CHINESE FOOD BY REGION

For you foodies out there who think that Chinese food is just food that is sliced thin, and cooked in a super hot wok with spices is all it is, think again. Chinese food encompasses the different regions of the China landscape. For instance, take a look at this whole world, it is pretty vast, and foods that we experience comes from people, many different kinds, from different places. Here in Hawaii, the melting pot of the Pacific, different people from different countries brought their style of cooking, ingredients and lifestyle and shared it with everyone else. So herbs and spices used in Portuguese cooking was shared with every other ethnic group, and Japanese shared their kinds of foods with everyone, well you get the picture.

Chinese food is very contrasting depending on the region you are in in China, there were lots of trading going on in China, for instance, people near the ocean had seafood, but did not have any pork or foul. So inland people traded with coastal people. Spices were used differently as well, some regions utilized hot and spicey ingredients, some regions used more of a salty, or sweet and sour variety. Let's get into Chinese Regional Cuisine, and what is to be expected.

First let's look at what we eat here in America, the Chinese food that is found in most shopping centers, around the block hole in the walls, and take outs, more than likely it is Cantonese style of Chinese cooking. Cantonese style brought us dim sum, chop suey, foods like that we are so used to eating at Golden Dragon, Golden Palace, or Golden whatever.

The reasons why the first style of Chinese cooking was like it was here in America was because most of the Canton cooks could not find Chinese spices here, and they had to use western herbs and spices to make their foods from their homeland. Cantonese cooking is totally wok based, for most Chinese kitchens do not have ovens or salamanders or grills.

Other types of Chinese cooking is the hot and spicey types, most common is the Szechuan style, where traders from other parts of the continent would travel through these districts and share spices more common in Indian cooking, and later Spanish settlers introduced hot peppers, which cooks utilized, so over the centuries, Szechuan cooking has been known for hot and spicey Chinese. Kung Pao Beef or Chicken is one dish you could find for certain in a Szechuan restaurant, any stir fry will have a spicey condiment in it, that's what their style is known for.

Northern China or Peking style of cooking, because of the dry hot summers and fierce cold winters, Peking cooking uses noodles to its maximum, and wheat flour to make steamed dumplings, wheat is more of staple in Peking than rice. Peking roasted duck, Mongolian Hot Pot, Mu Shu Pork are famous Peking style dishes of the menu.

Though there are more to this fact, this is just a tickler for you foodies who want to delve into Chinese food. Find a Chinese dig and see what their menu is like, talk to the managers and ask them what style do they focus on, it maybe just Cantonese, or a combination of Cantonese and Szechuan. It is an interesting animal Chinese cuisine, just the ingredients that are used will dictate what style it is.

It is common to find a Chinese restaurant here in the western hemisphere to have other American-ized dishes, like grilled t-bone steak for instance, just a reminder of how people from all over the world are fusing other types and styles of food to their menu or kitchen tables, we continue in this time of life to fuse, fuse and fuse.

So what did we learn from this very short article?

There's Americanized Chinese food, there's hot and spicey Chinese food, and a whole lot more of Chinese food. But despite all this rhetoric, to me I have to say this, Chinese food no matter where it originated is still one of my favorite kinds, it is done simple and to the point, like how most of us want answers in life, simple to the point, do not jerk us around or we'll be bloody pissed! Just make it to the point, cut to the chase so we can enjoy it, be it sweet and sour, with lots and lots of noodles, or hot and spicey, just make it good and to the point, and we are all happy campers, or happy foodies.


Mu Shu Pork usually is done with pancakes made from scratch, this cook used a flour tortilla which does the job if you can't make pancakes.

The right way to make Mu Shu Pork:

1 lb. of pork tenderloin cut into strips
Marinade:
1/4 cup of dark soy sauce
1/8 cup of dry sherry
1 tbsp. brown sugar
3 tsp. of cornstarch
Mix marinade well and put the pork strips inside

For the sauce:
4 tbsp. water
4 tbsp. chicken broth
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. dry sherry
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. sesame oil
3 tsp. cornstarch

4-5 dried mushrooms (soaked until soft and squeezed out of excess water)
3/4 cup canned bamboo shoots
2 scallions
1 inch ginger sliced thin
2 eggs
1 tsp. salt
oil for frying
2 tsp. sesame oil

1. Make sure that the pork marinates for about half an hour or so
2. Mix the sauce ingredients in the order it is written
3. Slice the mushrooms, bamboo shoots, scallions and set aside
4. Mix the eggs with salt well.
5. Heat up wok with ginger and oil, stir fry the pork until cooked and remove.
6. Heat up wok again, with some oil, and fry the egg and remove.
7. Heat up wok add in the cooked pork, eggs, sauce and the sliced mushrooms, bamboo shoots, scallions, and add in sesame oil, stir fry together to heat up, remove. Use this to fill Mandarin pancakes, serve with hoisin sauce.

A simple way to make the pancakes that works pretty good is to use regular breakfast pancake mix, but water it down so it is thin like crepes, cook several of these up and use it as a wrap.