When it comes to Asian food, Chinese food is the most indisputable fact as the world's most love dishes. It is the most significant cultural aspect through the whole history of China. It's always a matter of curiosity when it comes to Chinese Food and Chinese Cuisine so here are some few interesting about Chinese food facts.
REGIONAL CUISINE
They said that Chinese Cuisine is the union of eight regional cuisines which are Anhui, Cantonese, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shandung, Sichuan, and Zhejiang cuisines. Each cuisines has different factors that includes ingredients, cooking style, level of spiciness and more. As the largest country in the world, China has a geographical and seasonal attributes that vary from region to region. The difference in regional cuisine took place as a result in different various factors that includes availability of sources, climate, history, geography and cooking techniques.
Rice and noodles are the most used staple in China. Noodles and wheat is the most popular in the northern part of China while in Rice and noodles in the southern part of China as they have Rice noodles.
If you look in other perspective the Northern Chinese food can be found out as simpler and salty with wheat as the staple and without any vegetable ingredient. For Western Chinese Food, halal lamb are the most popular. For Central Chinese food has spicy and hot dishes and Eastern Chinese food has sweet and light cuisine.
The Three Aspect of Chinese Cuisine
Greetings and Ceremonies
Chopsticks
Chopsticks are the Chinese alternative for dining utensils like spoon, knife and fork. Chopsticks always come with a pair of long sticks that can be held together in one hand to collect the food. An estimated 45 billion chopsticks are used by Chinese every year.
Chopsticks are called "Kuazi" in China. Chinese use chopstics to serve and eat food for over 6000 years. Chopsticks are commonly made from bamboo, wood and plastic, steel, ivory, jade, silver or gold.
Helping the elders get food using chopsticks using and keeping the food close to the mouth while using the chopsticks are some of the customs and traditions that is associated with the use of chopsticks. Tapping on the bowl using the chopsticks, piercing food with chopsticks and digging the food using chopsticks are considered impolite.
Symbolism
Chinese traditional beliefs food has the ability to represent something auspicious. Symbolic motifs are still significant within the Chinese community, mostly festivals. Preparing and serving certain dishes can have an implied meaning in a typical Chinese settlement, such as good wishes, fortune, blessings, unity and remembrance.
For example the Chinese traditional dumpling with their unique shapes resembling metallic blocks symbolizes wealth and richness during Chinese New Year.
Another example of Chinese Cuisine is mooncake which is a normally a circular cake that represents unity which is normally symbolizes during moon cake festival.
Famous Chinese Dishes
There are a lot of Chinese food that are very famous across the world. If there will be a ranking of a famous Chinese food, hotpot will be on the number one list.
Hotpot is a communal dish cooked on the tabletop, it contains boiling water filled with herbs and spices. You can add different ingredients into the hotpot while it's cooking. Hotspot is usually composed of five fundamentals components which are broth, meat and seafood, starch, vegetables and condiments. It is a healthy dish and preparing a hotpot could be a great way to socialize in Chinese culture.
Another popular dish is Pecking Duck. Roast duck or Pecking duck is considered a royal delicacy.
Sweet and Sour pork is one of the famous Chinese dish. Originally from Cantonese cuisine. Sweet and sour pork get it's name because of the use of Hunanese sauce which is sweet and sour.
If you can go further, there are a lot of Chinese food facts that could trace as the topic is such a vast and wide one. Those information above are just a few easily recognized by a normal Chinese food lover.