Transcript Ancient Food

Chinese Dietetic Culture
Dietetic Culture
Dietetic culture, a culture centered on
food, drink and dietetic manners in daily
life, is also called dietetic custom.
 “Hunger breeds discontentment.”
 “Desires for food and sex are basic
human instincts.”
 “Have you had your meal?” or “Eaten?”
because friends used to mean those who
had once dined together.
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Ancient Cereals
Five main cereals existed in Shang and
Zhou dynasties: glutinous millet（黍）,
millet（稷）, oat（麦）, bean（菽） and
rice（稻）.
 What’s more, sorghum（高粱） was
planted long time ago.
 In Ming dynasty, sweet potatoes(红薯/地
瓜）, potatoes and corns were introduced
into China from South America and took
the place of taro (芋头） and Chinese yam
（山药）.
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glutinous millet and millet
Ancient Food
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Southern food, with rice as the principal food, is
simple, while northern food, characterized by
wheat flour, is rather complicated.
In ancient China, people used to boil or steam
cereals, or they fried them into solid food(乾粮),
which was a must for outing or journey.
The habit of eating cooked wheaten food was
approximately formed in the W.S.P.: pancake (饼)
Rice flour-made food in southern China is called
Ci (糍) or Ciba(糍粑),actually it is cooked
glutinous rice pounded into paste.
Ci Ba
Ancient Food
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The earliest leavened food, called steamed or
leavened pancakes, originated in the Wei and the
Jin dynasties. Actually they were steamed
fermented dough called mantou (steamed bun)
Another leavened food is baozi (stuffed bun),
which was called mantou at that time.
In ancient China, instead of dumpling there was
only wonton which is actually ear-shaped
dumpling in soup. Dumpling occurred in Sui.
From then on, wonton has been very popular in
the south while dumpling has enjoyed great
popularity in the north.
Ancient Food
The predecessor of noodle was soup pancake,
（汤饼）a special kind in the family of
pancakes, which were boiled in water.
Ancient Dietetic Methods
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In ancient times, cooking and dining were at the
same place. People sat around the bonfire or a
stove,on which meals were cooked, and dined.
In Shang and Zhou dynasties, people sat on mats
and dined together.
Teapoys were invented for dining and reading in
W.S.P.
Tables and chairs appeared in the Han Dynasty for
dining. Chairs resemble the folding stools
nowadays.
Ancient Dietetic Methods
As for dining methods, people grasped or
tore food with their bare hands at the
beginning. Chopsticks, forks, knives and
spoons were used much later.
 Chopsticks, a wonder of Chinese dining
tools, are most frequently used in people’s
daily life. In ancient China, they were called
“zhu”. “（箸笼）”
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The Custom and Development of Dietetic
Structure
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What we call the custom of dietetic structure is the
arrangement of wine, dish and food, or the
proportion of drink and food.
Dishes take the most important position; wine,the
second; food the last.
Dish includes vegetable, meat and fish dishes.
菜肴: 菜, refers to vegetables; 肴, refers to fish
and meat.
Vegetables are usually wild vegetables, fruits.
Meat is mainly pork, chicken and dog.
The Custom and Development of Culinary Arts
Culinary arts are ways to make dishes of
different flavors or styles. Take dishes for
example:
 Broiling: that is, to roast meat.
 Kuai: to slice fish or meat and then fry.
 Pao: to stir fry on intense fire.
 Hai: to make meat paste such as fish paste,
rabbit paste, tokay paste. Shrimp paste is the
only hai retained.
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The Custom and Development of Culinary Arts
Different cuisines with local distincts were
developed.
 Shandong Cuisine
 Sichuan Cuisine
 Guangdong Cuisine
 Jiangsu/Huaiyang Cuisine
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The Inheritance of Dining Customs
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Dining Customs refers to dining manners and
various rites based on them—such as the seat
order at banquet, order of service dishes, etc.
Dining-together and dining-seperately
Taboos: chopsticks must be used instead of bare
hands; once the food was bitten, the remains could
not be put back into the same bowl.
In a courtesy banquet, people dined separately.
The number of table wares were determined by
age or rank.
The Inheritance of Dining Customs
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Seating arrangement in courtesy banquets:
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2
6
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8
2
3
5
7
4
鸿门宴的座次
1
1
4
3
7
3
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2
4
6
4
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5
2
1
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1
8
6
5
3
南方的座次
北方的座次
胶东的炕桌
The Inheritance of Dining Customs
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Seating Arrangement at the Round Table
and in Western Countries:
man host
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host
1st
guest
5
host
2nd guest
6
6
5
8
4
4
3
2
1
2
7
8
7
3
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7
6
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1
5
8
2nd host
2nd host
woman host
The Varieties of Dietetic Culture
Household Dietetic Customs
 Holiday Dietetic Customs
 Dietetic Belief Customs
 Ritual Dietetic Customs
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Translation of Chinese
Breakfast
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烧饼 Clay oven rolls
油条 Fried bread stick
韭菜盒 Fried leek dumplings
水饺 Boiled dumplings
蒸饺 Steamed dumplings
馒头 Steamed buns
割包 Steamed sandwich
饭团 Rice and vegetable roll
蛋饼 Egg cakes
皮蛋 100-year egg / preserved egg
咸鸭蛋 Salted duck egg
豆浆 Soybean milk