Transcript Ancient Chinese Cooking

Ancient Chinese Cooking
By Mia Gottesman
History Red Class
5-18-09
Styles of Cooking
• Northern vrs. Southern
• Many other styles too
• The Kiangsu and Chekiang styles of
cooking
• Cantonese cuisine
Northern Chinese Cooking
• Oily,ingredients like garlic and vinegar
• Pasta and flour based treats
• Staple grains
Northern Chinese Cooking
• Steamed bread, fried meat dumplings,
steamed stuffed buns, dumplings
resembling ravioi and noodles
• Shantung, Tienstin and Peking
• Millet, wheat and barely=rice
Southern Chinese Cooking
• Boiled their grains
• Chili peppers
• Hunan and Szechwan cuisine
Meat & Fish
• Meat=main part
• The chef would usually strip the meat
off the bones, dry it in the sun to
preserve it, then would chop or slice it
depending on what kind of dish it
would go into
• Dogs, pigs, chickens, ducks, and sheep
• Ducks, squab, geese and pigeons
Meat and Fish
Chicken=special occasions
Elaborately stuffed chicken
A chicken=hoi lin
Stewed turtle and roasted goat with yam
sauce
• Raw fish=yue sahng.
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Noodles and Rice
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Noodles=key aspect
Rice=main food
Made into a variety of foods
Rice noodles
Bread
• Bread=common food
• Steamed and fried or just steamed and
then baked
• Ping
• huge variety in the Ming dynasty
Bread
• Breads, cakes, and noodles=noodle
foods
• Milled flour and water=ingredients
• Most popular in Beging
• Fried, baked and steamed
breads=formed into decorative shapes
and loaves
Vegetables
• Big part of diet
• From farms or gardens
• Turnips, celery, cabbage, radishes,
leeks, and onions
Congee
• Usually served for breakfast=rice gruel
or porridge
• Wheat, barley, sorghum, millet,
tapioca, corn and sometimes rice too
• The North=more of a variety of tastes
• The South=at the most, two rices
• Another name=Jook=“soft rice”
Congee
• It is known to be a nourishing food for old
people and young people.
• Babies are brought up eating it.
• Old people like it for its control on their
digestion.
• In Canton they sweeten it with rock sugar.
• In Shaghai they savor it by using cabbage.
• A lot of folklore is associated with this food…
Tale of Congee
• “It is told that once a miserly man, faced with a need to
produce rice for 10 guests, told his cook to stretch his rice,
as needed, by ladling water into the cooking rice. He would
do this, he said, by calling the cook’s name, Ah Fook, which
would be a code signal. The name spoken aloud meant
another ladle of water. But confusion reigned. Even before
the guests arrived, the miser, forgetful, would call to the
chef on a different matter. But every time Ah Fook heard
his name, he would pour another ladle of water into the
cooking rice. What resulted, it is said, was a frustrated cook
with a rice porridge, rather than rice, and a rhyme=Ah
Fook, Ah Fook, Ah Fook, Ah Fook. Fook Mut Yeh. Bin Jor Wok
Jook-- which translates as the miserly man calling the cook
repeatelly and the cook angrily telling him to stop calling
because his rice had already become a thin congee. Ah Fook
rhyes with Jook” (The Chinese Kitchen, Eileen Yin-Fei Lo, p.
3.)
Miscellaneous
• Religion
• Holds folklore, ritual, mythology, and
religious observance
• Climate, land use, and native product
• Moderation
• family and social events
Miscellaneous
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Children took care of livestock
Dont drink milk
Skillfully mixed flavors and ingredients
Many different seasonings
Preparing food=complex
How good their food looked and
smelled
Bibliography
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/ancientchinese-food.html. 2000-2008, 2009
Buzzle.com
The Chinese Kitchen, Eileen Yin-Fei Lo,
copyright 1999 by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo,
published by Library of Congress Catalogingin0Publication Data
Life in Ancient China, Amy Allison, published by
the Library of Congress Cataloging-inPublication Data, Copywriting 2001 by
Lucent Books, Inc, San Diego, California