Universally recognized as one of the great cuisines of the world, Chinese food in all its variety and complexity is unquestionably one of the finest pleasures a visitor can experience in China. There is a vast range of restaurants, from street stalls serving noodles to revolving restaurants atop hotels and converted courtyards where the imperial family once dined.
    China’s vast territory and long history have given birth to distinct regional cuisines over the centuries. The precise number of regional cuisines in China is still under dispute, but experts agree on all least eight: Sichuan, Shandong, Guangdong(Cantonese), Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan and Anhui, the eight provinces in China.
    Once you come to China, you must can’t help yourself loving the Chinese Cuisine. What makes Chinese cuisine truly unique is the balancing of ingredients. A proper Chinese meal always contains an equal division of fan, grains and starches, and t'sai, meat and vegetables. The two are never mixed together, allowing each to retain its own unique characteristics. The balance between fan and t'sai fits in with the Chinese belief in the importance of balance and harmony in every aspect of life. Perhaps this is the reason we find Chinese cuisine so comforting.

    In China, cooking is an art. Quite different from Western cooking where recipes are followed strictly like laboratory instructions, Chinese cooking always allows for a creative and stylistic touch to it. While in Western cooking the recipe is the key to success in any culinary attempt, in Chinese cooking the experienced and well seasoned chef is the guarantee. That is why restaurants, big or small, would always boast of their chefs and advertise their dishes as well.
    “Colourful, “ “delicious, “ “varied, “ and “complex” are often used to describe Chinese food. Great attention is paid to aesthetic appreciation of the food because the food should be good not only in flavour and smell, but also in colour and appearance.

SELECTION OF RAW MATERIAL

     Chinese cuisine uses a rich variety of raw materials, which may include chicken, duck, fish, pork, seafood, game, eggs, vegetables, soybean products, and fruits and nuts. Chefs are very particular about the selection and preparation of the ingredients used. For example, the Beijing Roast Duck can be considered the best only if the chefs have available the force-fed ducks raised on a particular duck farm near Beijing.

COMBINATION OF INGREDIENTS

    Besides selection, Chinese chefs also pay attention to the combination of main ingredients and auxiliary materials. They see to it that the combination appeals to the palate. Shrimps, for example, are often stir-fried with cucumber so that the colour combinations are pleasing to the eye. Similarly, bean curd and greens, fish fillets and tomato sauce, chicken and mushroom all make good combinations. In Chinese cooking, meat and vegetables are often cooked together so that they not only look good and taste delicious but are nutritious as well.

CUTTING

    Cutting has always been a distinctive feature of Chinese culinary art. The ingredients of a given dish can be cut into slices, strips, shreds, cubes, segments, dices, grains, or minced. Some materials like turnip, radish, and potato can be carved into the shapes of flowers and animals. Chinese characters of an auspicious nature can also be carved into food or vegetables.

TEMPERATURES

    In Chinese cooking, time and temperature are decisive factors. Different ingredients require different cooking time and temperature so that they can be hard, soft, crisp, or tender. They can be cooked over high, moderate, or low temperatures. Dongpo Braised Pork, a famous Hangzhou dish named after a distinguished Song Dynasty poet and painter Su Shi, better known in the West as Su Dongpo, is a good example. According to Su’s recipe, the pork is simmered slowly over low heat in a covered pot. When done, the meat is tender and delicious but not greasy at all. On the other hand, the Fried Sliced Chicken and Chicken Liver is stir-fried at a high temperature for only a few seconds. The cooked meat turns out to be tender and tasty. But low temperature would make the meat tough and hard.

COOKING TECHNIQUES

    There are over thirty cooking techniques in Chinese cuisine, including deep-frying, quick-frying, stir-frying, roasting, sautéing, simmering, braising, smoking, steaming, and stewing in soy sauce and syrup. Different materials require different flavourings and different cooking techniques.