Hanlong ou

The Chinese cuisine has the most ancient history and the richest traditions in the world. Like medicine, culture and all aspects of life in China, it is inextricably linked with the ancient history of China. As long ago as in the second millennium before Common Era the sage I In created the theory of “harmonization of nutrition”. Confucius inculcated in his compatriots the techniques of culinary art in the 6th – 5th centuries before Common Era. Even today, in the province Shantung his recipes are the basis and underlie the Confucian cuisine.

Variety of geographic and climatic conditions resulted in the multiplicity of local cuisines: Beijing (Peking), Shanghai, Sichuan (Szechwan) and Yunnan (southern cuisine with very spicy and exotic dishes), Harbin (Haerhpin or Pinkiang) (very close to the Russian cuisine: rye bread, salmon roe, balyk (cured fillet of white salmon, dog salmon of king salmon), Fujian (Fukien) and others.

Characteristic to the Chinese cuisine is an enormous range of dishes. On the one hand, the history of China has been interlaced with numerous wars and natural calamities; on the other hand the ruling elite has been, indefatigably seeking to decorate their dinner tables with various exotic dishes. As a result, presently the Chinese cuisine uses practically everything the nature has endowed man with, including such rare foods like shark fins, sea tortoises (turtles), snakes, frogs, lotus seeds and many others. The Chinese cuisine numbers many thousands of dishes.

There are three levels of the Chinese culinary art: the regular daily culinary, the festive and the ceremonial culinary. In everyday cuisine the dishes are affordable to everyone. The Chinese have three meals per day. A substantial breakfast, a three-course lunch and a light dinner – this provides for a perfect balance of intake and consumption of calories.

The festive dishes constitute the menus in majority of restaurants. The Europeans are not used to those dishes. There are a host of them.

The top accomplishments of the Chinese chefs (who are always males), however are exhibited in the ceremonial “Mandarin” cuisine, to be indulged in at official receptions or top restaurants.

Balanced diet of seafood or meat with vegetables, condiments and dressings, and spices will provide for an inimitable taste, aroma and colour. The harmonious unity of those three elements has always been the basis of the Chinese culinary art.

The Chinese cuisine and medicine are in intimate association, complementing one another. Under the law of In-Jan, the proper food must be balanced, it must be in conformity with the season of the year, the climate and comply with individualities of the person; gender, age, constitution, state of health. All products must be natural and processed as little as possible, so that the vital energy Tsi contained in them would preserve.

Food is prepared quickly with minimum quantity of fat. Chopped vegetables are steamed (with spices dropped in boiling water), barbecued, boiled at express speed, or fried in a heated wok during a couple of minutes. The products will conserve the taste, form, nutrients and vitamins.