History
* History of Chinese cuisine
Eight Great Traditions

* Anhui (Hui 徽)
* Cantonese (Yue 粵)
* Fujian (Min 闽)
* Hunan (Xiang 湘)
* Jiangsu (Su 苏 or Yang 揚)
* Shandong (Lu 魯)
* Szechuan (Chuan 川)
* Zhejiang (Zhe 浙)

Others

* Beijing
o Imperial
o Aristocrat
o Liao (Liaoning)
o Jin (Tianjin)
* Chinese Buddhist
* Chaozhou
* Guangxi
* E (Hubei)
* Gan (Jiangxi)
* Hainan
* Hakka
* Jin (Shanxi)
* Hong Kong
* Huaiyang
* Chinese Islamic
* Northeast
* Qian (Guizhou)
* Qin (Shaanxi)
* Shanghai
* Xinjiang
* Macanese
* Yu (Henan)
* Yunnan

Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.

Chinese cuisine ( Traditional Chinese: 中國菜, Simplified Chinese:中国菜) originated from the various regions of China and has become widespread in many other parts of the world — from East Asia to North America, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa.

Regional cultural differences vary greatly amongst the different regions of China, giving rise to the different styles of food. There are eight main regional cuisines, or Eight Great Traditions (八大菜系): Anhui, Cantonese, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan, and Zhejiang. Among them, Cantonese, Sichuan, Shandong, and Huaiyang cuisine (a major style and even viewed as the representation of the entire Jiangsu cuisine) are often considered as the standouts of Chinese cuisine and due to their influence are proclaimed as the Four Great Traditions (四大菜系). Occasionally Beijing cuisine and Shanghai cuisine are also cited along with the aforementioned eight regional styles as the Ten Great Traditions (十大菜系). There are also featured Buddhist and Muslim sub-cuisines within the greater Chinese cuisine, with an emphasis on vegetarian and halal-based diets respectively.

Presentation

In most dishes in Chinese cuisine, food is prepared in bite-sized pieces, ready for direct picking up and eating. Traditionally, Chinese culture considered using knives and forks at the table barbaric due to fact that these implements are regarded as weapons. It was also considered ungracious to have guests work at cutting their own food. Fish are usually cooked and served whole, with diners directly pulling pieces from the fish with chopsticks to eat, unlike in some other cuisines where they are first filleted. This is because it is desired for fish to be served as fresh as possible, and more importantly, whole fish culturally signifies wholeness of things as it has a proper beginning (head) with an end (tail). It is common in many restaurant settings for the server to use a pair of spoons to divide the fish into servings at the table. Chicken is another meat popular in Chinese meals. While the chicken is cut into pieces, and similar to serving fish every single piece of the chicken is served including gizzards and head in order to signify completeness.

In a Chinese meal, each individual diner is given his or her own bowl of rice while the accompanying dishes are served in communal plates (or bowls) that are shared by everyone sitting at the table. In the Chinese meal, each diner picks food out of the communal plates on a bite-by-bite basis with their chopsticks. This is in contrast to western meals where it is customary to dole out individual servings of the dishes at the beginning of the meal. Many non-Chinese are uncomfortable with allowing a person’s individual utensils (which might have traces of saliva) to touch the communal plates; for this hygienic reason, additional serving spoons or chopsticks （”公筷”, lit. common/public/shared chopsticks) may be made available. In areas with increased Western influence, such as Hong Kong, diners are provided individually with a heavy metal spoon for this purpose. The food selected is often eaten together with some rice either in one bite or in alternation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_cuisine

Tags: Chinese cuisine, Chinese recipe, recipe, Recipes