Kitchen Connection - Kitchen Connection Goes to: China!
China is the third largest country in the world with a vast and varied geographical layout that lends well to a diverse cuisine and culture. While Americans are most familiar with Cantonese, Hunan and Szechuan cuisines, there is a multitude of other cuisines to explore like Fujian, Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisines. Street foods, such a different styles of breads (bing) and pastries, are essential to the Chinese diet. Rice, wheat, noodles and pork are all staple ingredients in Chinese cooking that have all formed identities in the U.S. as common Chinese ingredients.
Chinese House
Official Name: People’s Republic of China
Capital: Beijing
Official Language(s): Mandarin
National Dish(es): Peking Duck
Fun Facts:
China has the world’s largest population of people.
Every year, China is represented by 1 of the 12 Chinese zodiac signs.
Chopsticks were originally a cooking utensil that were developed 5,000 years ago.
Despite it being the largest country in the world, China only has one time zone.
Assorted Chinese food set.
"Insider Foodage"
Country: China
Continent: Asia
*Capital: Beijing
*Largest City (ies): Chongqing, Shanghai
*Culinary travel destination(s): Beijing, Turpan, Xian, Chengdu, Macau, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Hong Kong
*Primary Language(s): Mandarin Chinese
*%Urban to Rural: 59.7%Urban, 40.3% Rural
*Primary Agricultural Exports: rice, wheat, cabbage, soybean, corn, spinach, cucumbers
*Population: 1.379 billion
*Food expenditure for one week: $44.03
*Caloric intake available daily per person: 2,990
*Alcohol consumption per person: 5.78 litres
*Obese population: 97,256,700
*Big Mac Price: $4.77
*Meat consumption per person per year: 58.2%
*Prevalence of Hunger: 15-24%
*Culture: China is an extremely large country, and the customs and traditions of its people vary by geography and ethnicity.
More than 1 billion people live in China, according to the Asia Society, representing 56 ethnic minority groups. The largest group is the Han Chinese, with about 900 million people. Other groups include the Tibetans, the Mongols, the Manchus, the Naxi, and the Hezhen, which is smallest group, with fewer than 2,000 people.
"Significantly, individuals within communities create their own culture," said Cristina De Rossi, an anthropologist at Barnet and Southgate College in London. Culture includes religion, food, style, language, marriage, music, morals and many other things that make up how a group acts and interacts. Here is a brief overview of some elements of the Chinese culture.
*National Dish (es): Sweet and Sour Pork, Gong Bao, Chicken Ma Po Tofu,
*National Drink(s): Baijiu
*Major Holidays/Special Holiday Foods:
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Holiday Name |
|
New Year's Day |
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May Day |
Dumplings, Rice Cake, Rish, Yuan Xian ( Sweet Dumpling), Zong Zi, Mooncake, Spring rolls, Lapa porridge, Chongyong Cake
*Fun foodie facts: Chinese don’t eat with knives and forks traditionally, which is seen as violent or barbaric, but with chopstick. As chopsticks don’t chop, all food is very soft or chopped up into bite-size pieces before cooking.
*Local produce: Avocado, Kiwifruit
*Main religions: Taoism, Buddhism, Islam,Protestantism, and Catholicism
*Banquet (party) dishes:
1. BBQ Combination Platter - The massive appetizer platter with crispy skin pork belly, roasted pork, 5 spice beef shank, jelly fish and seaweed. All served cold.
2. Deep Fried Stuffed Hokkaido Crab Legs - A mixture of shrimp meat is formed around a crab claw and deep fried. Personally, I love dipping this in red vinegar.
3. Sauteed Prawns & Conch with Greens - A stir fry of prawns and conch with snow peas.
4. Braised Deluxe Swallow Nest with Crab Meat Soup - This soup is good with a bit of red vinegar.
5. Peking Duck - The duck's skin is separated from the meat and served with fluffy hot steamed buns, scallions and hoisin sauce. You open the bun, spread a thin layer of hoisin sauce, layer on a piece of crispy skin, top with scallions and devour.
6. Braised Whole Abalone & Sea Cucumber with Greens - Whole abalone served over bok choy braised in oyster sauce.
7. Steamed Fresh Whole Fish - Steamed fish topped with scallions and ginger and flavored with soy sauce.
8. Baked Lobsters with Ginger & Green Onion - Chunks of lobster sauteed with scallions, ginger and garlic.
9. Fried Sticky Rice with Diced Chinese Sausage - Stir-fried sticky rice cooked with Chinese sausage and bacon. Typically, this is the last dish of the night so most folks are already too full.
10. Dessert (Double Happiness Cookies, Red Bean Soup and Wedding Cake) - The red bean soup is thick, sweet and filled with tapioca pearls.
*Indigenous communities and their dishes: Zhuang 16.9 million (1.3 per cent), Manchu 10.4 million (0.77 per cent), Hui 10.6 million (0.79 per cent), Miao 9.4 million (0.71 per cent), Uyghur 10 million (0.75 per cent), Yi (Lolo) 8.7 million (0.65 per cent), Tujia 8.4 million (0.63 per cent), Mongol 6 million (0.45 per cent), Tibetan 6.3 million (0.45 per cent),
*Native species: Giant panda, golden-haired monkey, South China tiger, brown-eared pheasant, red-crowned crane, red ibis, white-flag dolphin and Chinese alligator. The black-and-white giant panda weighs on average 135 kg and lives on tender bamboo leaves and bamboo shoots. Because it is extremely rare - just over 1,500 are left at present - it has become the symbol of the world's protected wild animals. The red-crowned crane, that could be as tall as 1.2 m, is covered with white feathers, with a distinctive patch of exposed red skin crowning its head and is regarded as a symbol of longevity in East Asia. The white-flag dolphin is one of only two species of freshwater whales in the world. In 1980, a male white-flag dolphin was caught for the first time in the Yangtze River, which aroused great interest among dolphin researchers worldwide.
*SDGs that are especially prevalent in the respective country: 1,2,4,5,10
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