Different food cultures in China

In china, each province has its own cooking system. People in northern part of china and southern part of china have totally different food cultures. People who live in deferent place have different characteristics, this also lead people eat different things. For people who live in northern part of china, most of them are strength, so the dishes here are always very big but not really good looking. In southern part of china, people are clever and really good at business, so dishes here are always small but good looking.

I am come from Beijing, and we also have our own cooking system. However, because Beijing is the capital city of China, so, there are many people who come from other province come to Beijing every year, and the population of these people is much more than the locals. In order to let people from other province can have their own food in Beijing, and many restaurant of other cooking system come out in Beijing. So, Beijing’s food system is more like a combination of the whole country. Most of the local Beijingers enjoy this kind of life because they can have the food all over the country but do not need to go to other province.

How do the “old Beijingers” eat?

There is a word “old Beijingers” in our country, it is means a group of people whose family have lived in Beijing hundreds or even thousands of years. They are the real local people of Beijing. They live in “hutong” which is totally different from the tall building in down town. Because of this, they have they own culture and a food system which is totally different from others. The food that “old Beijingers” eat is really taste strange, which people from other province or even young people who born in Beijing cannot really bear it. “Old Beijingers” have a really simple food system; they eat one kind of food nearly every day. There is a food called “douzhi” that “old Beijingers” have it every breakfast, however, other people cannot even bear the smell of it, actually nearly none of the people around me can eat this.

How do people normally eat?

            For most of people, we have really a lot of choices for what we eat. For breakfast, some people learn the western country to eat eggs, breads and drink milk. However, most of us like to have something make of flour for breakfast like “baozi”, “youtiao” and noodle. People also like to drink porridge in the morning because they believe it is good for our health. All of these are Chinese traditional food.

 People in our country believe that launch is as important as dinner, but there is still some difference between this to meals.

For launch, usually we do not have enough time to have a great meal because we need to go to school and our parents need to go to work. When we are at school, the only thing we can eat for launch is the restaurant around us. Most of them are western restaurant because it is really quick to eat western food. However, the tastes of these restaurants are not the same as what I eat in American, I think these restaurant change their style more fit the locals. At that time, pizza hut is the restaurant which I like most, you can not only have western food like pizza food there, but also you can order some Chinese food like fried rice which really taste like our local food.

Dinner is always the biggest meal in our day, because we have enough time to enjoy this meal. Especially because my mother is a teacher, so, she finishes her work earlier than others and has enough time to prepare this meal for us. I always believes that my mom is a good cook and she can cook different dishes and do not have anything the same for a whole week. In our country, people nearly eat rice or flour every day. Because I like to eat things which are really salty or spicy, so, I need more than a bowl of rice for each meal. I like to eat meat much more than vegetables, especially the lamb, which is really hard to find in America. I really like to eat hot pot, and most of the Chinese like it. In our city, the best restaurant which cook hot pot is called “HAIDILAO”, you need to wit every day since it opens. The food I like most for hot pot is lamb and meatball, and I go there every week. I especially like the sesame sauce there, a good sauce is one of the most important thing for hot pot.

If you want to find something to eat at midnight, the best choice all over the country is the meat string, which all people like it. It is like some small meat piece string together and baked on fire. You can find this everywhere and it really smells and tastes good.

If you want to make a successful restaurant in Beijing, no matter what kind of food you make, you must fit the local culture. People in Beijing have the same characteristics with people lives in northern part of China, most of us do not care about what the dish look like, and so, you do not need to make the food so pretty. The thing we really care about is the taste and whether you have a big quantity of food. That is why Shanghai food restaurant is not popular in Beijing, the dishes there are too small and we do not like to go there.      

However, food in southern china especially in Guangdong is totally different. People in Guangdong especially show the character of people who lives in southern part of China.

After I came to Denver, I went to a Chinese restaurant called “starkitchen”. It is the only restaurant that makes southern China’s breakfast in Denver, which I had never, eat this type of food before in China. It opens at 9 o’clock every day and the breakfast close at 2:00 pm. The food they make for breakfast is traditional Guangdong desert and it tastes really similar with the restaurant in our country. So, many students in DU and Chinese people who live in Denver really enjoy the food there. I can always see some students study in DU who does not have classes in the morning go there for breakfast.

I went to the starkitchen on Saturday afternoon at about 1:30 pm, because in this way I could see the difference between breakfast and dinner. The star kitchen was always full of people, so, I waited for about 10 minutes to get a sit. In the starkitchen, you could also share a table with others who was waiting for a sit; however, I did not like to sit with others. I came here with three of my friend, after the waiter lead us to the site; we began to watch the menu. All the food here for breakfast is traditional desert like Shrimp Dumpling, Steamed Beef Meat Ball and Baked BBQ Pork Bun. Most of Chinese people like to eat thing made of flour, so, the dishes we ordered were most like dumplings and bread. These dishes were really small, each dish has only 3-4 pieces in it, however, it was good looking. When we order the dishes, we do not need to tell the waiter that what we want and let them cook together. There was some food cars in the restaurant, and all the food they have were on the car. So, by this way, you could not only see what did the food look like and how large it was, but also you could get the fresh food whenever you want. This kind of breakfast is very popular in Guangdong; they liked to come with their friends on business together because Chinese people believe that having a meal with others was really a good way to communicate. So, people in Guangdong do not called this meal breakfast, they have their own name of this king of meal---“zao cha”. In Guangdong, most of people have a very open mind; there is the only place in China that people do not care about if you are graduated in a famous university. People in Guangdong believe that if you work hard and have a clever mind, you can be success. So, many young people in China like to go to Guangdong to start their own business. In this way, Guangdong becomes a really important city, and more and more people begin to have their friends on business. A talk of a business idea always need a lot of time, so, people in Guangdong like to find a quiet place and have a talk with their partners. The words “zao cha” is means drink tea with friends in the morning, and Chinese people think that a good environment can help them to have a clear mind. So, drinking tea and having some desert become very popular in Guangdong. So, the food car can help people to get some hot and fresh food whenever they want.

Most of the people in the restaurant are from the southern part of China, include the waiters. I could easily find that these people had a Guangdong accent when they are talking. Many of them came here with the whole family, for those Chinese people who lived in Denver; it was really hard to find a Chinese restaurant like this. Actually, you could find that more than 50 percent Chinese who lived in America were from the province like Guangdong or Fujian; this could also show that people from these places like to show their ability and make a living wandering from place to place.

After 2:00 pm, the dishes had totally changed. The food car stopped provide people more food and people begin to use the menu to order some local Guangdong food. At this time, people became much less than the morning because Guangdong do not really famous in its dinner, and only some real Guangdongers like these food. We also finished our meal and left the restaurant.

In China, people lives in different places have totally different characters that lead to their different life style. I do not trying to say which is better, because as the time goes on, people should learn how to fit each other’s culture.