Chinese food recipes and table mannersIf you have read "Chinese Culture is Like an Enigma" you will be eager to find out Chinese people"s table manners and etiquette. If during the Beijing Olympics you go to taste the great varieties of delicious Chinese foods but have no knowledge at all of the dietary culture and table manners of the Chinese people, I think you will be like a person who is sipping a glass of some famous French wine in the manner of a connoisseur but in complete ignorance of French culture of wine. If you meet with some Chinese friends, who invite you to go with them to a restaurant, and you also want to satisfy your desire to the full in that respect, then it will be imperative for you to have some know-how for use at the dining table.
As a matter of fact, dining has always been a matter of paramount importance in China. Since Chinese people, as a nation, depend on agriculture for subsistence, they have to wait for the crops to ripen before they can have their meals in the coming year. But during the long period of waiting, there is no assurance that natural disasters will not strike unexpectedly. So, there is always the fear of starvation.
Chinese people like to live in a group. They like to huddle together. They like to have reunions with relatives and old friends. Certainly they also like to dine together around a table. In the eyes of a Chinese, a dinner or lunch taken together with people who are devoid of empathy for each other is undoubtedly not appetizing, and a way of eating which shows that those who are seated around the table are apathetic to each other is completely meaningless.
It is exactly for this reason that Chinese people don"t favor the way of eating by which each of those at the table is given a separate set portion of the food.
In spite of the fact that many people admit that giving each at the table a separate set portion of the food is scientific, hygienic and less wasteful, there is a prevailing opinion that this way of eating savers too much of indifference, or lack of interest in and concern for others. In the case of the host this way of eating may seem to be tantamount to a neglect of the guests, who may seem to be suspected of having some infectious or contagious disease. Therefore, ironically, those people in china who know science very well and who pay great attention to hygiene hesitate to propose that a separate set portion of the food be given him at dinner. For if you want to show that the other people are your "brethren" and your "flesh" and that you believe that they will stand by you "through thick and thin" you must thrust your chopsticks together with them into the same bowl of meat or fish, thus demonstrating that you make no distinction between you and them, that you truly want to share the same "rice bowl" with them, and that you truly consider them to be consanguineous with you so far as living this life is concerned.
For the same reason, the way of eating, table manners and etiquette are subjects worthy of thorough investigation. To halt immediately after tasting a bit of the food offered shows courtesy and good table manners, but it indicates at the same time estrangement and separation. Estrangement makes the other side see clearly that you are not on familiar terms with him, while separation denotes that you don"t intend to share the same lot with him. To drink the alcohol made at your disposal to your heart"s content shows that you lack modesty and self-restraint, but at the same time it makes the other side feel that you are affectionate, warm and intimate, where being affectionate means you feel that you and he have "consanguinity" and being warm means you feel that he is the right one with you at the right time, like a dish that has just been cooked and brought to the table. Moreover, if you eat with a loud sound, smacking your lips, it may show that you lack breeding, but, on the other hand, this may be considered a sign of the great relish with which you are enjoying the palatable dishes prepared by the hostess. Sometimes, you may need to make intentionally a loud sound while eating in order to show that you are making yourself at home. Thus your table manners are paving the way for making some unexpected request. Of course, the host needs to do something on his part to create a congenial atmosphere and to show that he knows how to treat a guest. For example, he must help the guest to some food, especially if it is of great value. He must also propose toasts. He needs to bear in mind that a few important points have to be observed when making toasts. He should show himself to be a little snobbish. If there are several guests of different positions present, he must propose the toast first to the person of the highest position, then to the person of the next highest position, and so on. When clinking glasses, he must hold his glass a little lower for the purpose of showing modesty, and he must empty his glass first when saying "Bottoms up". In short, as a well-known Chinese saying goes, the drinker"s heart is not in the cup (He has other things in mind). It is somewhat in the vein of the English saying: Many kiss the baby for the nurse"s sake.
If you go to taste the great varieties of delicious Chinese foods but have no knowledge at all of the dietary culture and table manners of the Chinese people, you will be eager to find out Chinese people"s table manners and etiquette.
It is obvious that for Chinese people the pleasure and delight of dining together is afforded not merely by the taste and flavor of the food and the drink. What must be included in addition to the sensuous excitement is the joy of human relationship which is specific to the dining table. The various kinds of Chinese cooked food gives embodiment to the group consciousness and cultural spirit consisting in unity, harmony and complete blending. For example, dishes of Chinese food, whether prepared by frying in shallow oil, stir-frying, steaming, boiling, stewing, roasting, or deep-frying, almost always have the principal element mixed with the seasoning and cooked together with it. Such a dish is to be served as one entity. Historically, there has never been an occasion when meat or fish and salt or pepper are brought to the table in this country as separate units.
Some famous Chinese food recipes- big dishes styled as "The Whole Family"s Fortune", "The Buddha Making a Trespass over the Wall", "The Hegemonic King Bidding Farewell to His Beloved Consort (before their tragic ending)", etc. are representative of the harmonious blending of several principal foodstuffs, or elements, all the more so because their respective tastes are blended far beyond distinguishment. What is more, according to the views expressed by China"s experts in the fields of culinary art, nutriology and dietotherapy, such harmonious blending conduces to compatibility and mutual enhancement of tastes of two foodstuffs which are opposite in certain respects. This is a highly scientific method for producing excellent cuisine.
Of course, the best to strive for is, first of all, that the foodstuffs to be used as the raw material should be superb in taste and the feeling of enjoyment of the human relationship at the dinning table should be intense and strong. For achieving this twofold aim the most effective instrument perhaps would be the chafing dish.
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