How Much Do You Know About Chinese Food (Final)

The Ways to Define A Real Chinese Dish and Make Easy but Delicious Chinese Food

Are you interested in Chinese food? If your answer is yes, congratulations, you have found the right place. Eating is the most important part in my life. I am willing to spend the whole day in studying the different ways to make one kind of Chinese food, and find out which one is most tasty. As a Chinese, one thing I miss the most is Chinese food because it make me think of my hometown. After practicing cooking many times, I get some skills and experience in making Chinese food. 

No matter you are a student or a worker, after studying or working for a whole day, you find out your family have prepared a table of food for you when you get home, you must feel very touched and grateful, so why not you learn to cook some Chinese food for your family and give them a surprise? However, before studying cooking, you need to know the principle to define a real Chinese dish because it will help you to improve your cooking skills and make your food become attractive. There are three characteristics to evaluate whether it is a real Chinese dish - "color, aroma, and taste" ("Features of Chinese Food").

Color

Dishes with diversified color can usually greatly arouse people's appetite (“Features of Chinese Food”). When I live in China, my mother always prepares a lot of ingredients to make one kind of food such as green onion, garlic, ginger, and chili. She said a beautiful color in a dish could make your food look delicious and everyone want to try it. For example, if the main color of your dish is green, you can put some red or yellow pepper in it, but if the main color of your dish is red, you can put some green onion on the top of your food, it will make your dish looks more colorful and beautiful.

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Aroma

I believe when you approach the food and it smells good, you will immediately feel hungry and cannot wait to taste it, so aroma is very important for a good dish. Usually aniseed, Chinese prickly ash seeds, cinnamon and other spices are added to help dispel the ingredients' particular smells, such as foul, fishy and mutton smells (“Features of Chinese Food”).

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Taste

Even though your dish has diversified color and good aroma, delicious taste cannot be excluded because this is the essence of the food. In China, “taste can be divided into five classes - sweet, sour, bitter, hot and salty”, and “there are eating habits of 'South-Sweet, North-Salty, East-Hot and West-Sour' according to the different tastes of the people” (“Features of Chinese Food”). I am from Southern of China, so I like putting more sugar in making food, but if you like more salty, you can put soy sauce instead of salt because soy sauce will make the food has delicate favor but salt will not. I really suggest you to use Maggi Seasoning because I tried many kind of soy source, but the taste of this one is the best. You can buy it at Costco and many Chinese supermarkets. 

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Now, you have known the principle to define a real Chinese dish. I believe you can start to learn how to make your own food at home and give a big surprise to your family. Here I want to share three kinds of my favorite food to you which are:

·   Chinese Pork and Sweet Corn Soup

·       Coca Cola Chicken Wings

·       Red Bean Soup Dessert

Chinese Pork and Sweet Corn Soup

I like this soup because it is not only easy to make but also very healthy. Sweet corn provide a lot of important minerals for our bodies such as "zinc, magnesium, copper, iron, and manganese"; also, "corn is a good source of phenolic flavonoid antioxidant, ferulic acid" ("Sweet Corn Nutrition Facts and Health Benefits"). 

To make this soup, you need to prepare 1.5lb chopped ribs, 2 sweet corns and cut into fourths, a carrot and cut into several chunks, and one candied date. The first and the most important step is blanching the pork ribs for a few minutes in a different pot of water because “it helps get rid of all the impurities, bloody bits and other things you don't want from your pork bones in your soup” (Shelly). After blanching the pork ribs, you can put everything that you prepared into the pot and add water until the water cover all your ingredients. Now you can begin to cook your soup. At the beginning, you need to choose high heat until the water boil, then you can change to medium heat and let it cook for an hour. After one hour you can enjoy your soup and eat the sweet corn if you are hungry. Sometimes I am tired and lazy to cook complicated food, I will make this soup because not only it is convenient but also I can eat food and soup at the same time which make me feel so satisfied.

Photo courtesy of Shellyinreallife.com

Coca Cola Chicken Wings

Coca Cola is one of my favorite drink, and I really like eating chicken wings, so this dish can satisfy my two wishes at the same time. You must feel surprised that coke can make with chicken wings, but it works! The slight sweet taste bought by the drink can spare other condiments and seasoning, which makes this as one of the simplest recipe (Elaine). 

To make this food, you need to prepare the ingredients including 10 chicken wings, one can of coke, chopped garlic, chopped onion, cooking wine, chicken marinade sauce, dark soy sauce, and oil. Dark soy sauce can put the color of chicken wings into dark brown, and it can increase the appetite. Then you need to cut a line on one side of each chicken wing so that “the slight sweet taste can soaked into the inside the chicken wings” (Elaine). Now you can start to cook. The first step is adding some oil and chopped garlic into the pan, and after a few second, you can put chicken wings in it. Then you need to keep stirring the chicken wings until their both sides become golden yellow. Now you can add a spoon of cooking wine which can “make the dishes fragrant in flavor” (Features of Chinese Food”), also a can of coke, a spoon of chicken marinade sauce, and half spoon of dark soy sauce. After adding all sauce, the sauce should cover the chicken wings. Just like making soup, at the beginning, it needs high heat to bring water boil, then adjust the heat to medium, and let it simmer for 20 minutes.  Last, you can add some chopped onion on the top of chicken wings to make the food look more colorful. Yes, you have done with your own coca cola chicken wings! Just enjoy it and share with your friend!

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Red Bean Soup Dessert

Because I like to eat sweet food, so eating this dessert can really make my day. This dessert just need some easy steps to finish, and even though this is the first time for you to cook it, you can also make it very delicious. Red bean soup is low in Caroline but rich in vitamin B and E and other beneficial minerals including magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc, cooper and manganese (Red Bean Soup Recipe).  

Let's get started to make this dessert. You need to prepare half bowl of red beans and a bowl of Chinese rock sugar. You’ll commonly see Chinese rock sugar either in small pellets or in larger crystals, and the lump sugar tastes a little more natural and gives the soup a distinctive sheen (“How to Make Red Bean Soup”). 

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After preparing all the ingredients, there is an important step which is soaking the red beans into cold water for 2 hours because it can make the red beans become soft, and it can resolve easily when you cook. After 2 hours, you can put the red beans into the pot without the soaking water, and “add water until it reaches 2 inches above the beans” (“How to Make Red Bean Soup”). When the water bring to boil with high heat, decrease the heat to low and cook for 2-3 hours. The last step is adding Chinese rock sugar into the soup, and the amount of sugar depends on how sweet you want to eat. If you don’t know how sweet the sugar is, you can add a little at a time until the soup taste good.

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I hope you now have more understanding in Chinese food, and I believe you will feel interested in making Chinese food at home. Even though the food you cook at the first time may not taste good, do not give up and keep practicing. One day, you can be an expert on cooking Chinese food. Also, you can try to make some creative dishes, and you will find cooking is really an interesting thing, and it can help you release your stress in working or studying. Because Chinese food is unique and traditional, it is very easy to let you fall in love with it.

Works Cited

Elaine. "China Sichuan Food." China Sichuan Food. Elaine, 23 Aug. 2014. Web. 07 Feb. 2016. <http://www.chinasichuanfood.com/coca-cola-chicken-wings/>.

"Features of Chinese Food." Chinese Food Features: Color, Aroma, Taste. Travel China Guide,    1998. Web. 07 Feb. 2016.

         <http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/cuisine_drink/cuisine/feature.htm>.

"How to Make Red Bean Soup." Dim Sum Central. Red Bean Company LLC, 15 Jan. 2016. Web. 07 Feb. 2016. <http://www.dimsumcentral.com/red-bean-soup/>.

"Red Bean Soup Recipe." China Sichuan Food. China Sichuan Food, 10 Sept. 2014. Web. 07   Feb. 2016. <http://www.chinasichuanfood.com/red-bean-soup-recipe/>.

Shelly. "Chinese Pork and Corn Soup." Chinese Pork and Corn Soup. Shelly, 4 Oct. 2013. Web. 07 Feb. 2016. <http://www.shellyinreallife.com/2013/10/recipe-chinese-pork-and-corn-soup.html>.

"Sweet Corn Nutrition Facts and Health Benefits." Nutrition And You.com. Umesh Rudrappa, 2009. Web. 07 Feb. 2016. <http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/sweet-corn.html>.