One Year in China - Food

---

Hello all

A lot of people, particularly those from the UK, come to China expecting the food to be similar to a take-away shop in the UK. It comes as no surprise that a lot of expats, travellers and long term students are simply overwhelmed with the exotic, the strange and the vast range of dishes and cooking styles that are incorporated into Chinese cooking.

FORMAL RESTAURANTS IN CHINA

Also the eating style is much different from the West. Forget your table for two, intimate lighting and relaxing atmosphere. Eating in China is a boistrous occasion. The Shanghainese call the ideal atmosphere "renao" or "hot and noisy". Large circular tables, with a revolving platform in the centre, accommodate up to 12 people, with large dishes brought to the table where you take what you fancy and leave what you don't.

There's also a different order for serving food that generally goes like this:

leng cai - cold dishes served first. Things like Zui ji rou (Drunken Chicken) or Si Xi Kao Fu (Four Treasures Roasted Tofu - delicious). These dishes can be sweet or savoury.

cai - Main Dishes served second. This is where the main dishes will be brought out. Shanghai is famous for "Squirrel Fish" or "Gui Yu". It is also reffered to as Mandarin Fish and is usually served in a clear broth or in sweet & sour ("Tang Cu" - Sweet and vinegar). The sweet and sour is usually more popular with westerners. The fish itself is delicious, although some don't like being offered the head. Remember, several dishes will be brought out, so pace yourself. Other famous dishes are Dongpo Rou (roast pork knuckle in a dark soy-based sweet sauce); In October/November "Dazha Xie" or "hairy Crabs" hit the restaurants. These are a delicacy in Shanghai, although notoriously difficult to eat.

Snacks - In Shanghai the mains will be followed by some small snacks, a bit like dim sum in Hong Kong. These will more likely be "xiao long bao" little steamed breads, which are dumplings filled with pork, although better restaurants use pork and crab, and soup stock. The are EXTREMELY hot inside, so be careful eating them. SOmetimes other dumpling style snacks will be served (see "Xiao Chi" later on).

Rice or Noodles - Boiled rice, fried rice, noodles in broth or fried noodles are served finally to help give that feeling of satisifaction to every meal. This serving of these dishes is a signal that the end is in sight, so if there is anything left then you should grab what you like if you're still hugnry.

Soup - Soup is served as the Chinese believe that a good hearty soup aids digestion. The soups is usually more like a stock, although Guangdong soup can be thickened.

Fruit - Fruit, usually Watermelon and a few other seasonal fruits, are served at the end of the meal. This is the final act of any good host and should be taken as an indicator that the meal is over. "Long Yan" or "Dragon's Eyes" are particularly refreshing. They are a little like Lychees, but with a large black stone in the middle. Bitten in half they resemble a Dragon's Eye, hence the name.

XIAO CHI - Snacks

Of course, most the time you'll be eating cheap snacks "Xiao Chi" (lit. "little eat) at Shanghai's best little stores.
The following are a range of dishes you can expect:

Baozi - Steamed breads buns stuffed with either pork, green vegetables or sometimes red bean paste or even black sugar!!! Good for breakfast.

Jiaozi - Large boiled dumplings, sometimes served in a thin watery soup.

JianJiao - Same as above, but fried to give a crispy dumpling

Shengjian - These are small baozi, usually filled with pork and very hot soup. Be careful. Sometimes its like eating balls of Napalm. They are steamed and then fried ina large pan with parsley on top. These are my favourite breakfast snack

Xiao Mai - Small steamed dumplings filled with flavoured rice. These are really filling and cheap.

Most of the above are sold for around 5 Mao (half an RMB) in Shanghai, although places around tourist sites, particularly the Nan Xiang Dumpling shop at Yuyuan are much mre expensive.

OTHER CHINESE FOOD

Sichuan Food - This is brilliant stuff. The Sichuan style of cooking is very spicy, but delicious. Sichuan uses hua jiao (flower pepper) and chillis to flavour the food.

La zi Ji ding - deep fried crispy chicken. This can be very hot and most polaces serve the chicken on little pieces of bone, so be carfeul when biting into them

Gan bian si ji dou - Dry fried green beans. Simple but delicious

Generally everything you order will be spicy. Very spicy.

Hunan Food is similar to Sichuan, but the heat builds very slowly. Sichuan food has a more immediate spicyness to it. Both are delicious.

Huo Guo - Hot Pot. Groovelotion wrote a web blog about his encounter with Hot Pot in Chongqing. It described his near paralysis after tasting the Sichuan style hot pot.

Huo guo is basically a boiling, bubbling vat of soup or stock. The Sichuan style is EXTREMELY spicy, to a point where physical pain is not uncommon. Groovelotion (Aaron Kusano) wrote that he went deaf in one hear after eating this, which sounds perfectly feasible. It is the culinary equivalent to smoking in a bath full of petrol.

The other type of hot pot is very nice. Dongbei Hot Pot is not spicy, flavoured with duck, mutton or chicken and mushrooms and other things such as ginger.

WIth both types, you order a bowl of broth, some thinly slicd beef and lamb, along with some vegetables, seafood, tofu etc. All the ingredients are brought to your table raw and you cook them in the hotpot. This is a great way to eat with friends. Three or more people is best, then you can order a better range of ingredients to cook in the soup.

The Chinese really socialise with conversation and food as the centrepiece, as opposed to in the west, where alcohol is the light around which we all gather. However, don't assume that food replaces alcohol. The Chinese like a drink. At lower end restaurants you'll plough through entire cases of Qingdao lager, whereas if you're fortunate to get invited to a top end restaurant, you'll more likely be forced to drink unhealthy amounts of "Baijiu" or "White alcohol", a vile and potent brew made from Sorghum wheat. A better option is to go for "Huangjiu", the famous "Yellow wine" of Shaoxing. Long Shan Huang Jiu is a particularly good brand and is more dark brown in colour, although it is expensive.

ETIQUTTE

You'll also notice that toasts are offered every two - three minutes at a more formal occasion, where the guest of honour (probably you if you are a foreginer!!) will be forced to drink entire glasses of beer, huangjiu or baijiu. It is therfore advisable to keep a little shot of whatever alcohol you have in a glass and also have a soft drink on hand. I was at a dinner with the Vice General Manager of a shaoxing Wine Producer when I learnt about this. I could hardly walk by the end of lunch, before I was dragged around a Shaoxing Wine factory, sampling all the different wines. We then had dinner and more Shaoxing wine. Great hospitality, but my headache the next day was like the Big Bang.

Fish Heads and other delicacies - As a guest at a Chinese dinner it will often fall to you to eat the "best" dishes. This can include things like fish heads, sea cucmbers, shark fin soup, snake and the unfeasibly revolting "Stinky Tofu". If you really don't want something, don't just refuse it. Being given these thins is a way of showing respect, so simply say that you have tried this before and did not really like it and offer it to a chinese diner (the more senior the better).

Food in China plays such an important role. Its improtant to get acquainted as well as possible with the different styles. There are so many more than listed here, but to list all would be impossible. Also, if you find a dish you really like, get the name and write it down. If you have a variety of dishes you like then most restaurants will have two or three of them at least.

Mike

---