Understanding Your Chinese Food

by Wikipedia Contributors

The next time you visit a Chinese restaurant, it is important to understand the history and culture to really appreciate the fine dinning aspects of eating Chinese food. Even acquiring a little additional knowledge about Chinese food will make Chinese takeout so much better.

Chinese restaurants all across the globe serve up dishes that originated from different regions of China. Contemporary Chinese cuisines are readily available in many parts of the world and are localized in the host countries. Americans are big consumers of Chinese food, and serviced in suburban areas by door-to-door take out delivery. It is a known fact that families outside of big cities will drive over two hours to eat at a Chinese buffet.

Chinese Restaurant Meal

A meal at a Chinese restaurant consists of two or more components: rice, noodles, or steamed buns, and dishes of vegetables, meat, fish, or other items. This contrasts to American dishes, where meat or animal protein is often considered the main dish. Despite the importance of rice in Chinese cuisine, at formal occasions, sometimes no rice will be served; in such a case, rice would only be provided when customers request rice. Soup is usually served at the start of a meal and at the end of a meal.

In most Chinese restaurant dishes, food is prepared in bite-sized pieces, ready for direct picking up and eating.

Chopsticks are the primary eating utensil in Chinese restaurants. Traditionally, Chinese culture considered using knives and forks at the table barbaric due to fact that these implements are regarded as weapons. It was also considered ungracious to have guests work at cutting their own food.

Freshness is the Key to Chinese Food

Chinese restaurants stress the importance of fresh food. Fish swim in tanks waiting on patrons to select them for dinner. The restaurant servers would catch the desired fish for the restaurant patron. Fish are cooked and served whole, with diners directly pulling pieces from the fish with chopsticks to eat, unlike in some other cuisines where they are first filleted. This is because it is desired for fish to be served as fresh as possible. It is common in many restaurant settings for the server to use a pair of spoons to divide the fish into servings at the table.

Chicken is another meat popular in Chinese meals. While the chicken is cut into pieces, every single piece of the chicken is served including head and tail. The emphasis in Chinese culture on wholeness is reflected here. It is considered bad luck if fish or chicken is served without its head and tail, as that is synonymous with something that does not have a proper beginning or end.

Sharing Chinese Food Family Style

In a Chinese meal, each individual diner is given his or her own bowl of rice while the accompanying dishes are served in communal plates that are shared by everyone sitting at the table. 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 may be made available. In areas with increased Western influence, such as Hong Kong, diners are provided individually with a heavy metal spoon for this purpose. The food selected is often eaten together with some rice either in one bite or in alternation.

In contrast to most western meals, a Chinese meal does not typically end with a dessert. However, a sweet dish is usually served at the end of a formal dinner or banquet, such as sliced fruits or a sweet soup which is served warm.

In traditional 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. Despite this tradition, nowadays beer and soft drinks are popular accompaniment with meals. A popular combo in many small restaurants in parts of China is hot pot served with cold beer, a combination known as, which is the very opposite of what traditional wisdom would admonish.

With all this Chinese food knowledge, go order yourself Chinese delivery tonight through online restaurant menus. See the food before ordering and make sure your expectations are met for every dish.