food in china

1. Cover mushrooms with boiling water, let stand 30 minutes.  Drain, remove stalks, slice mushrooms thinly.  Chop shallots, cut bamboo shoots into fine strips.  Wash scallops; using sharp knife, make slit along back, and remove dark vein; slice scallops thinly.  Drain and flake crab.

2. Lightly beat egg with fork.  Heat oil in small frying pan, add egg, swirl egg in pan to coat sides and base of pan evenly.  Loosen edges of pancake with spatula, turn and cook other side.  Remove from pan, roll up, slice into thin strips.

3. Put chicken stock into large pan, bring to boil.  Add mushrooms, bamboo shoots, shallots, ginger, crab meat, scallops, salt and pepper.  Bring to boil, reduce heat, simmer two minutes.  Remove from heat, stir in combined water, crumbled stock cubes, corn flour, soy sauce, and dry sherry.  Return pan to heat, stir until soup comes to boil, reduce heat, simmer, uncovered for two minutes.

4. Beat egg whites and extra water lightly, add to soup in a thin stream. Stir well.

Also named Yangzhou egg fried rice, Yangzhou fried rice is a simple homemade dish, made from leftover rice and other dishes. Its origin stems from General Yang Su of the Sui Dynasty  (581 - 618), who liked eating 'suijin rice' (egg fried rice) on many occasions and thus introduced it to Yangzhou culture when he escorted Emperor Yangdi to patrol Jiangdu. Not just eaten at home, it is also served as a must-have food dish before dessert in Chinese feasts. Naturally, there is a great variety of styles of Yangzhou fried rice, among which Fried Rice with Meat and Vegetables is the most well-known.

Step 1: Boil half a wok of water. Pour in the green beans. Boil it for about 3-6 minutes over high heat until turns soft. Remove it out of the wok by draining through a colander. Place the beans into a small basin of cold water for a while. Drain it for later use.

 Step 2: Boil half a wok of water. Pour in the shrimps. Boil it for about 1-2 minutes over high heat. Remove it out of the wok through a colander and place into a small basin with cold water. Drain it for later use.

Step 3: Crack eggs into a bowl and beat. Place a wok over high heat until hot. some cooking oil, swirling to coat sides. Pour in the beaten egg and stir-fry it for about 10 seconds until the egg sets. Place the cooked eggs into a bowl and cut into chunks with chopsticks.

Step 4: Add some cooking oil into the wok again. Add in the chopped green onion, diced carrot, boiled green beans and boiled shrimps. Stir-fry it for 1 minute. Add in some salt and stir-fry it for 10 seconds. Add in the diced sausage and stir-fry it for 1 minute more.

Turn off the heat. Remove Yangzhou fried rice out of the wok and put into a plate or a bowl.

Tips:  There are several different recipes for Yangzhou Fried Rice such as fried rice with shredded pork, beef or chicken, fried rice with minced pork or beef, fried rice with lettuce, fried rice with green pepper, fried rice with pickles, fried rice with seafood, fried rice with mushrooms, fried rice with bacon, fried rice with mixed meat, fried rice with vegetables, etc. if you don’t like any of the fried rice dishes above, there is no doubt you will find a recipe to suite your tastes.

Ingredients:
250 grams (5/9 lb) freshwater fish head
100 grams (2/9 lb) soaked bean thread
10 grams (1/3 oz) coriander
5 small red hot chilies
10 grams (1 1/2 tsp) soy sauce
6 grams (1 tsp) salt
2 grams (1/2 tsp) MSG
10 grams (2 tsp) sugar
50 grams (4 tbsp) oil
5 grams (1/6 oz) sectioned scallions
5 grams (1/6 oz) finely chopped ginger
1 gram (1/2 tsp) pepper powder

Directions:

Remove the scales and gills on the fish heads and wash them clean. Cut the coriander into tiny pieces. Remove the seeds of the red chilies and cut them into sections 1 cm (quarter of an inch) long. Heat the wok, add oil and fry the fish heads till they are brown on both sides. Take them out. Put in the red chilies, scallions, ginger and heat until there is a red oil and nice smell. Add the fish heads, 1,000 grams (2 cups) of water, soy sauce and salt, and bring liquid to boil over a strong fire. After it starts to boil, heat for 10 minutes, add the bean thread and turn the fire to low. Heat 1 more minute after it boils again. Sprinkle on the pepper powder and coriander. Pour out into a soup bowl and serve.

Features: The soup is beautifully red.
Taste: Slightly hot.

Step 1: Take 3 bowls of flour and pour into a small basin. Add in some salt and stir it well. Make a hole in the middle and gradually add small quantities of water until it forms into small pieces. Sprinkle some more water on the flour pieces and stir by hand to form a paste on a board and smooth it out. Put it into the basin to be fermented.

Step 2: Clean the meat and chop it. Put into a basin or dish. Clean the lotus root after peeling it first. Cut it into small diced pieces. Put into a dish or basin. Clean and chop the ginger and the green onion. Place into separate dishes.

Step 3: Add some cooking wine, soy sauce, five spices powder, salt, chicken essence and the chopped lotus root, ginger and green onion into the ground meat. Stir it well and pour into a dish.

Step 4: Take out of the flour paste and place on the board. Sprinkle some flour on it. Rub it by hand again. Cut a small section from the paste to be rubbed into a stick. Cut the flour stick into small dough. Roll it flat with a rolling pin. Place into a dish on top of each other, with corn starch in between to prevent each piece from sticking to each other.

Step 5: Pick some fillings prepared before and put at the center of the wrapper (less filling should be put if you are not used to make dumplings). Fold and pinch the wrapper from the middle to the two outer sides. Put the pinched side on the forefinger. Clasp the hands and pinched it hard. A meniscus shaped dumpling is out.

Step 6: Find a small basin or bowl. Add in salt, chicken essence, white sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil and red chili oil. Stir it well. You can also add in some chopped green onion to enhance the flavor. Pour it into a dish.

Step7: Pick out 3 teaspoons of the seasoning sauce and put into a soup bowl. Add in the dried small shrimps and chopped cilantro (add in some salt or sauce if you like more taste). Stir it well.

Step 8: Place a wok over high heat. Fill it with water. Add in the dumplings one by one until the water is boiling. Add in 1/4 table spoon of water when it boils. Repeat this twice again. Turn off the heat.

Sep 9: Pick out 1 tablespoon of soup and pour in to the soup bowl with seasoning sauce. Scoop out the boiled dumpling through a table spoon or a draining spoon and pour into the bowl.

Step 10: Scoop out the boiled dumplings with a table spoon or a draining spoon and put into a dish if you prefer dry dumplings, which can be eaten with the seasoning juice prepared before.

Finally, a bowl of steaming soup dumplings and a dish of cool dry dumpling is cooked. You may choose either to your personal favor.

In China, especially in northern China, making and eating dumplings is an important activity for most families on New Year's Eve in Spring Festival. The wrapper is usually made from flour and water, but the fillings vary a lot, ranging from all sorts of meat and vegetables to seafood, mushrooms and even fruit. Dumplings are meniscus, angular or ingot shaped traditionally, but nowadays they are made into flowers, birds, fish and insects, more like arts and crafts than food. It is also a tradition in northern China to eat dumplings on the day of winter solstice.

Step 1: Half fill a wok with water, turn on the heat and pour in the mashi when the water is boiling. Stir and boil for about 5 minutes until the mashi is 90% cooked, and then turn off the heat. Remove and drain off the water through a colander. Put the mashi in a basin or a bowl.

Step 2: Empty the wok and place it over high heat until hot. Add some cooking oil, and add the chopped green onion, chili pepper, carrot and mushroom dices one by one when the oil is sizzling. Stir-fry for 30 seconds.

Step 3: Add the tomato ketchup and boiled mashi and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the salt and pepper powder, and stir-fry for 20 seconds more.

Now Stir-fried Shaanxi Pasta (mashi) is ready. Turn off the heat, spoon it out of the wok and serve in a plate.

Mashi, a kind of pasta favored by northwestern Chinese, can be either braised rstir-fried. It can go with any vegetable you like such as carrots, green peppers, mushrooms, potatoes, cabbage, etc. Hereunder is the most popular way to make Stir-fried Shaanxi Pasta.

Ingredients:
150 g pasta (mashi)
50 g fresh mushrooms
1 fresh chili pepper
half a carrot
chopped green onion
salt
pepper powder
tomato ketchup
Note: the amount of the ingredients especially seasonings listed above can be appropriately used according to one's personal taste.

Jasmine Tea is a famous tea made from Green or Pouchong (Chinese Green) tea leaves that are scented with jasmine flowers. The jasmine flowers are harvested during the day and stored in a cool place until night. During the night, the flowers bloom with full fragrance. The flowers are layered over the tea leaves during the scenting process. The quality of Jasmine tea is determined by the quality of green tea used as its base and the effectiveness of the scenting. Ten Ren offers Jasmine tea, imported from China and Taiwan, in a variety of grades and modalities for your enjoyment.

Made in the semi-fermented process, oolong tea contains a wide variety of polyphenolic compounds (commonly known as tannin) and these different nutrients are probably integrated to bring great benefits to our bodies. Oolong Tea / Wulong Tea / Wu-long Tea has much greater amount of polyphenolic compounds compared to green tea and black tea.

Polyphenol in oolong tea is effective in controlling obesity. Specifically speaking, it activates the enzyme that is responsible for dissolving triglyceride. It has been confirmed that the continuous intake of oolong tea contributes to enhancing the function of fat metabolism and to controlling obesity.

Polyphenol in oolong tea is also effective in reducing triglyceride and removing free radicals. Free radicals are responsible for adult diseases, such as arteriosclerosis and diabetes, as well as dark spots and wrinkles on the skin.

According to the Department of Dentistry, Osaka University, consuming polyphenol found in oolong tea contributes to the reduction of tooth decay significantly and is effective in preventing the occurrence of such decay. The Department of Dermatology, Shiga University of Medical Science carried out research into its effect on atopic dermatitis and discovered that 64% of sufferers of atopic dermatitis reported an improvement in their skin condition. This indicates that oolong tea is very effective regarding atopic dermatitis.

Of course, Oolong Tea / Wulong Tea / Wu-long Tea also have medical benefits that comes with any Chinese tea

reen tea has long been used by the Chinese as medicine to treat headaches, body ache, poor digestion, and improve well-being and life expectancy.

Green tea leaves are potent in epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). Unlike other types of tea, green tea is processed differently. In green tea, the leaves are not allowed to oxidize but instead are steamed. This process allows the natural ingredients inculuding EGCG in the leaves to be preserved. Other types of tea were not nearly as successful as green tea in inhibiting the cancerous cells. Green tea was approximately ten times more potent than the other types. A study suggests that consumption of four to five cups of green tea may slow cancer. Previous studies have found a lower incidence of cancer in those who consume this amount of green tea but the exact compound that produced this cancer inhibition was unknown. All tea comes from the same botanical source.

Links are being made between the effects of drinking green tea and the "French Paradox." For years, researchers were puzzled by the fact that, despite consuming a diet rich in fat, the French have a lower incidence of heart disease than Americans. The answer was found to lie in red wine, which contains resveratrol, a polyphenol that limits the negative effects of smoking and a fatty diet. In a 1997 study, researchers from the University of Kansas determined that EGCG is twice as powerful as resveratrol, which may explain why the rate of heart disease among Japanese men is quite low, even though approximately seventy-five percent are smokers.

A University of South Florida Green Tea health study reported that Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG), the most abundant flavonoid in green tea, exhibited antimicrobial activity and had a protective effect against respiratory infection. Additional green tea health studies also confirm suggest that green tea may have strong antimicrobial activity and that green tea may provide possible benefits in fighting bacteria, viruses and food spoilage.

University of Kansas health researchers published a comprehensive review of green tea health studies reported since 1970 that examine the potential of green tea to provide a number of preventative actions in human health. The many reported possible therapeutic benefits of green tea consumption include reductions in risk for: dental carries, infection, inflammation, x-ray irradiation, some types of tumor development, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and cardiovascular disorders.

New evidence is emerging that green tea can even help dieters. In November, 1999, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published the results of a study at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Researchers found that men who were given a combination of caffeine and green tea extract burned more calories than those given only caffeine or a placebo.

Of course, Green Tea also have medical benefits that comes with any Chinese tea

China is the homeland of tea. Different types of tea such as Wulong (Wu-long or Oolong), green te and black tea are consumed by it's population on daily basis. It is believed that China has tea-shrubs as early as five to six thousand years ago, and human cultivation of tea plants dates back two thousand years. Tea from China, along with her silk and porcelain, began to be known the world over more than a thousand years ago and has since always been an important Chinese export. At present more than forty countries in the world grow tea with Asian countries producing 90% of the world's total output. All tea trees in other countries have their origin directly or indirectly in China. The words for tealeaves or tea as a drink in many countries are derivatives from the Chinese character "cha." The Russians call it "cha'i", which sounds like "chaye" (tea leaves) as it is pronounced in northern China, and the English word "tea" sounds similar to the pronunciation of its counterpart in Xiamen (Amoy). The Japanese character for tea is written exactly the same as it is in Chinese, though pronounced with a slight difference. The habit of tea drinking spread to Japan in the 6th century, but it was not introduced to Europe and America till the 17th and 18th centuries. Now the number of tea drinkers in the world is legion and is still on the increase.

People throughout China drink tea daily. Because of the geographic location and climate, different places grow various kinds of tea. The most conspicuous content in China's tea culture is the popular phrase "Ke Lai jin Cha" which means when a guest arrives, a cup of tea will be brewed for him. In the past dynasties, people not only formed a special way of tea-drinking, but also developed an art form called tea-drinking. This art form comprises of many aspects. The most noticeable ones are the making of tea, the way of brewing, the drinking utensils such as tea pot. Tea drinking is so popular in every part of the country that there is a museum specially dedicated to the tea culture in China. It is located in Hangzhou, the hometown of Longjin Tea (dragon well tea). In Hangzhou, there is a tea museum, the only national museum of its kind. In it, there are detailed description of the historic development of tea, making and brewing methods and the like.