Chinese Cooking Art

Though there are many different schools, branches, regional variants, etc., of Chinese cooking, together they constitute what one might reasonably term "Chinese Cooking", where "Chinese Cooking" is distinct from, say, "Italian Cooking". A nation's cooking culture reflects its food traditions, from the food-preparation and eating habits of the countryside to the food-preparation and eating habits of the city, notwithstanding the increasing introduction of foreign fare that is not only served in "foreign" restaurants in the city, but which today is also found in the freezer section of most supermarkets even in the countryside.

In spite of these globalization tendencies, a large swath of any country's population will continue to enjoy their country's cuisine, partly because it is familiar and they like it (they have grown up with it), and partly because it is based on food staples that are cheaper to obtain (the very existence of a large market for a given food item means that its production permits what economists call an 'economy of scale'). "Chinese Cooking" will live on in New York City, in London, in Paris and in Sydney, even should the people of China - perhaps inspired by the scaled-down versions of Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Opera House, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, etc. - ever discard it in favor of an amalgamation of various foreign cooking traditions.

What makes Chinese cooking "Chinese Cooking", you may ask? Well, while some of the following features may apply to just about any national cooking tradition, they all come together in "Chinese Cooking" (note that the description below does not delve into the particular "How-To" techniques of "Chinese Cooking", but rather, looks at the phenomenon of "Chinese Cooking" from a more generalized perspective).

"Chinese Cooking" is characterized by:

Distinct Regional Flavors - Since China is a very large and a very ancient country, with varying ethnic and cultural traditions, and since China possesses an abundance of agricultural resources that reflect local and regional differences in climate, products, customs and habits, it has developed a variety of local and regional food flavors over the course of its long and illustrious history. One of the most common - and generally accurate - generalizations regarding China's eating habits is the saying "rice in the south, noodles in the north". A similar broad - and broadly accurate - saying is the following: "sweetness in the south, saltiness in the north, sourness in the east and spiciness in the west", which corresponds to the cooking traditions characterized especially by Bashu (Sichuan Province), Qilu (Shandong Province), Huaiyang (Jiangsu Province) and Yuemin (Guangdong and Fujian Provinces), respectively.

Seasonality - The Chinese people have a long tradition of consuming local foodstuffs, implicit in which is the notion of consuming produce that belongs to the particular season. The easy availability of a particular foodstuff is of course related to its consumer price, and since local foodstuffs are readily available in large quantities "in season", the price range is generally low. Morever, consuming seasonally available (read: locally available) foodstuffs means that one is assured of obtaining fresher foodstuffs, all other things being equal, than purchasing non-seasonal foodstuffs which have to be transported over long distances. The third factor is intricately linked to the other two: seasonal/ local availability means that people have become adept at developing recipies that make the most of particular foodstuffs at specific times of the year. To highlight the extremes, locally available winter foodstuffs are generally served hot and are braised, stewed or simmered, while locally available summer foodstuffs are often served chilled and are dressed with a piquant sauce.

Holistic Aesthetic Appeal - Chinese cooking has traditionally placed a great deal of emphasis on the aesthetic appeal of the individual dish as well as on the role the individual dish plays in the totality of the dining experience. Inherent in this sentiment is the attention paid to the harmony and balance of the ingredients of an individual dish - the dish's texture, color, aroma, and flavor - as well as the part played by the taste, appearance, etc., of the individual dish in comparison to the tastes, appearances, etc., of all of the dishes being served.

This emphasis on aesthetic appeal extends also to the particulars of the tableware, the aim being to create a harmonious balance not only with respect to the makeup of the individual dish and with respect to the complementarity between the types of dishes being served, but also with respect to the setting in which the dining experience is to occur. Part and parcel of this emphasis is also on the sequence and rhythm in which dishes are served, and even concerns the naming of individual dishes, as there exists a long tradition in Chinese society for naming things - from garden ponds to mountain vistas - either after the highbrow (eg., after a famous literary passage) or after a nickname that appeals to everyman (such as the dish Red Lion's Head (Fried Meatballs in Brown Sauce) or the dish Beggar's Chicken (Roasted Chicken in "Yellow Mud", i.e., Roasted Chicken in thick yellow gravy)).

The Inclusion of "Medicinal" Foodstuffs/ Herbs - The cooking tradition of China, since time immemorial, has been intricately linked to the use of herbs and other foodstuffs and/or spices that are believed to have a beneficial effect on the body, and in some cases may be considered as part of a traditional ("folk" or "ancestral") treatment. Some of these foodstuffs/ herbs may be quite tasty in and of themselves, and might be desired as a taste enhancer even should their putative medicinal value be proven to be nonexistent. Other of these "medicinal" foodstuffs/ herbs are considered mildly toxic in other parts of the world, though their use in China does not seem to have caused alarm, which is of course what one would expect to have happened if they really were harmful.

In sum, while "Chinese Cooking" combines several features that may be common to many other national cooking traditions, it embraces other features that set it distinctly apart from, for example, "Italian Cooking".