the finer points between sweet, sour, salty, spicy, bland and oily to obtain the best flavour. This is akin to the techniques used in archery and driving chariots. Like yin and yang and the changing seasons, it is difficult to imagine and explain. Every food item has unique qualities. You are only the king of a small state. You can t possibly sample all the delicacies of this great land. You have to take control of all of China, and become the emperor to possess everything. 8

11 Ancient Cooking Utensils The three dynasties of Xia, Shang, and Zhou marked an important period in the history of Chinese cooking. It was during this period that the basic form of Chinese cuisine took shape. Developments in agriculture and animal husbandry also greatly expanded the food source. The Book of Songs was a collection of poems and songs that showed life during the Western Zhou Dynasty and the mid Spring and Autumn Period. The book mentioned over 130 types of plants, over 200 types of animals, as well as flavourings such as salt, soya sauce, honey, ginger, cinnamon, and chilli. The book also noted the Eight Delicacies of Chinese cuisine. Culinary techniques also improved greatly during this period. Cooking utensils during the Xia Dynasty were mainly made of clay, while the Shang Dynasty was the period when bronze flourished. A huge bronze ding was even big enough to cook a calf. Fu was used for boiling soup, li for cooking porridge, and zeng for steaming rice. The diversity in cooking vessels showed that cooking had become a truly specialised skill. What do the Eight Delicacies in Chinese refer to? The names on the list differ from period to period, and are divided into grades as well. The top grade includes monkey s lip, camel s hump, monkey s head, bear s paw, bird s nest, bird s gizzard, deer s tendon, and fish lip gum. The second grade includes shark s fin, tremella (a white fungus), masked civet, hilsa herring, fish maw, forest frog, dried sturgeon s lip, and calipash (meat at soft-shell turtle s shell skirt). The third grade includes sea cucumber, asparagus, kou mushroom (Zhang Jiakou dried mushroom), bamboo shoot, red-scale fish, dried scallop, oyster, and cuttlefish egg glands. The most common Eight Delicacies are dragon s liver, phoenix s marrow, leopard s foetus, carp s tail, roasted osprey meat, yellow weasel s lip, bear s paw, and crispy cicada. 9

12 Cooks and Dieticians During the Xia Dynasty, the title cook already existed for the person in charge of cooking. During the Zhou Dynasty, the royal family was taken care of by 22 cooking departments that were staffed by 208 officials and 2124 workers. Work was divided into details in the large departments. There were also specific rules on what the emperor, dukes, senior officials, and scholars should eat during a banquet. The rules also governed the number of dishes, the types of flavourings, cutlery, protocol, music, and songs. There was even a food clinic that specialised in nutritional health and diet treatments. In the old days, there were strict classifications on the types of dishes one could eat, especially in formal occasions, where dining freedom was severely restricted. The emperor could eat beef, mutton, and pork; dukes could eat beef; ministers could eat mutton; senior officials could eat pork; scholars could eat dried fish; and commoners could eat only vegetables. As the seniority and age increased, the number of dishes would also increase and become more exquisite. 10

13 The Evolution of Chinese Eating Practices Before the Western Han period, the Chinese did not have tables and chairs but sat on floor mats to have their meals. At that time, they would lay floor mats (yan), measuring 1 zhang (3.3m) each, across the entire room. Straw mats (xi) were then laid over the floor mats. The floor mats were usually made of bamboo or reeds. During banquets, food would be placed on the straw mats and the people would sit on the mats to take their meals. The terms yanxi (feast), jiuxi (banquet) and xiwei (seat at a conference) were derived from the floor mat. 11

14 Proper etiquette in taking one s seat was required. As in kneeling, one s buttocks had to rest on the heels. As the dishes were placed on the floor, one had to bend down to eat. Hence, most of the serving dishes had high stands for greater convenience. Later on, the serving tray was invented. The serving trays were short and lightweight, and food was placed on them during mealtimes. 12

15 The little serving tray complemented the individual serving system where one person had one table to himself. This system was adopted by the Koreans and Japanese. It is common to find such meal practices in Japanese society today. Similar to the Chinese, the Japanese eat rice with chopsticks but do not drink soup with spoons. Instead, they drink their soup straight from the bowl. From the Eastern Han period to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Chinese switched to having their meals on beds. Ancient beds were low and very different from the type of beds we sleep on today. The same kneeling position was used on the low bed. 13

16 Eating on both the mat and low bed resulted in cramped legs and bent backs, which were quite uncomfortable. Hence, eating habits were changed when furniture that followed the natural posture of humans were invented. Soon, chairs, stools and tables were born. From the time of the Tang and Song Dynasties, the people used tables and chairs for eating their meals. The tables and chairs were mostly rectangular and had shorter legs than those used now. Tables and chairs were considered luxury items back in those times and ordinary folks could not afford them. It was not until the Southern Song period that tables and chairs became common furniture. 14