Chinese Food Culture

Anyone who knows me knows I am a big foodie. After all, loving food is part of my culture and is part of who I am. Chinese food culture is over 5000 year old and is laced into every facet of Chinese person's life.

Every dish served at a Chinese dinner table has to have good symbolism. Instead of a birthday cake, the Chinese eat birthday noodles on their birthdays. The long strands symbolize longevity. For Chinese New Year feast fish is a must since the word sounds like the homophonic word for abundance. The Chinese also love to give their dishes very poetic names (but sometimes really confusing when translated into English directly). Chicken forms part of the a good luck symbol of the phoenix, so the well known dim sum dish Chicken's feet is actually referred to as "Phoenix feet".

Meatballs are referred to as "Lion head". A Sichuan dish called "Ants Climbing a Tree" is just minced beef with bean thread noodles.

The Chinese believes the main meat ingredient of the dish will help you improve particular parts of your body. For example: eating pig's liver will make your liver healthier. In Beijing, there is a very famous restaurant named Guolizhuang (锅里壮) which can be directly translated as "Manliness in a pot". It specialises in animal penises. Yes, you read correctly. You can imagine what this body part is suppose to help you with. This is very popular with the gentleman customers.

(deer penis on a gold platter garnished with lettuce!)

When cooking an animal is important to the Chinese not to waste anything that is edible. Keeping the body of the animal whole is also very crucial. You will see fish, chicken and duck heads and feet all make it to the table along with its body. The head is not only believe to be the tastiest, but also often reserved for the eldest or most honoured guest at the table.

We even greet in terms of food. The phrase "你吃了吗？" which means "Have you eaten yet?" is equivalent of asking someone "how are you?". Instead the reply of "I am fine", you say "I have eaten." no matter what time of the day.

When I hosted my wedding rehearsal dinner last year, we had prepared just enough food for everyone. However, this was to my mother's horror: no leftover meant the guest did not have enough to eat. Having plenty of food is showing respect for your guests. Here are other dinner table etiquette/culture such as:

• must try everything (even just a little bit) on the table
• never take more than 1 item at a time
• sometimes Chinese diners will slurp their soup or burp after a meal. You can too.
• when offered the last piece in the dish, you should always decline at least 2 or 3 times before accepting it
• it is ok to answer the phone during dinner
• it is ok to stand up and reach for food
• never stick your chopsticks upright in the rice bowl (actually don't play with your chopsticks at all including air drumming)

(Photo courtesy of Xinhua)