翻译美食篇--美味的中国菜

Tasty Chinese Cooking
美味的中国菜
Chinese culture food can be roughly divided into the Northern and Southern styles of cooking. In general, northern Chinese cooking dishes are oily without being cloying, and the flavors of vinegar and garlic tend to be more pronounced. Pasta plays an important role in Northern Chinese cooking; noodles, ravioli—like dumplings, steamed bread are favored flour—based treats. The cooking of Peking, Tientsin, and Shandong are perhaps the best known area styles of Northern Chinese cuisine.
Representing Southern Chinese cooking styles are Szechwan and Human cuisine, famous for their liberal use of chili peppers; the Kiangsu and Chekiang styles, which emphasize freshness and tenderness; and Cantonese food, which tends to be somewhat sweet, and full of variety. Rice and rice products such as rice noodles, rice cakes, and rice congee, are the usual accompaniments to Southern style cooking.
In Chinese cooking, color aroma, and flavor share equal importance in the preparation of each dish. Normally, any one entrée will combine three to five colors, selected from ingredients that are light green, dark green, red, yellow, white, black, or caramel-colored. Usually, a meat and vegetable dish is prepared from one main ingredient and two to three
secondary ingredients of contrasting colors. It is then cooked with the appropriate method, seasonings and sauce to result in an aesthetically attractive dish.
A dish with a fragrant aroma will whet the appetite. Ingredients that contribute to a mouthwatering aroma are scallions, fresh ginger root, garlic, chili peppers, wine, star anise, stick cinnamon, pepper, sesame oil, dried Chinese black mushrooms, and so forth. Of foremost importance in cooking any dish is preserving the fresh, natural flavor of the ingredients, and removing any undesirable fishy or gamey odors. In Western cooking, lemon is often used to remove fishy flavors; in Chinese cooking, scallions and ginger serve a similar function. Soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, and other seasonings add richness to a dish without covering up the natural flavor of the ingredients. A well-prepared dish will be rich to those who like strong flavors, not over spiced to those who like a blander taste, sweet to those who like a sweet flavor, and hot to those who like a piquant flavor.
A dish that is all of these things to all of these people is a truly successful dish.
Color, aroma, and flavor are not the only principles to be followed in Chinese cooking; nutrition of course the first concern. A theory of the harmonization of foods can be traced back to the Shang dynasty (16th to 11th century B.C.) scholar Yi Yin. He related the five flavors of sweet, sour, bitter, piquant, and salty to the nutritional needs of the five major
organ systems of the body (the heart, liver, spleen/pancreas, lungs, and kidneys), and stresses their role in maintaining good physical health. In fact, many of the plants used in Chinese cooking, such as scallions, fresh ginger root, garlic, dried lily buds, tree fungus, and so forth have properties of preventing and alleviating various illnesses.
The Chinese culture have a traditional belief in the medicinal value of food, and that food and medicine share the same origin. This view could be considered a forerunner of nutritional science of China. Notable in this theory is the concept that a correct proportion of meat to vegetable ingredients should be maintained; one third of meat-based food should be vegetable ingredients, and one-third of vegetable-based dishes should be meat. In preparing soups, the quantity of water used should total seven-tenths the volume of the serving bowl. In short, the correct ingredient proportions must be adhered to be in the preparation of each dish or soup in order to ensure full nutritional value.
中国饮食文化大致可以分为北方和南方两种烹调方式。

一般来说，中国北方菜油而不腻，醋和大蒜用的比较多。

面食在中国北方发挥着重要的作用，面条、类此馄饨的饺子、包子、炸肉饺和馒头都是人们青睐的面食。

北方、天津和山东等地的菜也许是最著名的北方菜。

中国南方烹饪风格的代表是以辣椒出名的川菜和湘菜，强调鲜嫩的苏菜和浙菜以及口味偏甜、样式丰富的粤菜。

大米和大米制品，如米粉、米糕和米粥都是很常见的南方食品。

在中国烹饪里，每一道菜的色、香、味都很重要。

通常情况下，任何一道主菜将会有3-5种颜色，选择的食材有淡绿色、深绿色、红色、黄色、白色、黑色和酱色。

通常，一道肉菜只用一个主材料和两三个配色食材。

经过适当的方法，配以调味料和酱油，就成为了外观诱人的菜了。

一道香气扑鼻的菜会刺激食欲。

令人垂涎的配料有新鲜生姜、蒜、辣椒、酒、八角、肉桂、胡椒、香油和干香菇等等。

做任何菜时最重要的就是保持新鲜和自然原味，同时除去任何难闻的腥味。

在西方烹饪中，常用柠檬来清除腥气，在中国烹饪中，大葱和姜能起到同样的作用。

此外，添加酱油、糖、醋和其他佐料能增加一道菜的风味而又不影响其自然风味。

一道准备充分的菜品对那些口味重的人来说要丰富，对那些喜欢温和口味的人来说不能过度调味、对那些喜欢甜食的人来说要甜、对那些喜欢吃辣的人来说要辣。

如果一道菜同时具备了这些要求就是一道真正成功的菜。

中国菜所遵循的不仅仅是色香味的原则，营养也是首要的。

食物协调的理论可以追溯到商代（公元前16世纪-公元前11世纪）一位叫伊尹的学者。

他将甜、酸、苦、辣、咸五种口味与人体系统的5大主要器官（心脏、肝脏、脾脏/胰腺、肺和肾脏）的营养需求联系起来，强调他们在保持人体健康方面的作用。

实际上，中国烹饪中用到了很多植物，如小葱、新鲜生姜、大蒜、干百合和木耳等等，这些原料都有预防和减轻各种疾病的特效。

中国文化自古就相信食物具备药用功能，而且食物和药物有着共
同的起源。

这一观点被认为是中国营养学的先导。

值得注意的是这个理论有一个概念：肉菜配料应该正确配比，以肉料为主的菜应该有1/3的素菜原料，以素菜为主的菜应该有三分之一的肉原料。

做汤的时候，水的量应该是容器容量的十分之七。

简而言之，做每一道菜或汤的时候都应该坚持正确的成分比例，以充分保证菜肴的营养价值。