Four kitchens in China

Let’s suspend any images we have in our mind about modern China with its huge cities and perfectly working infrastractures. And forget the spring rolls or the fried rice as well. Let’s start thinking of the historical villages that are included in the Unesco World Heritage, surrounded by amazing landscapes (just consider Avatar’s floating mountains that took inspiration from the karstic formations of the Guilin) and finally imagine the experience of an ancient cuisine in a country where food has a leading role for the social relationships. China is a mix of different

races, languages, cultures, climates, crops and as a consequence it’s the expression of many different types of cooking habits that share a common principle: there are two main categories of foods, the ying ones (wet, soft, hot) and the yang ones (fried, spicy, hot) and every dish must be a balanced combination of the two groups. So equipped with our chopsticks we are going to offer you a tasting experience that is focused on the four cardinal points that are the areas where the different ways of thinking about the traditional cuisine were born.

From Hèběi to Mongolia: meat stories

In the North they cultivate the millet, the sorghum, the corn and the barley that are used to make different types of bread like the mantou or the bĭng. But the main food that inspired the ancient imperial cuisine related to the Yuan, the Ming and the Qing dynasties is definitely the meat: roast, braised, smoked or grilled always sided by different types of spices. Among the specialities the goose in the Pekinese way stands out, it’s baked in an oven that is fed by the wood from the fruit trees and it’s served with some wheat pancakes, the onions and the fermented sauce. You can taste this dish in Chéngdé, a little town North-West of Beijing where the Summer imperial residence

is based, it’s the Bìshu Shānzhuāng, surrounded by amazing gardens that have been included into the Unesco World Heritage. The meat stewed with goat milk and yogurt is still the protagonist among the Nomads from Mongolia, its taste deserves to be discovered on the border with Mongolia in the village of Hemu where the minority ethnic community called Tuwa by lake Kanas lives:it’s a settlement of typical wooden houses that is still inhabited by the descendants of Genghis Khan’s armies, it’s one of the most real places of this huge country that was entered into the list of the most beautiful villages of China by the China National Geography Magazine.

The explosive cuisine of Sìchuānand Yunnán

Western China is inhabited by different minority ethnic groups that feature opposing cultures but they share one thing, the very spicy taste of their food. The main spices that are used are actually ther chili that was brought by the Spaniwsh traders during the domination of the Qing dynasty) and the very strong pepper from Sìchuān:these spices are used to make some typical dishes like the suāncàigú, a bitter-spicy soup made of fish and cabbage and the so called “explosive fry” of marinated meat cooked in the boiling oil. Rice is never missing, the wonderful county

of Yuanyang is in this area, it’s well known for its amazing terraced rice fields that stretch from the top of the Ailao Mountains up to the shores of the Red River, they create fantastic geometrical shapes and they offer incredible views. They were built 1300 years ago by the Hani ethnic group and they cover more than 16thousand hectares. The best way to visit this area is going on a 8 kilometres walking excursion leaving from the village of Yishu and reaching the village of Bada. Along the route you can visit some of the 82 ancient villages that are still inhabited by the Hani.

The Cantonese tea-time

The cooking school from the South called Cantonese was the first one to be discovered by the Western people. The main specialities are the dim sum, different appetizers to sip with tea, the guōtiē (fried ravioli), the shāomài (filled ravioli), the xiăolŏngbáo (the steamed ravioli), the chāshāobāo (sandwiches filled with pork meat) and the chūnjuăn (the rolls). They are delicate preparations where the fresh ingredients coming from the beautiful countryside of the Wùyuán county

stand out. Here you can see the ancient village of Huánglíng that keeps an ancient tradition related to the rural civilization that has always been focused on the drying of some products in the sun like the peppers, the canola flowers, the corn, the soya and the chrysanthemum.It’s a tradition that starts on the first Autumn day of the Chinese calendar. The products are put inside some big bamboo baskets and they are dried on the houses’ terraces in a wonderful explosion of colors.

The tastes of water from Zhèjiāng

The Eastern cuisine is basically sweet and it’s focused on the fish and the seafood because of the near ocean and the presence of several lakes and canals. They generally cook the steam fish or they cook it in the wok , it can be fried or grilled. The dàzháxiè are never missing, they are the hairy crabs from lake Yangcheng (you can eat them from October to Dicember) they are seasoned with the soya, the ginger, the vinegar and they are matched to some good hot wine from Shàoxing. Regarding the water you can’t miss a visit to Xitang in the

Zhèjiāng area, it’s one of the most beautiful water-towns in the country, it features a very ancient history that dates back to the 700 B.C. It’s crossed by nine rivers and it streteches along eight ditricts that are connected by some old stone bridges dating back to the Ming and the Qing dynasties (many buildings and temples belong to the same age too) and there are also some long avenues covered by wooden roofs under which you can pleasantly stroll even when it’s raining or it’s hot and sunny.