Fare from china - "presentation & vegetarianism"

Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese originated beginning the many regions of figurines and has become rife in countless extra parts of the globe starting Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa. In recent years, connoisseurs of Chinese gastronomy give furthermore sprouted in Eastern Europe and South Asia. American Chinese cooking and Canadian Chinese victuals are popular examples of local varieties.

Confined cultural variations adapt to a great extent inside China, giving climb to a typical style of food across the nation. Traditionally their are eight main regional cuisines, or Eight Traditions Anhui, Cantonese, Fujian, Hunan,Jiangsu,Shandong,Sichuan and Zhejiang. every so often four of the Eight immense Traditions are prearranged better, and are considered to dominate the cookery heritage of China, acknowledged in turning as the "Four Great Traditions.

They are notably clear along geographical lines: Sichuan (Western China), Cantonese (Southern China),Shandong (Northern China), as well as Huaiyang Cuisine (Eastern China), a major elegance resultant as of Jiangsu cooking and drawn viewed as the account of that region's cooking.

In advanced times, Beijing cuisine and Shanghai cuisine on motivate are what's more cited beside as well as the classical eight regional styles as the Ten Great Traditions . in attendance are too featured Buddhist and Muslim sub-cuisines surrounded by the superior Chinese cuisine, plus an emphasis on vegetarian and halal-based diets respectively.

1) Presentation:-

A Song era Chinese painting of an open-air banquet, the painting is a re-establish of a after-taste rule original. In largely dishes in Chinese cuisine, cooking is primed in bite-sized pieces, arrange for direct alternative up and eating. In time-honored Chinese cultures, chopsticks are worn at the table.

2) Vegetarianism in bone china :-

Vegetarianism is not uncommon or infrequent in China; though, as is the holder in the West, it is merely expert by a comparatively small tiny proportion of the population. Most Chinese vegetarians are Buddhists, following the Buddhist teachings as regards minimizing suffering. Chinese vegetarian dishes time and again contain large varieties of vegetables (e.g. Bok Choy, shiitake mushroom, sprouts, corn) and some mock meat. Such simulated meat is fashioned customarily by way of soy protein and/or wheat gluten to mimic the texture, taste, and outer shell of duck, chicken, or pork. Imitation seafood items, inished from supplementary vegetable substances such as konjac, are also available.

American Chinese cuisine

This cuisine defines the style of food served by some Chinese restaurants in the United States. The uniqueness of this cuisine is that this type of cooking suitably caters to Western tastes and preferences, and is very much different from the cuisine of China.

Ancestral Heritage:-

American Chinese cuisine was developed by Chinese restaurateurs in late nineteenth century as they modded their food for Caucasian American tastes. Restaurants were first opened for railroad workers, and later on were established in towns where Chinese food was completely unknown. Serving to their customers' tastes these restaurants made use local ingredients. Numbers were usually given to the delicacies in the menu, and also given was a roll and butter on the side.

In the process, chefs would invent numerous dishes such as chop suey and General Tso's Chicken. As a result of which they invented a new cuisine or style of cooking Chinese food which was not found in China.

Differences between American Chinese and authentic Chinese cuisine

1)In Chinese cuisine the main focal point is the inclusion of vegetables as a main part of a preparation whereas American Chinese food treats vegetables as garnish. Carrots and tomatoes are an example of it. Bok Choy and Kai-Ian, fresh meat and seafood are the main components of the Native Chinese cuisine. This cuisine makes frequent use of Asian leafy vegetables. As a result, American Chinese food is usually less pungent than authentic cuisine.

2)American Chinese food tends to be cooked very quickly with a great deal of oil and salt. Many dishes are quickly and easily prepared, and require inexpensive ingredients. Stir-frying, pan-frying, and deep-frying tend to be the most common cooking techniques which are all easily done using a wok. The food also has a reputation for high levels of MSG to enhance the flavor. The symptoms of a so-called Chinese restaurant syndrome or "Chinese food syndrome" have been attributed to a glutamate sensitivity, but carefully controlled scientific studies have not demonstrated such negative effects of glutamate. Market forces and customer demand have encouraged many restaurants to offer "MSG Free" or "No MSG" menus.

3)American Chinese cuisine often uses ingredients not native and very rarely used in China. One such example is the common use of broccoli in American Chinese cuisine.

Types of restaurants
Chinese restaurants can be divided into three primary categories

1)Sit-down dining:
These restaurants cater to customers who sit down in a dining room and order from a menu. They tend to provide more authentic Chinese food than fast-food restaurants or places of informal dining.

2)Take-out:
These restaurants, which cater primarily to call-in and take-out orders, serve as convenient outlets for traditional American Chinese dishes. Nearly all of them feature delivery to customers' homes, thus allowing the folded, waxed cardboard boxes (oyster pails) that are commonly used to attain similar recognition as that of the pizza box.

3)Buffets: Buffet-style American Chinese restaurants :
Which have recently seen an increase in popularity, tend to serve a wide variety of food in buffet style; the authenticity of the food varies from outlet to outlet.


American Chinese dishes

a) Dishes that often appear on American Chinese menus include:

General Tso's Chicken
Sesame Chicken.
Chinese chicken salad\
Chow mein
Crab rangoon
Fortune cookie
Fried rice

b) Regional American Chinese dishes:

Chow mein sandwich
Chop suey sandwich
St. Paul sandwich

c) Americanized versions of native Chinese dishes

Batter-fried meat
Chicken balls
Egg drop soup
Egg foo young
Egg roll
Fried rice
Kung Pao chicken
Lo mein
Mei Fun (see Rice vermicelli dishes)
Moo shu pork
Wonton soup
Cashew chicken
Meat "with" a vegetable
Broccoli beef

Tea culture of China

China is a country known as "world's oldest and continuous civilizations", consisting of states and cultures dating back more than six millennia. It also has its diverse cuisine and a unique tea culture which the country is known for worldwide.

The people of china preferably drink tea in between meals or at the time of different meals for maintaining a sound health and simple pleasure. Chinese tea mainly consists of tea leaves, processed using various methods adopted from ancient China. Tea was first discovered by a Chinese Emperor - Shennong in 2737 BCE , it is said that incidently "a leaf from a Camellia sinensis tree had fallen into the water which the emperor was boiling, and it resulted as change in the flavor and color of the water which eventually led to the invention of tea. The ancient Chinese used tea leaves for medical purposes and thereon the Chinese learned to grow tea plants and use their leaves to make various types tea.
It is a well known fact that tea culture is deeply rooted into the history and culture of China and its cuisine. Tea, by default is pondered as one of the 7 basic necessities of the lives of people in China, apart from tea other essential elements are firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar.

Tea is manly dissevered into four categories:-

1) White,
2) Green,
3) Oolong,
4) Black.

Some other varieties are as follows:-

1) Green tea
2) White tea
3) Black tea
4) Oolong tea
5) Pu-erh tea
6) Flower tea
8) Yellow tea
9) Pressed tea
10) Quick tea
11) Medicinal tea
12) Kudin tea
13) Red tea
14) Scented tea
15) Chrysanthemum tea.


Almost all of the above mentioned varieties of tea come from the same parent plant namely "Camellia sinensis plant. The other famous tea such as the "Chinese flower tea" is extremely popular but it is not a true tea type. Most of the Chinese tea produced is consumed within the country and is hardly exported. Green tea is one such variety of Chinese tea which has gained a lot of fame worldwide and is exported in large volumes, bringing in return a lot of revenue as being the most popular type of tea used in China.

Among these main stream varieties of tea in china, lie a vast number of their sub-varieties and are estimated to be more than a 1000 sub-varieties. These variations occur mainly due to the different regions where tea plantation is practised and also because of the diverse climatic conditions.


Tea leaf selection

1) The highest grade white tea, yellow tea and green tea are made from tender tea shoots picked early spring.
2) The more oxidised tea such as red tea or oolong tea are made from more matured leaves.
3) The highly regarded green tea Liu An Gua Pian is made from more matured leaves.

Chinese tea history

Many different types of tea were grown during each of the dynasties in China.

1) Tang Dynasty
A list of the differing grades of tea grown in the Tang Dynasty:
Premier Grade Tea: Xiazhou, Guangzhou, Huzhou, Yuezhou, Pengzhou.
Second Grade Tea: Jingzhou, Ranzhou, Changzhou, Mingzhou.
Third Grade Tea: Shouzhou, Hangzhou, Muzhou, Hengzhou, Taizhou, Xuanzhou, Yiazhou,
Fourth Grade Tea: Jinzhou, Lianzhou, Huangzhou, Sozhou, Yunzhou, Hanzhou, Meizhou.

2) Song Dynasty
Tea was an important crop during the Song Dynasty. Tea farms covered 242 counties. This included expensive tribute tea; tea from Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, where some was exported to Southeast Asian and the Arab countries.

3) Ming Dynasty
Ming dynasty scholar Wen Zhenheng's book "Zhang Wu Zhi (On Superfluous Things) chapter 12 contains description of several famous Ming dynasty teas:
a) Tiger Hill Tea and Heaven Pool Tea
b) Jie Tea
c) Liu An Tea
d) Song Luo Tea
e) Dragon Well Tea and Eyes on Heaven Tea