What do Chinese eat, when they have something to celebrate: dumplings! Dumplings are small round sheets of dough (flour + water) filled with minced meat + condiments + vegetables. After a piece of filling has been placed in the centre … Continue reading
It has been a while since I placed a post about the regional variation of food in China. That post focused on typical local produce and traditional dishes and snacks. Today, I am posting some information about the regional distribution … Continue reading
The tomato belongs to a large group of plants of the nightshade family. Its cousins include potatoes, aubergines and bell peppers, all popular ingredients in China. No one can pinpoint the exact dates these vegetables were introduced to China, but … Continue reading
You will find very few Chinese who do not like sweet potatoes, baishu ‘white tuber’ in Chinese. Story has it that the first sweet potato plant was smuggled into China from what was then Dutch colony of Formosa, now known … Continue reading
The first three words of the title of this post refer to a campaign of Xibei Youmian, a restaurant chain specialised in oat noodles. You(mian) is the Chinese word for ‘oats (noodles)’ Naked oat has more than 2100 year … Continue reading
I have a weak spot for enzymes, as this was one of the first type of food ingredients I worked with, when I started to get involved in the Chinese food industry. That was in 1985. China is a huge … Continue reading
The Chinese word for soy sauce is jiangyou, literally ‘jiang oil’, or oil of fermented paste. It is not chemically an oil, but it probably struck the early users as oily. If we were to conduct a survey in any … Continue reading
Vinegar, i.e. the Chinese cereals-based vinegar, has been an important ingredient in Chinese cuisine for ages. A famous application is vinegar-based dipping for dumplings. Vinegar is a growth product in China, although only 30% of the output is branded vinegar … Continue reading
In an earlier post, I already introduced the Chinese eating habits on their long train rides. Food plays an even more important role in the lives of holiday makers than it is for people in their everyday lives. The most exciting … Continue reading
Eggs are one of the oldest ingredients of food in China, witness the 2800-year old eggs on exhibition in Nanjing. China has produced 33,089,800 mt of eggs in 2019; up 5.78%. Chinese cuisine includes many dishes with eggs as the … Continue reading
Peverelli on Chinese food and culture 