Chinese food

Common features

Chinese cuisine is very peculiar, is expressed in the use of special sticks, exciting pieces of food like the beak of a crane, as well as in a grand variety of food material such as meat cat, dog, snake, shark fins, wood mushrooms and bamboo, which are seasoned with various sauces (especially soy).

• The main product of Chinese cuisine is rice. Rice boiled dry crumbly mess (Fan) and very liquid (famichzhou), is used for breakfast. Crumbly fresh rice is served by itself, and with numerous additives (finely chopped shrimp, vegetables, eggs); perfectly sets off the taste of the main course and absorbs sauces.
• However, it is widely known outside China Chinese foods such as tea and noodles.
• Each dish must possess three important characteristics: color or appearance (Se), aroma (xiang) and taste (wei). To make the dish aesthetically expressive, usually taken from a combination of meat and vegetables of contrasting colors.
• One of the basic principles - the dish should consist of small pieces that during the meal did not require additional effort to cutting the finished dishes on a plate. Hence the two main culinary secrets in Chinese: the right cut and fry well. Frying products used so-called "wok" - pan large diameter having a hemispherical shape, made of iron and aluminum. Frying uses a minimal amount of fat.
• Rejection of unprocessed food has come to China with the Indian Buddhist culture

Cooking wok typical Chinese dishes

Cantonese cuisine with a side dish of rice (???)

Cantonese dishes of fried tofu with shrimp

Regional features

The core of Chinese cuisine is impossible to identify because of the large number of regional varieties of Chinese cuisine, among which there are four major culinary regions - Shandong, Sichuan, Canton (Guangdong) and Fujian - Taiwan (often referred to as the fifth region). However, the differences between them are rather conventional and does not coincide with the geography. So, Chinese food enters the region of Shandong cuisine, but it is possible to see a number of Sichuan dishes, as well as the Mongol influence, but the kitchen populous Yangtze River Delta, including Guiyang, Shanghai and Nanjing, refers to yanchzhouskoy kitchen. However, some distinctive features of individual regions still include:

Shandong: generally more savory and the predominance of light sauces.

Sichuan: a wide variety of strong spices, spicy and pungent.

Canton: determine the hardest; characterized by easy handling of food and limitless set of ingredients.

Yangzhou combination of the best elements of the northern and southern cuisine; underlines original fragrance carefully selected products. Below are the most famous dishes of regional cuisines.

Shandong cuisine

Shandong Province, the birthplace of Confucius, is in the east of China, on the beach and, of course, in the kitchen of her many famous dishes made with seafood. However, this kitchen, including Beijing, bears all the northern line. Her dishes dominated the menu dynasties of Chinese emperors who ruled with XII on XX VV Famous dishes of marine animals and fish include shark fins, trepangs (Sea cucumbers) and scallops, all of which are sold in dried form. Coast of China became home to dishes such as Swallow's Nest and fried oysters. Neighborhood Shandong famous in China fried-chicken stew, roast pork and roast pork stomach.

Sichuan cuisine

Fertile natural environment of southwest China contributed to global recognition Sichuan cuisine, which she enjoys more than a thousand years. Dishes of this cuisine flavored with exotic spices of this palette, including red pepper, vinegar, sesame paste, Sichuan "flower pepper", fermented soybean paste, fermented black beans and shallots, ginger, garlic, wine and soy sauce. Sichuan cuisine offers a number of well-known dishes such as baked goods, like dumplings and noodles dan-dan sauce of dried shrimp, chopped canned vegetables, peanuts, sesame seeds, vegetable oil, chili, vinegar and garlic. The most common dishes in this province are considered bean curd ma-po; chicken with peanuts under the spicy sauce; twice-cooked pork (boiled and then fried); duck, smoked on tea; Chicken Bang Dang, cold meat sauce spicy sesame paste.

Cantonese cuisine

Southern Guangdong Province - the birthplace of the majority of scattered worldwide Chinese, so ten years ago Cantonese cuisine prevails in all Chinese restaurants in Europe and America. The most famous dishes of this cuisine - fried noodles, fried vegetables with meat, pork, sweet and sour sauce and mushrooms into slices with chopped chicken - not the main achievements of its chefs, perhaps the most inventive, daring and skillful in all of China. They employ a huge number of ingredients, including, to the dismay of some, dogs, cats, rats, ants, snakes and snails. However, such extremes are rare. Since the XIX century. Cantonese cuisine absorbed elements of European cuisine and Cantonese style today rose to unusually high levels. Some seasonings, usual Cantonese cuisine, anywhere in China can not be found: oyster sauce, Shrimp paste, plum sauce and fish extract. The most popular dishes also belongs roasted suckling pig, Battle Dragon with Tiger (roast snakes and cats), fried milk, baked in salt chicken, dog meat stew and roasted ducks, chickens, geese and pork. One of the nice features of Cantonese cuisine - Institute of tea, called in the local dialect �yum cha�, accompanied by sweets �dim sum� (or �dian xin� literary Chinese). A huge number of teahouses in Hong Kong and Guangzhou are the place for breakfast, lunch, dinner, business meetings, entertainment, reading newspapers, walks with children or just save the heat in the summer afternoon. An infinite variety of cooked, baked, fried and steam driven delicacies of the restaurants on the street elderly (usually) women who shout in Cantonese name of their goods. Sophisticated and high-calorie dish "Chicken in a tacky rice" is as follows: Hill glutinous rice mixed with chicken, sausage, mushrooms, shrimp, peanuts and smoked bacon, wrapped in a large lotus leaf and boil for a couple, with a nutty aroma permeates the sheet Fig. If you ever find yourself in Cantonese tea house and want to enjoy it this dish, listen to the cries of the elderly into carriers - it must shout the name of Cantonese dishes - �ngo mai gai�, which is similar to the English �Oh my God! - Oh my God

Kitchen Yangzhou

As a cooking school; yanchzhouskaya kitchen least known outside of China. Yangzhou is located in a rich agricultural region of the Yangtze River valley, where a lot of rice and fish. The local cuisine is typical of eastern China with cities such as Hangzhou, Shanghai and Nanjing. Yangzhou passes through the Grand Canal, which connects the north and south of the country and the region's importance as a commercial center provides a high level of its population lives. Yangzhou is famous as delicious snacks and hot and cold. Among the first to be called dumplings with crab roe - "bags" of dough stuffed with pork, crab meat and eggs from which pours a delicious bite at the broth. By the famous dishes include "Mandarin" fish, steamed in vinegar sauce, meatballs with crab meat caviar "Lion's Head", whitebait fried and boiled chunks pressed tofu.

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