punitaruben: The Chinese Food

When people in the west speak of Chinese food, they probably mean Cantonese food.

It's the best known and most popular variety of Chinese food. Cantonese food is noted

for the variety and the freshness of it's ingredients. The food are usually stir-fried with just

a touch of oil to ensure that the result is crisp and fresh. All those best known

'western Chinese' dishes fit into this category - sweet and sour dishes, won ton,

chow mein, spring rolls.With Cantonese food the more people you can muster for the

meal the better, because dishes are traditionally shared so everyone will manage to

sample the greatest variety. A corollary of this is that Cantonese food should be

balance: traditionally, all foods are said to be either Yin (cooling) - like vegetables,

most fruits and clear soup; or Yang (heaty) - like starchy foods and meat. A cooling

food should be balance with a heaty food and too much of one it would not be good for you.

Another Cantonese specialty is Dim Sum or 'little heart'. Dim sum is usually consumed during

lunch or as a Sunday brunch. Dim sum restaurant are usually large, noisy affair and the

dim sum, little snacks that come in small bowls, are whisked around the tables on individual

trolleys or carts. As they come by , you simply ask for a plate of this or a bowl of that.

At the end the meal you are billed is the amount of empty containers on your table.

Cantonese cuisine can also offer real extremes - shark's fin soup or bird's nest soup,

expensive delicacies from one end of the scale to mee (noodles) and congee (rice porridge)

on the other end.

Far less familiar than the food from Canton are the cuisines from the north and the west of

China - Szechuan, Shanghai and Peking. Szechuan food is the fiery food of China, where

pepper and chili really get into the act. Where as to food from Canton are delicate and

understated,in Szechuan food the flavors are strong and dramatic - garlic and chilies

play their part in dishes like diced chicken and hot and sour soup.

Beijing (Peking) food is, of course best known for the famous 'Peking Duck'. Beijing food

are less subtle than Cantonese food. Beijing food is usually eaten with hot steamed bun

or with noodles, because rice is not grown in cold region of the north. But in Malaysia, it

is more likely to come with rice.Shanghai food are not easily found in Malaysia.

Since most of Malaysia's Chinese are from the south, particularly from Hainan and

Hakka it is quite easy to find food from this region. Throughout Malaysia one of the

most widespread economical meal is the Hainanese Chicken Rice which cost around

the figure of RM3.00. The Hainanese also produced steamboat, sort of Oriental variation

of the Swiss Fondue, where you have a boiling stockpot in the middle of the table into which

you deep pieces of meat, seafood and vegetable.

Although Hokkien's food is rated way down the Chinese gastronomic scale, it has

provided the Hokkien fried Mee (thick egg noodles cook with meat, seafood and vegetable

and a rich soya sauce. Hokkien spring rolls (popiah) are also delicious. Teochew food from

the area around Swatow in China is another style noted for it's delicacy and natural favorite.

Teochew food is famous for it's seafood and another economical dish - Char Kwey Teow

(fried flattened noodles) with clams, beansprout and prawns.

Hakka dish is also easily found in food centers. The best know hakka dish is the

Yong Tau Foo (stuffed seafood beancurd) with soup or thick dark gravy.

punitaruben