Food is the basis of life in every civilization. Ancient Chinese Food was the basis of life. Food played an important role in the Chinese culture. As a result of this, ancient Chinese developed strong traditions with respect to meal planning.
In Northern China, Millet is a common crop and has been growing since the 5th millennium BC.
Rice, another main crop of ancient China has been growing there since 4th millennium BC. The very first crop was grown in the Upper Yellow River Valley.
History of Ancient Chinese Food
The history of ancient China food is as old as 5000 years. Chinese are said to be the master chefs. During the years, Chinese have developed and mastered a complex system of preparing food, delicious cuisines, making use of latest and complex cooking techniques that are multi-phased and multi-phased flavoring.
In Southern China, rice was and is the staple grain, main reason for it being that rice grows much easier in marshy areas.
A Chinese meal began with a soup or appetizer. The soup was considered to be a beverage. In the place of the main course, many different dishes were served. The communal style was adopted in it by everyone helping themselves from the same dish.
For dessert, ancient Chinese normally preferred fresh fruit. Tea being the Chinas national drink was very common in the ancient time also. It was generally served after the meal.
Food in Ancient China can roughly be divided into 2 styles, i.e., Northern style of cooking and Southern style of cooking. Northern dishes generally being oily, includes lots of pasta, noodles, steamed stuffed buns. Hunan and Szechwan cuisine are some of the distinguishing Southern styles of cooking. They gave equal importance to incorporating aroma, color, and flavor.
Some of the main methods of cooking which were employed in the ancient Chinese time are pan-frying, flash-frying, deep-frying, steaming and stir-frying. They employed many flavoring agents like black, dried Chinese mushrooms, sesame oil, pepper, cinnamon, star anise, wine, chili pepper, garlic, fresh ginger, and scallions.
One of the vital aspects of cooking any dish was to preserve and conserve the natural, fresh flavor and to remove the entire remaining, unwanted fish odor. In order to be considered to be a successful Chinese dish, it must be: hot and spicy for those who prefer spicy dishes and sweetish for people having a liking of sweet dish.