1. Text: | Print|

      Culinary art packs a soft power punch

      2014-07-28 10:27 China Daily Web Editor: Qin Dexing
      1

      Mention China and most Westerners will think about its food. This is not surprising given the popularity of Chinese cuisine in the West, where some countries have more restaurants serving Chinese dishes than the traditional local fair.

      Perhaps this is why China appears exotic and wondrous to many Westerners. And perhaps this is why German Chancellor Angela Merkel during her recent visit to China learned to cook gongbao jiding (diced chicken cooked with peanuts, chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns) from a cook in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province.

      Presumably, Merkel's gesture was aimed at using food as a cultural bridge between the West and the East. After all, having dinner together in China facilitates social bonding and establishes business relations.

      There could be subtle reasons why Merkel's food moment happened in Chengdu. One of them could be associated with the economic emergence of Chengdu. Two airlines, KLM and British Airways, now fly directly between European cities and Chengdu, and Merkel was in the city primarily to visit a Volkswagen factory. Another reason could be the eminence of Sichuan cuisine.

      I may be biased because I have lived in Sichuan, but after years of traveling and writing about food extensively I can say that Sichuan cuisine is probably the most varied and creative in the world. It owes its variety to the region's diverse topography and amenable climate that have fostered the farming of an impressive and rich range of spices and vegetables. Not for nothing was Chengdu honored by UNESCO as a food heritage city a few year ago.

      Yet Sichuan cuisine is relatively unknown in the West. Throughout history, coastal provinces, especially Guangdong, have accounted for most of the migrant Chinese population in the West. As a result, Cantonese cuisine continues to dominate the Chinese restaurant scene in the West, although many now also serve dishes from other regions, particularly the ever-popular Peking Duck and some Sichuan fare such as mapo toufu and gongbao jiding.

      A common feature of Chinese restaurants in the West is that their range of dishes tends to remain unchanged. Some of their perennial sauces and dishes, such as sweet-and-sour and hoisin sauces, do not feature as pervasively in restaurants within China, where the restaurant scene is in rapid evolution. There are several good restaurants that have taken to fusing Cantonese and Sichuan dishes, and some in Chengdu concoct creative dishes that are inventive modernist takes on Sichuan classic techniques and ingredients. Therefore, for someone who eats out regularly in China, most of the Chinese restaurants in the West tend to be rather dull.

      The same can be said about the culture of tea drinking, something that Westerners hardly know anything about.

      The point is, given the popularity of Chinese restaurants in the West, China can use its cuisine as a key element of its soft power. This endeavor, with the help of Chinese cultural institutes and private businesses, is not at all difficult, especially because awareness about and uptake of Chinese cuisine is growing in the West. For example, doujiang (soya milk) has become a popular food item in the West.

      Regressively, at least for me, there is also a concurrent expansion in American fast food outlets in China. But I think the popularity of American fast food is a fad; young people take to it out of curiosity and a warped sense of being trendy and global only to return to Chinese fast food - such as noodle soup and dumplings. I would never, for example, eat a mass-produced uniform burger when I can have fresh handmade noodles for the same price.

      Yet another thing that the West can learn from China is how to acquire a taste for different parts of animals, fowl, plants and vegetables. For example, people in Sichuan eat the leaves of the pea plant, and use almost all the organs and parts of animals and fowl to prepare dishes - a commendable practice to prevent waste at a time when food production can hardly keep up with population growth.

      Perhaps when another eminent Westerner visits China, he/she will try one of my favorite dishes: fried duck's tongue, a premium dish in many upscale Sichuan restaurants, or even duck's brain, which tastes as good as foie gras.

      Comments (0)
      Most popular in 24h
        Archived Content
      Media partners:

      Copyright ©1999-2018 Chinanews.com. All rights reserved.
      Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

      主站蜘蛛池模板: 国产精品免费一区二区三区| 亚洲丰满熟女一区二区哦| 无遮挡国产高潮视频免费观看 | 三年片在线观看免费观看大全中国| 在线观看日本免费a∨视频| 91亚洲精品自在在线观看| 免费黄色网址网站| 免费永久在线观看黄网站| 亚洲国产精品va在线播放| 亚洲激情视频图片| 噼里啪啦电影在线观看免费高清| 色在线亚洲视频www| 美女被免费喷白浆视频| 久久精品亚洲福利| 亚洲国产精品美女久久久久| 在线jlzzjlzz免费播放| 亚洲VA成无码人在线观看天堂 | 亚洲色成人网一二三区| 久久精品国产亚洲AV| 免费人妻无码不卡中文字幕18禁| 精品日韩99亚洲的在线发布| 拨牐拨牐x8免费| 老湿机一区午夜精品免费福利| 91在线手机精品免费观看| 亚洲免费视频播放| 国产免费av片在线播放| 久久久WWW成人免费精品| 久久亚洲国产成人亚| 精品人妻系列无码人妻免费视频 | 国产免费不卡v片在线观看| 国产AV旡码专区亚洲AV苍井空| 四虎影永久在线高清免费 | 99视频精品全部免费观看| 中文字幕亚洲第一| 99精品视频在线观看免费专区| 久久精品国产亚洲AV久| 亚洲中文字幕伊人久久无码| 亚洲视频在线免费播放| 亚洲第一福利网站| 超pen个人视频国产免费观看 | 窝窝影视午夜看片免费|