Chinese Cuisine – Everything on Plate

2006-04-02

Bartłomiej Magierowski

Chinese food is better known to us from American movies than from the reality of Chinese cuisine. A typical scene shows an American family picking up chopsticks and opening little takeout cartons filled with rice or noodles, which in fact have very little to do with authentic Chinese dishes. They certainly do not reflect how diverse—and sometimes even strange—Chinese cuisine really is.

The average Pole may think that eating rice with carrots or a piece of fish already means eating Chinese food. In reality, the cuisine of the Middle Kingdom is incredibly diverse, combining countless flavors. Every province, every ethnic minority has its own culture, its own language, and therefore its own traditional dishes. For example, Beijing is the birthplace of many types of dumplings and steamed buns, which have now become popular throughout China, although the true masters of preparing them are still the people of northern China. These dumplings (known as **baozi** and **jiaozi**) come in many different shapes and with a wide variety of fillings. Larger ones may contain shrimp, fish, or Chinese sausage. Smaller, more common varieties are usually filled with minced pork, mushrooms, cabbage, onions, or green vegetables. They are most often steamed or boiled in a soup whose flavor often resembles Polish chicken broth.

Two Chinese provinces are famous for their spicy cuisine: **Hunan** and **Sichuan**. Girls from Hunan are often called *la mei*, meaning "hot" or "spicy," partly because of their local cuisine—but not only because of that... perhaps I'll explain another time. Sichuan is renowned for its exceptionally spicy food, as several brave Polish visitors have already discovered. I always warn them, but they insist they love spicy food. Unfortunately, a few moments later they are coughing, gasping for breath, drinking entire glasses of beer or water, and wiping sweat from their foreheads. This food can be absolutely overwhelming. Imagine a fish soup or beef soup where 70% of the bowl consists of tiny red chili peppers, while the remaining 30% contains meat, green vegetables, herbs, and mint. In Hunan, most dishes are generously mixed with hot green peppers.

When talking about typical Chinese dishes, fish deserves special mention because it plays a very important role in Chinese cuisine. It may be hard to believe, but the fish head is actually the most expensive part. A fish (probably from the carp family) can be bought for as little as 3–4 RMB (about 2 PLN), but the same fish with its head attached costs around 8–10 RMB. According to the Chinese, the head is the most nutritious part, containing valuable trace elements. Fish soups are certainly not common or popular in Poland, but in China they are an everyday meal. They are usually prepared spicy, and nobody here eats neat fish fillets. The whole fish—often including the head—is cooked in the soup together with green vegetables, bean sprouts, peppers, soy products, and herbs. Steamed fish served with flavorful sauces is equally popular and often absolutely delicious. In general, seafood is extremely common: shrimp, mussels, countless varieties of fish, lobsters, smaller creatures from the ocean floor, and even seaweed are all considered highly nutritious foods. Chinese men especially enjoy such dishes, believing they enhance male vitality.

Most Poles visiting China for the first time are surprised by the absence of fish fillets, chicken breasts, or pork chops. In China, most meat is prepared with bones still attached, often including feet, heads, beaks, marrow, and skin. Some foreigners find this rather unpleasant and struggle to find the meat among all these parts, but in reality they add tremendous flavor to the dish. I've eaten countless chickens while looking straight into their beaks! Poultry is usually chopped into small pieces with a heavy cleaver that spares neither the feet nor the head. After cooking or roasting, everything is neatly arranged on a serving platter. It may sound simple, but sometimes the bones are considered even tastier than the meat itself. One restaurant became famous thanks to its bone soup. The idea is simple: each customer chooses a huge bone from the soup, receives a straw, and drinks the marrow straight from it—pure health, according to the locals. Another restaurant chain serves large pork ribs. How do you eat them with chopsticks? No problem. Every customer receives a pair of disposable plastic gloves so they can comfortably pick up the bones with their hands.

There is, however, one thing that no Chinese meal is complete without: green vegetables. They come in countless forms, from familiar cabbages and lettuces to leaves resembling oversized sorrel or giant rhubarb leaves. They are undoubtedly an excellent source of iron, and as we all know, iron is said to promote a youthful appearance and a long life. Looking at the Chinese, this certainly seems believable!

Another important ingredient is tofu (*dofu*). It comes in countless varieties: baked, fried, fresh, smoked, and many more. It also appears in different shapes, including cylinders, patties, cubes, and small balls. It is usually cooked in delicious sauces, most often with pork (less frequently with beef), onions, peppers, and green vegetables.

Perhaps not everyone knows that the true homeland of noodles is not Italy, but China. This was confirmed by an archaeological discovery of a bowl of noodles dating back thousands of years. So perhaps instant noodles really are a Chinese invention after all. Noodles appear here in many different forms. They are most commonly eaten in soup, although such "soup" is often little more than water with green vegetables and a few pieces of meat. There are also noodles served with sauces, mixed with meat, or prepared in countless other ways, although most of these dishes taste nothing like Italian spaghetti. Don't expect a rich chicken noodle soup either—in China, noodles themselves are usually the main dish, most often eaten for breakfast or dinner. Instant noodles are also very popular, though certainly not healthy: a packet of powder, artificial sauce, noodles, and a few dried vegetable pieces.

The Chinese often say that they eat everything that walks on land—except tanks; everything that swims—except ships; and everything that flies—except airplanes. There is a lot of truth in that saying. They really do eat mice, cockroaches, scorpions, quails, pigeons, enormous shrimp, fish roe... almost everything imaginable. Many people in Poland exaggerate the fact that Chinese people eat dogs. Yes, some do (as one of my photographs confirms), but it is an unusual, expensive, and rather uncommon dish. No ordinary housewife prepares dog meat in her home kitchen. Only a handful of specialized restaurants serve it. Personally, I have never eaten dog because it would feel like eating man's best friend. I have, however, tried many other unusual dishes. For example, I once ate a roasted goose head. Several times I have eaten duck tongues—very dry and heavily roasted. I'm not particularly fond of chicken feet, although they are extremely popular in China. The biggest surprise, however, came from a Chinese friend who ordered live shrimp in a restaurant. They were served in a bowl filled with an alcoholic marinade and were simply expected to die there. When the waitress removed the lid and live shrimp started jumping all over the beautifully prepared table, all I could shout was, "Oh f....!" My Chinese friend was delighted that she had managed to shock me so completely, and calmly continued eating the shrimp without caring whether they had already stopped moving or were still waving their tiny legs. Eventually I ate five of them myself—but only after carefully checking that they had finally stopped moving. On another occasion, a Chinese man ordered what I think was dessert: an enormous duck foot complete with the webbing between its toes, served with a special sauce. One plate—one gigantic claw with all its claws intact. A Polish friend and I politely declined. The Chinese gentleman looked genuinely surprised because, for him, it was one of the finest delicacies.

Rice, of course, is eaten in enormous quantities. Every respectable home has a **rice cooker**, a clever appliance that prepares rice automatically and never burns it—unless, of course, someone forgets to add water before turning it on. Some people even treat rice as the main course and eat it last. Rice is always served in small bowls, or sometimes on a large platter when mixed with other ingredients. One particularly delicious dish is fried rice mixed with peas, carrots, sweetcorn, egg, green vegetables, and sometimes fish or shrimp. Everything is cut into tiny pieces, creating a wonderful harmony of flavors.

So what does the average Chinese person—a taxi driver, construction worker, or supermarket cashier—eat every day? Many simply buy ready-made meals costing between 4 and 10 RMB. These may include eggplant with meat, fatty pork belly with green beans, green vegetables, tofu with a little pork, all served with a generous mound of rice. This is what a simple everyday meal looks like. Yet China has millions of different dishes, and it would be impossible to describe them all here. The only real way to discover Chinese cuisine is to visit the country yourself and taste it firsthand. I hope I have at least brought you a little closer to the fascinating world of Chinese food!