Chinese Food and Culture By Matt Eastler, Vanessa Fischer, Jackie Adler

Commonly Eaten Foods Rice Noodles Scallions Bean Sprouts Cabbage Soup Tofu Pork Chicken

Breakfast In China, breakfast is eaten at around the same time as we do in America. Rice mixed with water called "congee", is the main breakfast, and can be flavored in different ways with spices and herbs. Some other typical breakfast foods are small portions of rice, noodles, shrimp, and occasionally a meat.

Lunch Lunch is eaten about midday, but can be served anywhere between 10:00 and 4:00. Traditionally, dim sum was the main meal at lunch, which are little balls of rice, meat, and dumplings. Tea was once considered inappropriate for drinking with food, because it was thought to lead to excessive weight gain and it would ruin the taste of the tea. But, now it is normal to drink anything with lunch.

Dinner Dinner: Vegetables with a type of sauce and meat or shrimp It is usually served at the same time as here in the United States. It is also the lightest meal of the day.

Tea and Its Uses Oolong tea is one of the most famous types of tea It originated about 400 years ago at Mt. Wu Yi Shin at the end of the Ming Dynasty An art was developed to enjoy the culture by using a tiny teapot and a tiny cup Tea was used with ancient and civil Chinese herbal medicine It is still used today as medicine, and Oolong tea actually has many health benefits

Use of Wok for Cooking A wok is a large bowl-shaped pan used in cooking Chinese food Small amount of heat is needed, since the shape of the wok allows even distribution of heat, which makes it easy to sauté, boil, or fry food A carbon-steel wok is the best for stir-frying Seasoning a wok makes it non-stick Most Chinese cooks use 3 woks -1 for sautéing, stir-frying, and deep frying -1 for boiling, steaming, or poaching -1 for preparing rice

Wok (continued)

Meat and Vegetables Meat Chicken Pork Shrimp Beef Tofu (used instead of meat) Vegetables Cabbage (bok choy) and Broccoli Bean Sprouts Mushrooms Eggplant Ginger Root

Rice and its Importance Rice is eaten at almost every meal. Used in many traditional Chinese dishes like fried rice.

Famous Recipes Wonton Soup Dumplings Sweet and Sour Pork Lo-Mein Hunan Stir-Fry

Chinese Desserts

History of Chopsticks The main utensil was the spoon, but it was discovered that chopsticks were able to be used with more dishes than the spoon Can be made out of wood, metal, bone, or steel, but wood and bamboo are the most common in a Chinese household NEVER stab food with chopsticks and NEVER make noise with them (it is considered bad manners, especially at a party or a banquet) Chopsticks are traditionally held in the right hand, even if you are left-handed

Thank You!