中式烹调和饮食风格的介绍(英文)

中式烹调和饮食风格的介绍Introduction to Chinese Cooking and Eating StylesPeople enjoy foods. Today, you can enjoy the foods from all over the world at all corners of the world. Even if you don’t know anything about China, you might know the Chinese restaurant in your town. However, you may not notice that there are some differences on cooking and eating styles between China and Western countries.As everyone already knows, Chinese people prefer to use chopsticks, a safer tool on dinner table than forks and knives. This brings a fundamental difference of cooking styles. Everything on table need to be picked up by using just a pair of chopsticks and a smooth edged spoon. According to Confucius, it’s not a gentleman work to cut and cook (Jun1 Zi3 Yuan3 Pao2 Chu2). That i s why generally you will not find steak or large chunk of food in traditional Chinese restaurants. On the contrary, all the food materials are cut or diced, mixed, and cooked in kitchen. Of course, there are some famous dishes where the meat is cooked in whole. For example, the famous Peking Roasted Duck is always cooked and presented as one piece. However, the work of cutting is done by waiters. It is even now evolved to a performance in the more well-known restaurants, such as Quan Ju De (全聚德). This philosophy also influenced to Japanese cuisine. You will not see large fillet in any sushi house. Indeed, most sushi and sashimi can be eaten in just one or two bites.As a natural consequence of this difference, Chinese cooking deviate drastically from western styles. First, it is the development of all kinds of cutting styles, one of the fundamentals in Chinese cooking. Just between the knife and cutting board, the materials can be reconfigured to different sizes and shapes like a magic. Second, it is the wide use of fry (especially stir fry) and steam. The taste have to be be locked into the food while it is served. Unlike western style, where sauce is widely used and table top seasonings (such as salt, pepper and ketchup) are provided, all seasoning should be already added in kitchen. The only thing left to the customer is to enjoy the food. This surely bring some challenges to the chefs. They need to know the preference of the gourmets, i.e., whether they like sweet, salty, or spicy. Of course, not everyone likes the same taste. No problem, in a successful dinner table, the chefs not only have to cook each dish well, they have to think the big picture. That is, the combination of the entire table should address the needs of all the people around it. All should be able to find their favorate dishes, whether it is salty or sweet, meat or vege.Besides the major cooking styles, there are some more subtle eating styles and etiquette.Chinese people like to share the foods. It’s quite obvious if you look at the furnitures. Chinese people use round tables, while western dinner table are rectangle. At the center of the Chinese dinning table are dishes served. If the table is too big, a lazy Susan will be used. So everyone will have a chance to reach every dish. If no lazy Susan is not available, standing up and pick up from a dish far away is not considered rude to others. Of course, the round table can’t be infinitely large. So multiple tables will be served, as you can see from this typical example. Generally, each table will entertain about 10~12 people. So sometime people often judge the scale of a banquet with the number of tables. In contrast, a traditional European banquet will have a long rectangle table, just like those depicted in Harry Potter. Of course, people will have their own dishes. In the case of more casual environment such as a holiday gathering at home. People can pass salad bowl or others around. However, it is often unimaginable for a gentleman to stand upand reach something. It is often improper in tradition to ask someone to pass a dish to you in a Chinese dinner table. Nevertheless, many people might accept this practice if a non-Chinese ask for it. One should be careful though. The dishes might be hot and greasy and the sauce might spill. It will be a real faux par if a plate is dropped.Another noticable difference is the drink. Chinese people like to drink hot tea before and after the meal. In US, a coffee is often served to conclude a satisfying dinner. Ice water is generally not served in Chinese restaurants in China unless you ask for it. However, you have far more choices of softdrinks and alcoholes available there。