Chinese cuisine: a detailed guide. What do the Chinese eat - Chinese chopsticks and other utensils in China Do the Chinese eat meat

The history of the emergence of Chinese traditional food goes back to the distant past. The large area of Chinese residence, and different climatic zones, from the subtropical climate to the arctic, influenced a wide selection of products, dishes, and cooking methods.

Features of nutrition in Chinese medicine - rules

Chinese food therapy is based on the effects of a diet based on the rules of food preparation and consumption.

Traditional Chinese medicine is aimed at influencing certain functions of the body: digestion, respiration, aging . And the harmonious impact of these elements with the outside world characterizes health. Imbalance with the environment leads to illness in the body.

Chinese food is based based on the theory of 5 seasons: winter and spring, summer, autumn and off-season
Products for every season, which, according to Chinese chefs, prepare a person for a certain time. This type of nutrition coincides with the theory of 5 elements - fire, earth, water, wood and metal.
In every season, nutrition strengthens certain part of the human body: circulatory system, skin, bones, muscles and tendons

How to eat properly in Chinese?

According to Eastern nutritionists, modern food carries a minimal amount of energy. That is, it is empty and useless. As a result, the body is exhausted and ages earlier than necessary.

Chinese food - why and how do the Chinese eat rice?

What do the Chinese eat?

Rice

The most common product. In addition to dishes, alcohol and vinegar are produced from rice.

Chinese noodles

Many varieties are considered a symbol of Chinese longevity. Made from rice or wheat flour.

Soya beans

Tofu, soy sauce, soy milk - these products are made from soy.

Vegetables

A large selection of vegetable dishes requires the same amount of product. Spinach, bitter melon, watercress, celery, carrots,

Spices and seasonings

Large selection of spices to suit a variety of tastes - anise, cinnamon, fennel, ginger, garlic, sesame

Dessert

Seasonal fruits, Baked goods, custards

Tea

China is the country where tea was first grown and drunk

The Chinese claim that it was they who domesticated rice, began to grow it and eat it.

Recent genetic studies have shown that rice ceased to be wild about 8-9 thousand years ago.

Therefore, eating rice in China is so common and popular. This product is an integral part of Chinese history and culture.

Chinese rice dishes:

Rice boiled
Fried rice with duck
rice cakes
Zongzi stuffed glutinous rice wrapped in a leaf

What do the Chinese like to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner - Chinese diet

Breakfast

Traditionally, European people try to compare their cooking with Chinese cuisine. But, if a croissant and a cup of hot coffee is a common breakfast for many residents of European countries, then the Chinese treat the morning meal with a different philosophy.

For breakfast, the Chinese eat:

1. Rice congee - watery rice porridge. The decoction has several functions:

Warms like a hot dish
With the addition of seasonings, from sweet to savory, brings variety to the menu

2. Dumplings - a dish that has become widespread almost all over the world. Chinese dumpling filling:

Vegetables
Shrimps

3. Noodles - another dish that has become widespread in many countries. Most of the native Chinese eat noodles for breakfast.
4. Zongzi - sweet glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves and steamed. They have a variety of filling options and can be purchased from street stalls.
5. Baozi - steamed, filled buns - they are especially popular for breakfast. Baozi can be filled with minced meat, vegetables such as spinach or eggplant, eggs or bean paste; they can be salty and sweet.

Dinner

Chinese lunch dishes are as varied as the Chinese themselves.

There are eight most common Chinese dishes:

sweet and sour

The dish is bright orange in color, with a rich sweet and sour taste. Now pork meat can be replaced with chicken, beef

Chicken Gong Bao

The composition of the dish includes chicken, diced, fried nuts, chili peppers. Garlic paste may be added.

Ma Po Tofu

Milk tofu is enriched with brown-red beef, chopped green onions.

Wonton

Triangles that look like Italian dumplings. Wontons are usually boiled and served in soup, or sometimes deep fried. Wontons can be stuffed with minced pork or diced shrimp.

Dumplings

1800 years old Chinese dumplings are made from minced meat and chopped vegetables wrapped in a thin piece of dough.

chow mein

Chow mein - This dish consists of noodles, meat (usually beef, shrimp, or pork), onions, and celery.

The world famous dish is famous and tasty because of its thin and crispy crust. Peking duck slices are often eaten with pancakes, sweet beans, gravy or mashed garlic.

Spring rolls

The filling of spring rolls can be vegetables or meat, and the flavor can be either sweet or savory.

Dinner

Chinese dinner differs little from breakfast or lunch.

The only thing that the Europeans who visited this country noticed was that the local population eats at least 5 meals but in small portions. Maybe that's why they're not obese.

Traditionally served for dinner rice dish, meat with vegetables, noodles and dessert
For dessert sweet buns can be prepared, fresh seasonal fruits are served on the table
Definitely tea. The Chinese drink a lot of liquids, tea, maybe other drinks.

Why do Chinese people eat with chopsticks, and how do Chinese people eat soup?

With the advent of chopsticks, the days when the Chinese had to use their hands to eat ended, and thus they showed the arrival of civilization in the culture of food.

The invention of chopsticks has many scientific theories. The principle of leverage became the idea behind the use of sticks, and the point where two sticks intersect is the pivot of the lever.

The use of chopsticks is part of Chinese food culture . There are some prohibitions that you should pay great attention to.

Rules for using Chinese chopsticks:

Firstly don't use them to knock on a bowl or plate because Chinese people think only beggars do it to beg for food
Secondly When you use chopsticks, don't stick your index finger out to point at other people. This is interpreted as an accusation of something
Thirdly , it is considered impolite behavior when you lick your chopsticks. People will think that you weren't raised in a family.
Fourth don't use chopsticks to poke every dish without knowing what you want
And the last - do not insert chopsticks vertically in a bowl or dish

How do Chinese people eat soup?

Soup is the most sought-after dish in Chinese cuisine. And, contrary to popular belief that the Chinese only eat with chopsticks, for soup in China there are special porcelain spoons .

The soup is eaten according to one's own habits: first, solid ingredients are selected with chopsticks, after which the remaining broth is eaten with a spoon.

Someone is eating soup and chopsticks and spoon alternately , choosing vegetables and meat with chopsticks, and washing down with broth from a spoon.

There is an opinion that the soup is served in a tall bowl in order to the broth could be drunk like from a cup.

What do the Chinese eat? Cats, dogs and aborted embryos. Bear paws and rhino horns.

Most likely, all these horrors really happen in China, but all this is available only to very rich people and far from the real life of the average Chinese. Therefore, we will talk about our observations of what ordinary Chinese eat and what no less ordinary tourists can eat in China.

Foreigners notice that in China, downright cult of food. The smell of fried noodles and soy sauce will haunt you even in the most remote alleys, and chewing faces are almost more common here than non-chewing ones. The Chinese eat, eat, eat. And how they eat! Splashes of sauce fly in all directions, and some chicken bones - on the floor, the diners spit and do not forget about the approving burp. Of course, at first it is shocking, but then you realize that you can relax and completely immerse yourself in this realm of FOOD.

Street food is really worth trying in China. What is cooked and sold on the street is very different from the cuisine of Chinese restaurants familiar to the Western eye.

Mobile tents and kiosks appear on the evening streets of China somehow completely unexpectedly. Once in this maze of food, all that remains is to walk between the rows and choose something suitable for eating.

Of course, the shelves are full of fried worms, beetles and larvae. There are baked chicken embryos right in the yolk, as well as chicken paws with fingers, which the Chinese love to crunch. If you are not quite Chinese yet, then it is better to turn away from all this and pay attention to something simpler.

For example:

All on sticks

In mobile kiosks you can see just a huge amount of everything strung on sticks. The variety is impressive: some unprecedented mushrooms, something meaty, various plants, flour products and sometimes something completely incomprehensible, but cute. From everything presented, you choose only what you like, it is fried in oil and served on the table.

Rice and noodles

Every Chinese knows that the main products are rice and noodles, and the rest is just pampering. Rice is usually boiled in a large vat, and a portion of it costs mere pennies.

"How do the Chinese eat rice with chopsticks?" - This question is often asked by those who have not tried Chinese rice, because it seems that it is impossible to grab small rice grains with uncomfortable chopsticks. The fact is that the Chinese cook sticky rice, and the resulting lumps are very easy to take with chopsticks and put in your mouth.

Noodles are usually fried and mixed with anything, even salads are made from it.

I would like to mention instant noodles in a separate line. At every gas station in China, we came across a store whose counters were filled with various types of instant noodles from top to bottom. Each such store also has a container with hot water. Stopping along the way to rest, the Chinese, as if on command, go to buy noodles, pour boiling water over them and then absorb them, sitting at tables specially equipped for this.

Eggs

Once we were treated to boiled chicken eggs bought from a Chinese grandmother. For some reason they were blue. It turned out that they tasted terribly salty, and they even had to be thrown away until the one who treated them saw ...

Tea

You can safely expect that in Chinese eateries you will be served tea for free. In an aluminum teapot, jasmine. Taste associations are so strong that now, having inhaled something jasmine, we are instantly mentally transported to China.

Sweets

It seemed to us that the Chinese were not very successful in preparing sweets. The food, which looked like dessert, tasted… a bit different from what we expected from it. Not once did we close our eyes in enjoyment of some strange pastry or corn ice cream.

Restaurants

A couple of times we visited restaurants in China, and once, sitting on pillows in a beautiful interior, we even ate in one of them for 50 yuan ($ 8) - an unacceptable extravagance!

An interesting type of restaurants that can be found in China are restaurants where each visitor has his own pot, in which he can cook whatever he wants. We also visited one of these restaurants: in a luxurious setting, a cockroach sat shyly at one of the plates on the buffet ...

A tangible plus of restaurants in China is that you can come there with your own drinks, even alcoholic ones.

Prices and portions

A serving of rice or noodles with some non-meat toppings cost us about 10 yuan. Portions in China are huge, so not very gluttonous people may well share such a portion for two and eat.

Due to the language barrier, sometimes restaurant owners offer to look at the food in the refrigerator and point your finger at what you want to cook the dish from. At the same time, it is ALWAYS necessary to specify the price, since the temptation to fool a foreigner in such a situation is incredibly great!

Vegetarians in China

What should vegetarians do in such a rich variety of meat in China? Even before the trip to China, when talking with Chinese friends, they said that in China they know and understand what vegetarianism is. Often they really understand - we checked this by showing this sign from ours in cafes and restaurants:

It says: "I'm a vegetarian."

It often happened that after showing this sign, we were invited into the kitchen and asked to indicate the vegetables that we wanted to see cooked.

But just in case, it’s better to always remember that if the name of the dish has such a hieroglyph: 肉 , then this dish contains meat.

Chinese cuisine is very popular in Europe, America and Russia, but unfortunately what is served in most Chinese restaurants outside of China is very different from authentic Chinese food. The culinary traditions of China began their formation many centuries ago. So, the first Chinese cookbook was created one and a half thousand years ago. Food in the Celestial Empire has always been treated as an art, its preparation and consumption are whole sacral acts. Chinese cuisine is very diverse and depends on the region, however, there are still a number of common features in national culinary traditions. In addition, there is a set of classic dishes for all provinces.

Distinctive features of Chinese national cuisine

The main reason for the unusualness of Chinese cuisine is not a special set of products, but the methods of their preparation. For Chinese chefs, the following are of great importance:

Intensity of heat treatment;
cutting;
Pre-treatment of products (for example, pickling).

The Chinese almost do not use dairy products in cooking, avoiding even butter. Particular emphasis is placed on giving the dish a complex taste with many shades. Many Chinese chefs deliberately distort the original taste of products beyond recognition so that the guest, after tasting the dish for a long time, tries to guess what it consists of. For this, many additional ingredients and spices are used: onion, garlic, ginger, pepper, soy sauce, various types of vegetable oils, alcohol, anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. For greater expressiveness, the Chinese add a large amount of glutamate to almost all dishes. sodium, which is recognized as a very harmful seasoning in Western countries.

The three main pillars of Chinese cuisine are: rice, soy and wheat. They are used in a variety of forms and in combination with any vegetables and meat.

Of the meat, the Chinese love pork the most. In ancient times, raising pigs did not require special expenses. In addition, unlike a cow, a horse or a sheep, the pig was not suitable for work, wool or milk production. In Muslim regions of China, beef is more popular. Also in all provinces you can try a variety of poultry dishes. Since most of the country's population has endured hunger and deprivation for many centuries, the concept of "food waste" almost does not exist in China. Everything is used in cooking: the blood of birds and animals, internal organs, necks, heads, ears, paws and tails. Just 60-80 years ago, rats and insects were eaten in the poorest regions of China. Modern Chinese no longer consume such unappetizing foods, but deep-fried carcasses of rats and spiders are still sold to tourists in local markets.

Fish and seafood are popular in coastal regions. They are easily combined with meat, vegetables and fruits. At the same time, the fishy smell itself is considered repulsive by most Chinese, so it is neutralized in every possible way with the help of spices and marinades.

The Chinese always serve soups as first courses. Moreover, soup is an obligatory part of not only lunches, but also breakfasts and dinners. Second courses are served in small portions, but always in several varieties. There is no bread in the European sense in Chinese cuisine. But the Chinese use a lot of their national pastries - for example, mantou (small unleavened dough buns like dumplings) and baozi (steamed pies). After eating, the Chinese always drink tea. Moreover, they approach tea drinking very scrupulously. Everything matters: the type of tea itself, and its serving, and the reason for drinking tea.

Classic Chinese cuisine

Any foreigner who comes to China should definitely try:

pork in sweet and sour sauce;
paomo - spicy soup with unleavened bread and lamb;
Chinese dumplings, the fillings of which can be not only from meat, but also from vegetables or seafood;
fried noodles with shrimp, pork or vegetables;
Peking duck;
gongbao - a dish of fried chicken, peanuts and hot peppers;
fried rice with egg and vegetables;
spicy tofu.

The most exotic dishes of China

China is a country where even the most sophisticated gourmets can find something new for themselves. Some traditional Chinese dishes even require a certain amount of courage from the taster. The most unusual Chinese dishes include:

Pickled chicken feet or, as they are called in China, "phoenix claws";
The famous millennium eggs are one of the main hallmarks of Chinese cuisine. For cooking, chicken, duck and quail eggs are used. They are kept in an alkaline solution for about 10 days, and then wrapped in plastic wrap for several months to completely exclude oxygen. Ready eggs are black in color and smell of ammonia.
Shark fin soup. Opponents of this dish are many defenders of wildlife. Shark meat is not very suitable for cooking, so usually the entire carcass of the fish, except for the fins, goes to waste. In addition, the shark does not have a very pronounced taste and the soup broth is prepared from other fish or meat.
Balut is a duck egg with a mature embryo. Usually eaten raw, but with spices.
Fried duck heads;
Swallow's nests. In fact, edible nests are not built by swallows, but by one species of swifts that lives on the coast of the South China Sea. The bird's nest is made of algae, and for the strength of the building, they moisten them with their saliva. Often in the nest you can find inclusions in the form of caviar and small fry. Swallow's nests are very useful, they contain iodine, phosphorus and iron. However, they are also quite expensive. In China, soups are usually prepared with swallow nests. The nests are soaked in boiling water for a long time, treated with soda and the remnants of feathers and bird droppings are removed. Then the nests are boiled for about 40 minutes in chicken broth.
Stinky tofu is a treat for the bravest. The smell of this dish is simply disgusting, but the taste is very pleasant.

Turned the minds of millions of people about proper nutrition. Its author, Thomas Campbell, calls for a switch to a plant-based diet, citing a large-scale study of the relationship between nutrition and health, which was conducted in China. And since I, I simply cannot help but talk about what the Chinese eat in the south of the country.

What do the Chinese eat

There is practically no dairy products in China. Instead of regular milk - soy, instead of cheese - tofu. In neighboring Hong Kong, which is inseparable from Chinese culture, Tofufa, a dessert made from soy cheese and sugar, is considered a traditional dish. Therefore, the Chinese really almost do not consume milk protein. However, as for meat, it is very much loved in the south of China. And you can buy meat everywhere - duck, chicken, pork, beef. Everything is sold in large quantities and with the addition of hot spices.

At every step there is a restaurant or a small eatery where you can have a bite to eat. In addition, during the daytime, establishments that are similar to our canteens are very popular - you take a tray, put rice and other components of your future dish and enjoy a budget lunch.

The average Chinese lunch is a large portion of rice or noodles, many pieces of meat, a side dish in the form of chopped zucchini or other vegetables, hot sauce or soy sauce. Interestingly, rice replaces bread here, so almost any dish is served with rice. The problem with such dinners for a non-Chinese is that you never know what taste this or that component will turn out to be. For example, carrots can be spicy and salty, while cherry tomatoes are considered sweet and are often served with dessert. By the way, the Chinese are very fond of sweets.

In almost any store you can find ice cream with traditional and strange flavors (coffee, tomato, peas), as well as many other sweets.

Also, every Chinese always has a thermos of warm water with them, so they rarely buy drinks. You can fill this thermos in almost any institution - in cinemas, at stations and in shops there are free coolers with hot water.

street food

Street food is very popular in China. From about eleven in the evening, a cook with his barbecue appears at each house. Passers-by choose raw vegetables, meat, oysters and other ingredients, put them on a tray and go to take a seat at the table. After 10-15 minutes, they receive an order fried in a thick layer of oil. If you don’t say “Bulada” in time, then you risk getting a very spicy dish. I burned out a few times.

Also among these grillers you can find guys who make noodles with additives from vegetables and meat, and cooks who specialize in dumplings or soup. They can even be placed a few meters apart, so there is always a choice.

It is necessary to choose vegetables, meat and other delicacies that are immediately cooked on the grill

Unfortunately, street vendors do not care about hygiene at all. That is, not at all. Therefore, every trip to such a street restaurant is a kind of Russian roulette. If you're lucky, you'll enjoy a delicious dinner; if you're not lucky, your stomach will hurt all day tomorrow. Either way, you're taking a risk. Food is cooked with a huge amount of oil, it is necessarily brought to a fried state, so the body is very uncomfortable from this.

How to survive in China as a foreigner

To be honest, for the first month, all Chinese food was delightful and I wanted to try as many exotic things as possible. Now my appetite has somewhat decreased and I want less spicy food with a Russian tinge. So now I eat more at home. My girlfriend makes a great mix of rice, Chinese spices and familiar vegetables. It makes for an excellent lunch. For breakfast, we have a snack of porridge with raisins or make an omelet with vegetables.

If you don’t feel like cooking at home, then I’m looking for an institution for foreigners. You can always find a pizzeria or a restaurant with one or another cuisine, but in any case, everything in these cafes will have Chinese components. It is very rare to find pizza with real cheese or fish without hot spices.

When traveling, I always adhere to the principle: “You don’t go to a strange monastery with your charter.” That is, I try as much as possible to behave, eat and practice the same habits as the local population. Therefore, if I find myself on the street in the evening, I will definitely drop by the local chef. As long as you're lucky.

Each of the numerous peoples of our planet has its own dish, which differs both in the way of preparation and in the features of use. Different nationalities prefer different cutlery: some like to eat with the help of kuaizi, others with spoons and forks, others, in general, with their hands.

These preferences are facilitated by differences in history, traditions, and culture. Quite different from ours is Chinese traditional cuisine, which has centuries-old experience, because their culture and way of life is more than one thousand years old.

Foods traditionally used by the Chinese are often completely unsuitable for our understanding. The ways of serving food and the places of its reception are completely exotic, from the point of view of a European.

What do the Chinese eat?

Traditional cereal for Asian countries - rice. It is suitable for the preparation of alcoholic beverages, side dishes and even vinegar. There is a legend that people domesticated the wild thickets of this cereal about nine thousand years ago, and it was the Chinese who did it. Today rice is not only It can be said that it is a gastronomic symbol of the culture of the East.

How do the Chinese eat rice? What do they cook from it? The most famous dishes in China:

rice flour cakes;
rice fried with duck;
sticky cereal stuffing wrapped in bamboo leaf;
rice (boiled) as a side dish.

What else do the people of this country eat? The answer is simple: Chinese noodles. It is already widely known in our state. There are several ordinary species, and there are special ones, promising, according to beliefs, a long life. It is prepared from rice flour, and less often from wheat.

The Chinese also eat soybeans. Tofu is prepared from them - bean curd, milk and the famous sauce of the same name.

Favorite vegetables on the Chinese table are carrots, broccoli, celery, watercress and bitter melon.

Spices are a particularly revered part of Chinese cuisine. They greatly enrich the taste of food. In the Celestial Empire, sesame, garlic, cinnamon, anise and fennel are often used.

Do the Chinese eat desserts? Undoubtedly. Light pastries, custard as a separate dish and any seasonal fruit are in special esteem.

Without Chinese tea, figuratively speaking, life in the country is impossible. Rumor has it that he appeared before the citizens of the country themselves.

Sample Daily Chinese Menu: Breakfast

If in European countries breakfast is a light snack: coffee, a bun, freshly squeezed juice, then in China it is a solid meal. In the family, breakfast is prepared (something between soup and porridge) well seasoned with spices. This is necessary to warm the body. Be sure to serve dumplings. They have been prepared in China for over 1,800 years. This is familiar to us - with minced meat, but often with tofu, vegetables or shrimp. There are special dumplings called Zongzi - sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves. Noodles are also a morning meal along with a special, steamed bun.

It is filled with either a sweet filling or salty (eggs, spinach, chopped vegetables or meat). A dish unknown to us so far is milk tofu (Ma Po Tofu). Served with chopped green onions and beef.

Dinner

A traditional Chinese lunch consists of several gourmet dishes. For example, pieces of pork in sweet and sour orange caramel. Pork is sometimes replaced with chicken or beef.

Everyone knows what the Chinese eat, the dish called Wonton. These are special triangular dumplings that are deep fried. The main filling is pork and shrimp. The famous Peking duck is a special bird with tender meat and crispy crust. The dish that has conquered the whole world is served in portions with garlic puree, pancakes or bean sauce. Pancakes are one of the most popular foods in China. They are stuffed with sweets or vegetables. The original Gong Bao chicken is meat chopped into cubes, with the addition of roasted nuts, chili peppers and flavored with garlic paste.

A peculiar warm salad called Chowmein - Chinese noodles, chicken (beef, pork or shrimp), plus celery and onions are also included in the lunch menu.

Dinner

The evening meal is a bit like breakfast. The main course is served with rice, noodles, vegetables, fruits and pastries. And definitely tea. In the evening they drink it, stretching the pleasure. During the day, the Chinese also drink many other drinks.

Almost all Chinese food goes well together. Any meal is at least five dishes, only portions are small. Therefore, among the inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom there are practically no fat people.

Tradition or way of life?

The traditions of modern food in the People's Republic of China originated thousands of years ago. The country occupies territory in different climatic zones: temperate (with a temperate continental climate), subtropical and tropical zones, which has long influenced food preferences and ways of eating products.

Why do the Chinese eat special food, but have a negative attitude towards modern food? They believe that it does not benefit the body, but only leads to premature aging. Therefore, their nutrition is very similar to the correct diet. Chinese medicine believes that the use of a particular product can affect the well-being of the body as a whole. Therefore, the citizens of this country eat in such a way as to have a beneficial effect on the respiratory organs, the digestive tract and slow down the aging of the body.

seasonal food

Proper nutrition is based on the Chinese seasonal theory. It states that each season (and there are five in China: spring, summer, winter, autumn and off-season) is suitable only for certain products. Because each of them prepares the body to endure certain climatic conditions and strengthens a specific part of the human body: bones, skin, circulatory or muscular system.

Sticks and spoons

Why do Chinese people eat with chopsticks? This question torments more than one generation of the peoples of the Old World. How, for example, do they eat soup?

A long time ago, at the dawn of civilization, the ancient inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom ate with their hands. After a while, it became clear that this was completely inconvenient: it was hot and the palms were constantly dirty. And then they took the sticks in their hands, which became an extension of the fingers. There is another common theory that the sticks are a lever, and two crossed sticks are its core.

Soup, the population of China eats, like all Europeans, with a spoon, only a special one - porcelain. First, following the tradition, vegetables and meat are selected with chopsticks. Then the broth is eaten with a spoon. Some prefer alternately, choosing the thick to seize with broth. Others just drink it.

But the table will never be served with knives and forks. They consider them weapons. This means that such devices will never lie next to sacred food. It is clear that eating weapons is also not appropriate. The famous Confucius wrote about this, indignant at the barbarism of the peoples of Europe.

The Chinese eat with wooden chopsticks. Plastic and other innovations in the production of kuaizi take root only in public canteens.

Dishes consist mainly of finely chopped products. Therefore, cooking takes from three to five minutes. All vitamins remain safe and sound.

Rules for using chopsticks

Regarding sticks, there are several immutable rules for use:

you can’t knock them on a bowl or plate, because others will perceive it as begging (in poor neighborhoods, this is how they beg for food);
when the chopsticks are in the hand, one cannot stretch out the index finger, pointing at people - this is regarded as an accusation;
it is very impolite to lick sticks;
it is forbidden to poke chopsticks into all dishes in a row, as if choosing;
they also cannot be placed vertically - this indicates bad manners.

Spicy Chinese food menu

There is an opinion that the Chinese eat insects. Few people know, but such components are a hallmark of Thai cuisine. And in China, insects are a delicacy. You can buy them already cooked in restaurants and night markets. Sellers necessarily “flavor” each insect with a legend, claiming that it is true. Here is a sample list for those who want exotic:

silkworm pupae are served fried (tastes like shrimp);
the larvae are also fried over high heat;
scorpions are steamed, rarely fried; then they are sold like a barbecue: strung on wooden sticks, and sometimes they can be found in soup or stew; cooked in this way, they are harmless, but bitter;
locusts, crickets and grasshoppers are fried with salt;
in Yunnan province they like to fry and eat bamboo worms - it is believed that this dish tastes like popcorn;
Europeans think that the Chinese and centipedes eat - indeed, they do; they are fried and even added to salads;
water beetles are eaten fried, but without paws and wings.

Chinese New Year Table Secrets

There is no more important holiday than the New Year in China. It is called the Spring Festival - Chunjie. It lasts up to two weeks - this is the time of masquerade processions, balls, carnivals, fireworks.

And at home - this is a festive decoration and a table with traditional Chinese dishes. Although China is large and each province has its own special New Year's dishes, there is one general trend - to make material wealth and prosperity a year ahead. Therefore, every dish on the table is a symbol of prosperity.

The principle of the New Year's feast differs little from ours: the table should burst with dishes. I wonder what the Chinese eat for the New Year? In almost all provinces it is chiao-tzu. The mysterious name hides nothing more than traditional dumplings with various fillings, which, according to popular beliefs, symbolize prosperity and well-being. For example, if there is peanuts in the dumpling, then the year will be sweet, and if there is a date or chestnut, then you should expect the birth of a boy.

Be sure to have Chinese cabbage on the table of a resident of the Celestial Empire in the New Year. Its name is similar in meaning to the concept of "close". Therefore, they roast it, as if saying that the night will be hot and fun.

Another obligatory dish is fried fish. The Chinese firmly believe that if you leave a piece on a plate on New Year's Eve, the sky will give you such an amount that you will not have time to spend.

What do the Chinese eat on the first day of the new year? Traditionally - rice. It is an ancient symbol of prosperity and a good harvest. In some provinces, sticks of sweet rice, called niangao, and sweet wine are served on the table. In other provinces, the first day of the year begins with chicken soup, as this bird is a symbol of peace and tranquility.

Young ones should definitely eat a few chicken wings. Then in the coming year they will rise high up the career ladder or there will be a change in status for the better.

There should be traditional Chinese noodles on the table in any province for a successful year. An obligatory snack of the New Year's table is eggs. This is an invariable symbol of precious metals: gold and silver.

The New Year's table is always full of various sweets. But cookies with wishes and predictions are obligatory. These are small leaves with quotes from the sages, by which it will be possible to judge the next twelve months of life.