History of Chinese cuisine
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The history of Chinese cuisine is, in China, traced back to the Peking Man and his use of fire, and the invention of "cuisine" some 400,000 years ago. Some other accounts of the history of Chinese cuisine takes the beginning back to the Chinese stone age, where the cultivation of rice and the production of noodles, both typical representations of Chinese cuisine as we know it today, are known from archeological findings.
Over the centuries, as new food sources and techniques were invented, the Chinese cuisine as we know it gradually evolved, with the use of chopsticks made from all sorts of materials as eating utensils, another one of the hallmarks of Chinese cuisine, going back at least to the Zhou Dynasty; stir-fried dishes became popular during the Tang Dynasty. The stir-fry method of cooking was invented as a necessity to conserve expensive and scarce fuel. Most famous dishes found today were invented during the Qing Dynasty and the early years of the Republic of China.
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[edit] Periodisation
The historical periods of Chinese cuisine are usually followed by a list of corresponding Chinese Dynasties.
[edit] The Chinese cuisines
Not long after the expansion of the Chinese Empire during the Qin Dynasty and Han Dynasty, Chinese writers noted the great differences in culinary practices between people from different parts of the realm. These differences, following to a great extent the varying climate and availability of food sources in China, could be very local in nature but were early on systematized in lists of Chinese cuisines, the four most well-known being:
- The North and South Cuisines, the earliest distinction, and one that is still much used today even as the food culture of North and South China of course have developed much since the distinction was first made.
- The Four Schools, being Lu, Chuan, Yang and Yue. Often translated as the cuisines of Shandong, Sichuan, Jiangsu and Guangdong, these distinctions, in use no later than the Ming Dynasty, in fact covered much more ground than the present-days provinces. The Four Schools are the traditional classification of Chinese cuisine, and it is based on the Four Schools, the Eight Schools and Ten Schools were eventually developed.
- The Eight Schools, adding to the four above (or rather, breaking out from the four above) the cuisines of the provinces Hunan, Fujian, Anhui and Zhejiang.
- The Ten Schools, adding to the eight above the cuisines of Beijing and Shanghai.
[edit] Traditional classification
Chinese cuisines belonge to one of the Four Schools, and the School of Lu (Shandong), is the largest due to the its history, which is the longest among all.
- Yue (Cantonese)
- Chiuchow
- Hakka (Kejian)
- Fujian (Min)
- Hainan (Qiong)
- Hong Kong
- Macanese
- Taiwanese
[edit] External links
- [1] History of Chinese Cuisine (its sources), in German
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