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Due to the preference and the cultural difference of the West,
certain traditional Chinese food/ingredients are always neglected. Here are the 4 main categories, i.e. "chemically-formed",
air-dried, salted and in-the-memory-of-the ancient-Chinese-patriots.
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| I am enjoying one of my favorite dessert, tofu. Silken tofu with some simple Chinese sugar syrup. |
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1. "Chemically-Formed"
It is easy to understand
that adding certain chemicals will change the form of food. The best example is tofu. It was believed that tofu
existed during the Shang dynasty (around 1,600 -1,046 B.C.). First of all, ground the soy beans. Put a layer of
cloth on top (which is very similar to the texture of the cheese cloth) and pour the water on top to get soy milk. Put
the edible lime in another big container and pour the soy milk from the high elevation to form tofu.
There was
another story about when tofu existed. It said that Confucius did not like tofu. Therefore, it was not invented
until the Warring States Period (around 475-221 B.C.).
Some people even said that tofu was not invented until the
period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (around 907-960 A.D.).
We know that tofu is very good for us. There
was a story about the last empress of Qing dynasty insisted to consume a block (the unit measurement of tofu used since then
to present) of tofu, which is about 1 pound, a day in order to keep her skin anti-aged.
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| A very elegant tofu dish I had when I visited Hong Kong in Feb 2009 |
This dish is
called
"Thousand-Layer Tofu".
The silken tofu was sliced
about 1/8" thick and overlapping
each other. After steaming,
the chef put some diced
vegetables with a layer of
thick
black sauce on top. |
2. Air-dried
Like Italian prosciutto, Chinese use the
method of air-dry to preserve the food, such as shark fin, scallops, abalone, ham and some animal organs, which are treated
as something very precious, expensive and nutritious.
Shark fin is used in shark fin soup which is served mostly
in the special occasions, such as company annuak dinner, wedding reception, important family dinner and so forth.
Dried scallop is widely used in many different dishes, such as congee, stir-fry, soup and etc.
Abalone is very
similar to the shark fin soup which is only served in special occasions. So is ham.
Most animal organs are
used in medication or as supplement.
All the above food is treated as exotic food. Chinese always give this
as gift and the receiver always feels he/she is being treated as royal family.
Store selling this kind of food
may not look as elegant as you step into a jewlery shop. But due to the high cost, stores have to purchase a significant
amount of insurance.
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3. Salted
Salt can change the flavor of many foods.
Chinese use this simple ingredient to make a lot of exotic food, such as sauerkraut (made from mustard plant), salted egg
and salted fish.
According to the Chinese old generations, these ingredients have their own functions in our bodies.
Sauerkraut cooks with pork for soup will help to soothe your throat.
Salted fish is steamed and served
as entree in any family dinner. Otherwise, it is widely used in flavoring in many dishes. It is believed that
it can help to have a baby boy if the man consumes it often.
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4. In-the-memory-of-the ancient-Chinese-patriots
There
is food in the memory of the ancient Chinese heroes and patriots.
One of them is the rice dumplings wrapped
with by waterlily leaves and bundled up by seaweeds. It is served during the Dragon Boat Festival on the 5th day of
the 5th month of the Lunar calendar in the memory of Chu Yuan, during the Warring States Period.
Another one is
the fritters of twisted dough which is always served during the breakfast. It is in the memory of a patriot and military general in the Southern Song dynasty.
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