Chinese Dragon Tattoo Head Dance Symbol Drawing Pictures Parade Costume Mask Images: Chinese Food Menus Chinese Dragon Tattoo Head Dance Symbol Drawing Pictures Parade Costume Mask Images

Thursday 10 April 2014

Chinese Food Menus Chinese Dragon Tattoo Head Dance Symbol Drawing Pictures Parade Costume Mask Images

Chinese Food Menus Biography

Source(google.com.pk)

The History of Chinese cuisine is sometimes, in China, traced back to the time of Peking Man and his use of fire, i.e., the invention of "cuisine" some 400,000 years ago. More humble accounts of the history still take the beginning back to the Chinese stone age, where the cultivation of rice and the production of noodles, both typical representatives of Chinese cuisine as we know it today, are known from archeological findings.
Over the centuries, as new techniques and food stuff were imported and/or invented, the Chinese cuisine as we know it gradually evolved, e.g. the use of chopsticks as eating utensils, another of the hallmarks of Chinese cuisine, goes back at least to the Zhou Dynasty; stir-fried dishes became popular during the Tang Dynasty; while most "famous dishes" as found today, were invented only during the Qing Dynasty or the early years of the Republic of China.
Not long after the expansion of the Chinese empire during the Qin and Han Dynasties, Chinese writers noted the great differences in culinary practices between people from different parts of the realm. These differences, following to a great extent the varying climate and availability of food sources in China, could be very local in nature but where early on systematized in lists of Chinese cuisines, the four most well-known being:
The North and South Cuisines, the earlist distinction, and one that is still much used today even as the food culture of North and South China of course have developed much since the distinction was first made.
The Four Schools, being Lu, Chuan, Yang and Yue. Often translated as the cuisines of Shandong, Sichuan, Jiangsu and Guangdong, these distinctions, in use no later than the Ming Dynasty, in fact covered much more ground than the present-days provinces.
The Eight Schools, adding to the four above, include the cuisines of the provinces Hunan, Fujian, Anhui and Zhejiang.
The Ten Schools, adding to the eight above, include the cuisines of Beijing and Shanghai.
In a Chinese meal, each individual diner is given their own bowl of rice while the accompanying dishes are served in communal plates (or bowls) which are shared by everyone sitting at the table, a communal service known as "family style" in Western nations. In the Chinese meal, each diner picks food out of the communal plates on a bite-by-bite basis with their chopsticks. This is in contrast to western meals where it is customary to dole out individual servings of the dishes at the beginning of the meal. Many non-Chinese are uncomfortable with allowing a person's individual utensils (which might have traces of saliva) to touch the communal plates; for this hygienic reason, additional serving spoons or chopsticks (公筷, lit. common/public/shared chopsticks) may be made available. The food selected is often eaten together with a mouthful of rice.
Vegetarianism is not uncommon or unusual in China, though, as is the case in the West, is still only practiced by a relatively small proportion of the population. The Chinese vegetarian does not eat a lot of tofu, unlike the stereotypical impression in the West. Most Chinese vegetarians are Buddhists. Non-Chinese eating Chinese cuisine will note that a large number of vegetable dishes may actually contain meat, as meat chunks or bits have been traditionally used to flavor dishes. Chinese Buddhist cuisine has many true vegetarian dishes (no meat at all).
For much of China's history, human manure has been used as fertilizer due to the large human population and the relative scarcity of farm animals in China. For this reason, raw food (especially raw vegetables such as salad) has not been part of the traditional Chinese diet.
Desserts as such are less typical in Chinese culture than in the West. Chinese meals do not typically end with a dessert or dessert course as is common in Western cuisine. Instead, sweet foods are often introduced during the course of the meal with no firm distinction made. For instance, the basi fruit dishes (sizzling sugar syrup coated fruits such as banana or apple) are eaten alongside other savory dishes that would be considered main course items in the West. However, many sweet foods and dessert snacks do exist in Chinese cuisine. Many are fried, and several incorporate red bean paste (dousha). The matuan and the doushabao is filled with dousha; it is often eaten for breakfast. Some steamed bun items are filled with dousha; some of these are in the shape of peaches, an important Chinese cultural symbol. Another dessert is Babao Fan (八寶飯) or "Eight Treasure Rice Pudding".
If dessert is served at the end of the meal, by far the most typical choice is fresh fruit, such as sliced oranges. The second most popular choice is a type of sweet soup, typically made with red beans and sugar. This soup is served warm.
In Chinese culture, cold beverages are believed to be harmful to digestion of hot food, so items like ice-cold water or soft drinks are traditionally not served at meal-time. Besides soup, if any other beverages are served, they would most likely be hot tea or hot water. Tea is believed to help in the digestion of greasy foods.