I feel rather embarrassed. My postmortem of the feast lies festering in the edit bin like an overcooked beef stew that's been on the boiler for the last 2 months. It's unbelievably repulsive and starting to smell. So I don't know. Should I go back to it? It's like watching a really bad movie. You start it but you really can't be bothered to finish it. Yet, some time later, you regret not finishing it and you feel like going back to it again, but you know it will be torturous and uncomfortable going through it again. Am I making any sense at all?
At this point, I am feeling rather incompetent. So I shall not try anything adventurous. But I do feel obliged to share the following rant. I feel that for all our cooking adventures, the one thing we have failed to cover adequately is Chinese. I watched a television programmed where they talked very intelligently about how the Chinese, in China especially, are distancing themselves from their culture. Universities have taken a very western interpretation of art and literature, which is lamentable, really. I feel rather strongly about it, but that is really not relevant here. So, I shall try to fight back in my own little way, by dedicating the next series of posts to Chinese cuisine, from the exquisite delicacies of an Imperial Palace, to the simple peasant's dish that our grandfathers and grandmothers enjoyed.
Chinese cooking is fundamentally very different from the western style of cooking, in much the same as Chinese dining is different. The two main differences are variety and dish structure. You know what they say about us Chinese. If it has limbs and moves, we will eat it. And we will not just eat any part of it, we must eat the whole damn thing, or we shall feel an inexplicable sense of regret. Thus while various cuisines from other parts of the world may show a specificity to the produce of the native region and at most a few of its neighbours, Chinese cuisine is far more varied in scope. The point is not that the Chinese have had more exposure to variety. Rather it reflects the remarkable adaptability of our style of cooking.
On the second point, Chinese dish structure reflects the fact that Chinese cooking is and always has been a communal thing, as compared to many Western traditions. This difference is manifested in both senses of the word, in the structure of the plates and literally, dishes used to present the food, and the structure of each individual menu item. In terms of the cutlery and utensils, chopsticks are not the only difference. It is rare to find to find the plates so common in Western restaurant because in traditional Chinese homes, the only food personal each meal is a bowl of rice and the occasional bowl of soup, though both are usually taken from a bigger communal tub or bowl. Thus, dishes are also prepared with the concept of sharing in mind. A part of the art of preparing chinese food is dividing it into portions, whether it is slicing beef, dicing chicken or chopping vegetables.
A word, perhaps, at this time about the menu. Chinese menus typically do not follow any particularly structured presentation. There are distinctions within the menu, but these are more by type of food, i.e. cold dish, meat, vegetable, soup. So overall, a chinese gastronomical adventure is very much different from a western one if only because the food and flavours hit you in a deluge rather than through a well planned process. The primary impact of this is that chinese cooking is a lot more concerned with the big picture of flavours and hence less "specific" than western cooking.
Okay that wasn't exactly a marvelously insightful or well written piece. This weekend I shall attempt pork trotters soup! And I have found myself a digital camera! So expect pictures =D
Peace,
Wang the Slanty Eyed One.
At this point, I am feeling rather incompetent. So I shall not try anything adventurous. But I do feel obliged to share the following rant. I feel that for all our cooking adventures, the one thing we have failed to cover adequately is Chinese. I watched a television programmed where they talked very intelligently about how the Chinese, in China especially, are distancing themselves from their culture. Universities have taken a very western interpretation of art and literature, which is lamentable, really. I feel rather strongly about it, but that is really not relevant here. So, I shall try to fight back in my own little way, by dedicating the next series of posts to Chinese cuisine, from the exquisite delicacies of an Imperial Palace, to the simple peasant's dish that our grandfathers and grandmothers enjoyed.
Chinese cooking is fundamentally very different from the western style of cooking, in much the same as Chinese dining is different. The two main differences are variety and dish structure. You know what they say about us Chinese. If it has limbs and moves, we will eat it. And we will not just eat any part of it, we must eat the whole damn thing, or we shall feel an inexplicable sense of regret. Thus while various cuisines from other parts of the world may show a specificity to the produce of the native region and at most a few of its neighbours, Chinese cuisine is far more varied in scope. The point is not that the Chinese have had more exposure to variety. Rather it reflects the remarkable adaptability of our style of cooking.
On the second point, Chinese dish structure reflects the fact that Chinese cooking is and always has been a communal thing, as compared to many Western traditions. This difference is manifested in both senses of the word, in the structure of the plates and literally, dishes used to present the food, and the structure of each individual menu item. In terms of the cutlery and utensils, chopsticks are not the only difference. It is rare to find to find the plates so common in Western restaurant because in traditional Chinese homes, the only food personal each meal is a bowl of rice and the occasional bowl of soup, though both are usually taken from a bigger communal tub or bowl. Thus, dishes are also prepared with the concept of sharing in mind. A part of the art of preparing chinese food is dividing it into portions, whether it is slicing beef, dicing chicken or chopping vegetables.
A word, perhaps, at this time about the menu. Chinese menus typically do not follow any particularly structured presentation. There are distinctions within the menu, but these are more by type of food, i.e. cold dish, meat, vegetable, soup. So overall, a chinese gastronomical adventure is very much different from a western one if only because the food and flavours hit you in a deluge rather than through a well planned process. The primary impact of this is that chinese cooking is a lot more concerned with the big picture of flavours and hence less "specific" than western cooking.
Okay that wasn't exactly a marvelously insightful or well written piece. This weekend I shall attempt pork trotters soup! And I have found myself a digital camera! So expect pictures =D
Peace,
Wang the Slanty Eyed One.
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