Beyond Kung Pao Chicken

1
Beyond Kung Pao Chicken

• The Eight Great Cuisines
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2
What Americans Believe

• Chop Suey, Eggroll, Kung Pao, Mongolian Beef,
  Sweet Sour, Egg Drop Soup, Fried Rice, Lo Mein,
  Shrimp with Lobster Sauce, Fortune Cookie, etc.

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3
What Chinese Think
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4
Food is culture

• Americans
• comfort
• necessity
• indulgence
• convenient
• individual
• homogeneous

• Chinese
• comfort
• life
• medicine
• crafted
• shared
• diverse

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5
Food and Geography

• The 8 Great Cuisines
• Shandong
• Jiangsu
• Zhejiang
• Cantonese
• Fujian
• Sichuan
• Hunan
• Anhui

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6
Shandong Cuisine

• earliest regional cuisine in China, dating back
  to the Spring Autumn Dynasty ( 500 B.C.)
• became an icon of Northern cuisine after the
  Song Dynasty
• had great influence on Beijing Tianjin
  cuisines, which are the basis of the royal
  cuisine
• characteristics light uses a wide range of
  cooking methods lots of soups and seafood
• examples roast duck, deep fried meatballs,
  steamed tofu, braised whole abalone

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7
Jiangsu Cuisine

• home of fish and rice
• home to Nanking, the South capital melting pot
  of different regional cuisines
• characteristics refined look, light in flavor,
  uses a lot of seafood, sophisticated use of
  sugar, slow-cook
• examples meat balls with bak choy, eight
  treasure rice, sweet and sour fish

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8
Zhejiang Cuisine

• similar to Jiangsu cuisine
• delicate and pure
• famous for tea and wine
• characteristics elegant, light, fresh, emphasize
  true flavor of food
• examples shrimp with green tea, shark fin and
  ham soup, fish with vinegar

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9
Cantonese Cuisine

• international influence from Southeast Asia,
  Europe and the U.S., as well as other regions in
  China
• wide range of ingredients very seasonal
• well known for its dim sum
• characteristics fresh, extensive use of stir-fry
  and steaming, innovative
• examples barbeque pork wrapped in rice noodle,
  stir-fry shrimps, birds nest in sweet coconut
  soup

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10
Fujian Cuisine

• fusion of North-South cuisines
• famous for its soups and vegetarian dishes
• characteristics lots of seafood, strong flavors,
  fresh ingredients, emphasis on knife skills
• examples chrysanthemum fish, whole chicken
  steamed in spiced gao liang liquor, stir-fry
  clams

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11
Sichuan Cuisine

• another early regional cuisine, developed around
  the Qin Dynasty ( 200 B.C.)
• further developed during the civil war and
  endorsed by a lot of famous writers at that
  time
• well known for its spicy hot pot
• characteristics extensive use of spices,
• examples twice cooked pork, paper hot pot, extra
  thin beef

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12
Hunan Cuisine

• abundant natural resources fish, cattle,
  agriculture
• well known for snacks street food
• characteristics tart and spicy, extensive use of
  pickles, slow-cook in broth
• examples stuffed chili peppers, very spicy
  shrimps, steamed fish in bamboo

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13
Anhui Cuisine

• treasures of the mountain and the sea
• food as medicine
• characteristics extensive use of steaming and
  smoking, emphasis of original flavor, use of
  charcoal slow-cook and smoking
• examples fish in grape juice, smoked duck,
  steamed bamboo shoots in broth

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