Source(google.com.pk)
Since every visual detail of a film is significant, we can assume that Chinese food is still important here—at least important enough to signify in a film something about the lifestyle of urban Americans, or perhaps, most Americans: after all, there are approximately forty thousand Chinese restaurants and take out joints in the nation, more than the combined total of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King and McDonalds. But what exactly do such scenes mean? What is America’s attitude toward Chinese food? When reviewing the history of this cuisine in the states, one might see that the boxes of Chinese takeout are an unintended metaphor for the American interpretation of the cuisine itself: something expedient, tasty, economical, but in the background, unobtrusive, part of the dull clutter of life—definitely not something to inspire passion or devotion in the way sushi does. And is it any wonder? While the American consumer has become more savvy and sophisticated in their appreciation of ethnic foods, what most Americans know of Chinese cuisine has become a sugary, battered-and-deep fried confusion of meats and vegetables, served from strip mall take-outs and buffets, bearing little resemblance to the great tradition as it is practiced on the mainland.
In China, the oldest continuous civilization on earth, one can see common threads of culinary tradition stretching at least as far back as three thousand years, to the Zhou period. For most people in the country the philosophy of Chinese cuisine remains a serious business, including the system, based on timeless principles, which designate certain foods as having special benefits in achieving balance within the body. Ancillary to this is the pervasive use of herbs and foodstuffs in Chinese traditional medicine, indicating the ancient, almost sacred role of food and cooking in Chinese life.
Yu Xiang Zhu Rou Si
When considered more simply as a pleasurable necessity, traditional Chinese cuisine still demands of its makers serious attention to detail, and underscoring it all is an essential concern with balance and contrasts: The textures of ingredients, and they way they interact within a dish are tremendously important; the use of sweet/sour, hot/cool, salty/bland, and the balancing of these create contrasting and complimentary sensations which give traditional Chinese food its luscious, distinctive intensity. Care is taken as to the integrity of a featured ingredient, even when enhanced by flavorings and garnishes: In Shredded Pork with Fish Fragrant Sauce, (Yu Xiang Zhu Rou Si) for example, the dish is primarily shredded matchsticks of succulent pork, quickly stir-fried. The meat is complimented and enhanced by flavoring ingredients such as garlic, ginger, scallions and chili paste, and subtly contrasting textures of bamboo shoots and cloud ear fungus.
In traditional Chinese cooking, freshness is nearly an obsession: in any Chinese market you’ll find live fowl and fish; meat is slaughtered in the morning, butchered and sold by afternoon; cooks shop every day. Moreover, an effort is made to see that balance and contrast is maintained at the table as well. Variations in cooking methods will be employed within a meal: boiled steamed, braised roasted and stir-fried—Chinese would not ordinarily consider laying a table with six stir-fried dishes. With these concerns in mind, one can see how far the American version of this cuisine, a “sugary, battered-and-deep fried confusion of meats and vegetables,” has strayed from its source.
The history of Chinese food in America rightfully begins with the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, California, in 1848. With the influx of immigrant labor from southern China’s Guangdong province, a simultaneous need for restaurants catering to these Chinese cropped up in the enclave soon to be known as San Francisco’s Chinatown. The first Chinese eatery in America was probably the Macao and Woosung Restaurant, on the corner of Kearny and Commercial Streets. In the mid to late1800s, these establishments not only attracted the Chinese, but also non-Chinese whose curiosity about this exotic fare and ambiance created a temporary surge of interest. However, the patronage of these food adventurers soon waned, as economically-based resentment and racism cooled the interest in things Chinese. This change in the view toward Chinese immigrants culminated in the Exclusion Act of 1880, and the restaurateurs of Chinatown were left to carry on the food traditions of southern China with very little compromise.
This phase of isolation was also encouraged by the racial stereotyping of Chinese within Chinatowns as being dirty, criminally inclined and habitually eating dogs, cats and rats. As always with stereotyping, it is based on a molecule of truth. Chinatowns in the late 1800’s were akin to ghettos, wherein sojourners found some measure of protection and familiarity of language, food and customs not found elsewhere; but this was not only a refuge for wealthy merchants, drug dealers and successful miners—it existed as an almost all-male enclave for the benefit of poor and illiterate miners and railroad workers, who, not having the responsibility of wives or family, found little to amuse themselves except gambling and other vices. Moreover, in special circumstances, Chinese did and still do eat what to westerners are exotic, if not objectionable meat; but these circumstances are rare and by no means represent the mainstream of Chinese cooking either in the US or China.
Thus, by the beginning of the 20th century, Chinese cuisine might have been consigned to the backwaters of the American restaurant scene had it not been for several factors: on the west coast, San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake devastated the city, including the near destruction of Chinatown. The city fathers and Chinese merchants were prescient enough to rebuild Chinatown with a determination to clean it up and encourage tourism. Restaurants were central to this rebirth, and elaborately decorated, tourist friendly eateries—featuring chop suey and chow mein—proliferated. Meanwhile, especially in New York City where a clearly defined Chinatown was slow to emerge, the Chinese opened restaurants outside Chinatown, clearly necessitating a style of cooking acceptable to non-Chinese, including American dishes. To lure even more customers, these entrepreneurs often combined dining and dancing to popular bands, the precursors of American nightclubs.
Nevertheless, acceptance of Chinese cuisine in the states continued to struggle against the stereotyped view of Chinese; I once read that when Edgar Snow, who wrote Red Star Over China, was a youngster, he learned this rhyme:
Chinaman, Chinaman,
Eat dead rats
Chew them up
Like ginger snaps!
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Authentic Chinese Recipes Chinese Recipes With Chicken by Chef Zakir For Kids Soup Images In Urdu Chicken Shashlik Bitter Gourd Urdu Fish Authentic
Authentic Chinese Recipes Chinese Recipes With Chicken by Chef Zakir For Kids Soup Images In Urdu Chicken Shashlik Bitter Gourd Urdu Fish Authentic
Authentic Chinese Recipes Chinese Recipes With Chicken by Chef Zakir For Kids Soup Images In Urdu Chicken Shashlik Bitter Gourd Urdu Fish Authentic
Authentic Chinese Recipes Chinese Recipes With Chicken by Chef Zakir For Kids Soup Images In Urdu Chicken Shashlik Bitter Gourd Urdu Fish Authentic
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Authentic Chinese Recipes Chinese Recipes With Chicken by Chef Zakir For Kids Soup Images In Urdu Chicken Shashlik Bitter Gourd Urdu Fish Authentic
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Authentic Chinese Recipes Chinese Recipes With Chicken by Chef Zakir For Kids Soup Images In Urdu Chicken Shashlik Bitter Gourd Urdu Fish Authentic
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