Chinese cuisine( ) has become a staple world food, loved by people in all countries and of all walks of life.

A third of the worlds population enjoys Chinese food every day, because it offers dishes that are known to be some of the tastiest and unique in the world. Although it started off in China, the trend of this oriental cuisine has become widespread in the Western world.

sweet and sour fillet of pork

People of the Western culture appreciate Chinese food for its combination of superb taste and affordability. Instead of seeing it as a foreign food that is never to be understood and difficult to cook, it has become known that Chinese cuisine is in fact easy and convenient to make in the comfort of ones own home. With all the basic ingredients of common dishes such as bean sprouts, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts available from any neighborhood supermarket, Chinese food has been localized for people everywhere. Instead of seeing it as a special treat, people can recreate the glamour of Chinese cuisine in their own kitchen.

In addition to being easy to make, the characteristic of Chinese food is that it brings a flavor to the table for everyone. From sweet and sour to spicy, from chicken to beef to pork, there is a huge variety of dishes that can be served. Not only is Chinese food tasty, but it packs a punch of nutrition too. Rich in vitamins and often steamed or stir fried, a Chinese dish requires minimum cooking time and retain maximum health value.

How does the concept of yin and yang relate to food? A basic adherence to this philosophy can be found in any Chinese dish, from stir-fried beef with broccoli to sweet and sour pork. There is always a balance in color, flavors, and textures. However, belief in the importance of following the principles of yin and yang in the Yin and Yang diet extends further. Certain foods are thought to have yin or cooling properties, while others have warm, yang properties.

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The challenge is to consume a diet that contains a healthy balance between the two. When treating illnesses, an Oriental physician will frequently advise dietary changes in order to restore a healthy balance between the yin and yang in the body. For example, let's say you're suffering from heartburn, caused by consuming too many spicy (yang) foods. Instead of antacids, you're likely to take home a prescription for herbal teas to restore the yin forces. Similarly, coughs or flu are more likely to be treated with dietary changes than antibiotics or cough medicines.

Almost no foodstuff is purely yin or yang - it's more that one characteristic tends to dominate. This is why there is not complete agreement among experts as to which foods exhibit yin or yang forces. It also reinforces that it is not so much the individual ingredients, as the balance and contrast between ingredients in each dish, that is important. Interestingly, cooking methods also have more of a yin or yang property, as the list below demonstrates.

For Chinese people, Chinese food is a concept as useless as German beer, because, like Chinese culture in general, Chinese food is extremely diverse. China covers a large territory and has many nationalities; hence there is a wide variety of Chinese foods, each with quite different but fantastic and mouthwatering flavors. Because China's local dishes have their own typical characteristics, Chinese food can be divided into eight regional cuisines, the distinction of which is now widely accepted.

The Eight Culinary Traditions of China

-------Using a wide variety of ingredients. Adopting unique techniques

1. Shandong Cuisine
2. Sichuan Cuisine

3. Guangdong Cuisine 4. Fujian Cuisine 5. Jiangsu Cuisine

6. Zhejiang Cuisine
7. Hunan Cuisine 8. Anhui Cuisine

1. Lu Cuisine :one of the major styles of cuisine in China.It is

mainly composed of Jinan and Jiaodong dishes Characters Jiaodong Peninsula is rich in marine resources. Jiaodong dishes are made of aquatic products.

Jinan prepare cuisine with mountain delicacies and seafood

A pure, strong and mellow taste clear, smell, crisp(, tender.

2. Ingredients : 1)seafood, including scallops, prawns, clams, sea cucumbers, and squid 2)Corn, Peanuts, Grains 3) the staple vegetables: Potatoes, tomatoes, cabbages, mushrooms, onions, garlic and eggplants

2. Sichuan Cuisine
1) Spicy and pungent (food 2) Numerous cooking techniques stir frying, frying, stir-frying before stewing(, and braising.

3) Famous dishes: Stir-fried Diced Chicken with Chilli

and Peanuts, Stir-fried Bean Curd in Hot Sauce, Fish-flavored Shredded Pork, Stir-

fried Sliced Beef

3. Yue cuisine.
1 serve light food in summer and autumn, and strong and mellow food in winter and spring.

2It features sour, bitter, spicy, fresh and lightly seasoned

3The materials: snake, cat, pangolin( Famous dishes: Fried Bean Curd and Fresh Shrimps, Baiyun Pigs Trotters(, Roast Piglet with Crisp Skin, Dongjiang Salted Chicken

4. Fujian Cuisine
People are peculiar about soup 1) A wide variety of seasonings are used, with unique characteristics. 2) Dishes are meticulously prepared, refined and graceful. 3) It is characterized by clear, refreshing, delicious and light tastes, slightly sweet and sour. 4) Typical famous dishes: Monk Jumps over Wall, sea clams in Chicken Soup, Glossy Ganoderma and Jade Cicadas, Litchi Pulp, Fragrant Sliced Snails with a Faint Smell of Distillers Grains, Jadeite Pearl Abalone, Chicken with Distillers Grains

5. Jiangsu cuisine: 1) Sweet 2) Have a good command of duration and degree of heating and cooking. 3) keeping the original taste. All dishes have light, mellow and refreshing tastes.

Yangzhou Cuisine is light and elegant; Suzhou Cuisine is slightly sweet; and Wuxi Cuisine is fairly sweet.
5) Pay great attention to soup, which is strong but not greasy.

6Famous dishes: Butterfish in Creamy Juice, Steamed Large Meatballs, Fragrant and Soft Silverfish, Crystal Pigs Trotters, Steamed Hilsa Herring).

6. Zhejiang Cuisine consists of Hangzhou, Ningbo, Shaoxing and Wenzhou cuisine styles: crisp, light, tender, fresh food. the Hangzhou style rich variations and the utilization of bamboo shoots the Ningbo style1 specializing in seafood 2 emphasis on freshness and salty dishes the Shaoxing style specializes in poultry and freshwater fish the Wenzhou style the greatest source of seafood as well as poultry and livestock.

Famous dishes: West Lake Sour Fish, Dongpo Pork(, Longjing Shrimp Meat Jiaohua Chickens West Lake fish in vinegar Steam Rice Flower and Pork Wrapped by Lotus Leaves, Braised Bamboo Shoots

7. Hunan Cuisine: is well known for its hot and sour flavor, fresh aroma, greasiness, deep color. Hunan food is hot because the climate is very humid and hot food can help remove excess dampness and cold 1) The special seasonings of the cuisine include soy sauce, tea seed oil, spicy oil, Chinese red pepper, fennel and cassia bark, 2) Famous dishes: Spicy Chicken Fried Fish Slices,Steamed Soft-Shell TurtleSteamed Cured Meat( Huofang Whitebait Dongting Fat Fish Maw Jishou Sour Meat, Oily and Spicy Tender Bamboo Shoots Chinese Chestnuts Hearts of Cabbages.

8. Anhui Cuisine:
1) Paying great attention to nutritious food. It often combines medicinal herbs

2) It uses only local product and most ingredients in Hui cuisine originate in mountain areas
3) strict procedures of the cooking process 4)Famous dishes: Milky Fat Fish King Stewed Mati Softshelled Turtle in Clear Soup,Crucian Carp (in Earthen Pot Fuliji Chicken, Red Bayberry Glutinous Rice Balls

Chinese Festival Food

Spring Festival
Since the Spring Festival marks the first day of a brand new year, the first meal is rather important. People from north and south have different habits of the food they eat on this special day. In Northern China, people usually eat Jiao Zi(or dumpling) which is shaped like a crescent moon.

The shape of Jiao Zi resembles that of ancient gold and silver ingots or a crescent moon, and symbolizes the hope for a year of plenty. In some places, people stuff Jiao Zi with sugar to wish for a sweet life; others put one or two clean coins in Jiao Zi-- the person who finds the coin would make a lot of money in the coming year; if you happen to come across one with a coin inside, it means you will enjoy good luck.

The northerners eat Jiao Zi, but southerners like to eat Nian Gao, which translates to "New Year Cake". In Chinese, Gao is a homonym for high. Nian Gao is also called Nian Nian Gao, which is a homonym for "higher each year", symbolizing progress and promotion at work and in daily life and improvement in life year by year. Nian Gao is a sweet, sticky, brown cake made from rice flour and sugar, a kind of glutinous white cake in the shape of rectangle. Often given as a gift, it is delicious when steamed, fried, fried with eggs or even eaten cold.

Lantern Festival

People will eat yuanxiao, or rice dumplings, on this day, so it is also called the "Yuanxiao Festival."Yuanxiao also has another name, tangyuan. It is small dumpling balls made of glutinous rice flour with rose petals, sesame, bean paste, jujube paste, walnut meat, dried fruit, sugar and edible oil as filling. Tangyuan can be boiled, fried or steamed. It tastes sweet and delicious. What's more, tangyuan in Chinese has a similar pronunciation with "tuanyuan, meaning reunion. So people eat them to denote union, harmony and happiness for the family.

Tomb Sweeping Day

Its custom for Chinese people to eat QingMing Tuanzi in the Tomb Sweeping Day. It is made of wormwood().

Boat Festival

The 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar year is an important day for the Chinese people. The day is called Duan Wu Festival, or Dragon Boat Festival, celebrated everywhere in China.

The customs vary a lot in different areas of the country, but most of the families would eat Zong Zi (dumpling made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves).

Middle Autumn Day

Everyone will eat moon cakes during the MidAutumn Festival. Moon cake is the most traditional and important food in this holiday. It is round in shape, signifying family reunions and best wishes. That's why people in China buy and send moon cakes on MidAutumn Festival.

the Double Ninth Festival

On Double Ninth Festival, people would like to drink chrysanthemum wine and have chrysanthemum cakes. The chrysanthemum is a plant often used as a Chinese herbal medicine. People in ancient times believed that, in addition to detoxifcation, chrysanthemum could drive away evil spirits and prevent one from getting a chill in late autumn.

Another special food for this festival is chrysanthemum cakes. The Chinese word for cake isGao, a homonym of the Chinese word for high, symbolizing progress and promotion at work and in daily life and improvement in life year by year.

Chinese Table Manners

Chinese Table Manners has a long history . According to the records of documents , Zhou Dynasty had already formed a quite perfect system of table etiquette. Confucius , who was once responsible for the libation, spoke highly of the table etiquette as a mark of a countrys civilization.

During Qing Dynasty, the introduction of western food brought its table manner into China and had an influence on what later became our modern table manners.

Primary Tableware
Teapot table cloth plate

Chopsticks

bowl

spoon

Table setting

A round dining table is more popular in China than a rectangular or square one. As many people who can be seated comfortably around it conveniently face one another.

On a typical Chinese dinning table there are always a cup, a bowl on a small dish, together with the chopsticks and table spoons.

Dishes are always presented in the center of the table and shared by everyone .

A formal Chinese dinning is always accompanied by tea, beer or distilled spirit.()

It is impolite to set a teapot down with the spout facing some guests. Usually we should put it outward from the table.

Taking a seat
1.The guest of honor is always seated to the right of the host; the next in line will sit on his left. 2.Guests should be seated after the host's invitation, and it is discourteous to seat guests at the place where the dishes are served. 3. The most important guest( the oldest, the most respectful, etc.) will sit facing the door. 4. After the most important guest sit down, others take their seats.

5.Please take your seat from the left side. 6. The dinner will not begin until everyone is seated even if someone is late.

At table
Sequence of serving dishes Chinese dishes will mainly follow the order like this : 1.Cold dishes come before hot dishes 2.Soup will follow the staple food 3.At last, people will enjoy some dessert or fruits.

1. dishes will be placed on the central turntable. 2.Every time when a dish is served, the most important people take the first bite. Then others take their bites as the table turns. Sometimes, when there are kids, the youngest kid will take the first bite to show the care from adults.

3.Apart from the soup, all the dishes should be eaten with chopsticks.

4. If you seat closest to the teapot, its your duty to serve others tea. Usually, you start from the eldest/female. Do it clockwise. Generally, you serve yourself at last.

There are many no-no's such as---twiddling with chopsticks, licking chopsticks, or using them to stir up the food, gesture with them or point them at others. Never stick chopsticks in the center of rice, as this is the way to sacrifice and is therefore considered to be inauspicious. Instead, lay them on your bowl .

A toast to others is a characteristic Chinese dinning. When all people are seated and all cups are filled, the host should toast others first, together with some simple prologue to let the dinner start.

When someone toasts you, you should immediately stop eating and drinking to accept and toast in response. If you are far from someone you want to toast, then you can use your cup or glass to rap on the table to attract attention rather than raise your voice. However, it is impolite to urge others to drink.

Conventionally, if you are invited to a formal banquet, all the dishes should not be eaten up completely, or you will give the host the impression that he has not provided a good banquets and the food was insufficient. After dining, guests should leave once the host has left the table.

You should express your appreciation before you leave. And if necessary, make an invitation as response.