The Food of China cookbook finds threads common to all regional cuisines
- Authors Deh-Ta Hsiung and Nina Simonds acknowledge national taste for balance of flavours, variety of cooking styles
Beijing-born, Oxford-educated Deh-Ta Hsiung has written numerous cookbooks, focusing primarily on Chinese cuisine. American food writer Nina Simonds lived in Taiwan in the 1970s, where she learned how to cook Chinese cuisine.
In the introduction to The Food of China, they write, “Chinese meals always have as their basis a staple, or fan, such as rice, wheat, maize or millet. Rice, always white and polished, is the food most associated with China and is usually steamed, while wheat grows well in the harsh climate of the north, and is made into breads and noodles. In poorer areas, millet is more common, eaten as porridge.
“The staple is accompanied by secondary dishes, or cai, of meat, seafood or vegetables, pickles and condiments. Snacks, from dumplings to spicy bowls of noodles, are eaten all day long, both as sustenance and to satisfy the taste buds.”
They go on to write that important to all the regions are freshness with the judicious addition of preserved/dried ingredients; balance of flavours; the variety of cooking styles; the medicinal aspect of food; and the differences between everyday eating and banquet food. The regional cuisines are divided between broad categories: north, south, east and west.
