First page - Cantonese cuisine
World Cuisine - HOME PAGE

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Clickable Chinese
cuisine map

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Why Chinese cuisine
is special

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Harmony

Chinese cuisine stresses a harmonious blending of foods - a dynamic balance between sweet and sour, rich and lean, bright-colored and neutral, smooth and crunchy.

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Cooking

Skilled Chinese chefs and knowledgeable diners insist that each food ingredient should be at its peak of flavor and quality - and seasoned, cooked, and sauced properly.

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Chinese cuisine
insights

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Seasoning

Chinese cooks makes use of comparatively few herbs. Spices, condiments and dried foods are used more frequently.

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Family dinners

A traditional Chinese family dinner consists of communal dishes equaling the number of diners at the table. All the Chinese cuisine dishes are set in the middle of the table at the same time. The diners help themselves, using chopsticks to transfer small morsels from the communal serving dishes to the top of their rice in their individual rice bowls.

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Rice

In south China, rice is the main food. In north China, cereal grains, such as wheat (in the form of noodles, dumplings and steamed buns) reign in the north.

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Meat

Pork and chicken are the two leading meats in China, though in the north, lamb is very popular.

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Vegetarian

Buddhist monks, forbidden to eat meat, evolved a rich and diversified vegetarian cuisine. They developed recipes for bean curd and wheat gluten (developed from wheat flour). These mimic meat or simply provide variety.

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Pseudo-Chinese

Several preparations known as "Chinese" beyond China's borders are not Chinese. These include fortune cookies and Chop Suey (both invented in America).

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First page - Cantonese cuisine
World Cuisine - HOME PAGE

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Test
yourself

How many of these major
world cuisines do you know well?

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©2009 HQP / Hillman Quality Publications