Chinese have right technique

Hilde G. Lee
Published: April 1, 2008

One of my favorite interests is history, particularly food history. The other day I was wondering about who created our cooking techniques and early cuisines. I often had wondered when and by whom national and ethnic foods came into being. Did they start with the Chinese, Greeks or Romans? Or did they start at about the same time from many sources?
I decided to delve into the subject and found that Chinese cooking is considered the oldest recognized cuisine, followed by that of the Greeks and Romans. These civilizations contributed many of the cooking methods that we take for granted today. Even though early man dried much of his food, the Chinese perfected the drying process, thus allowing traders to travel long distances. Thus trade routes were established between East and West.
Toasting a discovery
A Greek discovered that toasted bread would keep a long time and could be taken along on trade routes. Historians tell us that trade routes linked Rome and China in the pre-Christian era. Spices flowed readily on these routes, thereby changing many of the eating habits of Rome.
Confucius said that man should be keenly serious about his eating, for food is the force that binds societies together. For centuries the Chinese have been obsessed with food as an integral part of their culture. Not only were they deeply involved in food preparation but also in the skills needed to prepare a meal. The Chinese have probably invented every cooking utensil and cooking process known to man.
The Chinese preoccupation with food is not due to having repeatedly faced starvation. Many other cultures have experienced lean times but have never achieved the culinary heights of the Chinese. The Chinese see food as a part of nature and an integral part of everyday living.
According to the anthropologists, Peking Man was the first to cook meat — in about 250,000 B.C. First he put the meat on hot stones, and then later roasted it on a stick, thereby creating was the first cooking device. It also became the first eating device beyond the use of one’s fingers.
Inventing the kitchen
In the vague era before the Han tribes coalesced into the beginnings of the Chinese race, the first mythical hero to emerge was Fu His. The main activities of this god-like fabled figure were hunting and fishing. To him is attributed the invention of cooking and the concept of the kitchen.
The next legendary figure in early Chinese mythology was Shen Nung, the Divine Husbandman. To him goes the credit for the plow, the hoe and the care of farm animals. Huang Ti, the Yellow Emperor and the patron saint of Taoism, is worshiped for the conception of planting grain and
the invention of the pestle and mortar to make flour. Thus it is no accident that the first three objects of ancient Chinese worship all had to do with food.
Actually, we could say that the first restaurants came into being in China before the T’ang Dynasty (618 B.C.) At that time the Chinese traveler would stop for food and rest at a Buddhist or Taoist monastery. Later the emperor put out an edict that these places should be kept in clean condition.
The Chinese had what we would call today “take-out houses” that sold food. The shortage of fuel prevented in-house cooking at the time. Several shops sold cooked meat, another baked goods and a third provided hot water for tea.
By the Sung Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.) restaurants were common in China. Marco Polo, who visited a century later, was amazed at the diversity of these establishments. Everyone paid in paper money, which Marco Polo had never seen. Paper money was another first for the Chinese.
Chinese ingenuity and endless toil have overcome obstacles of drought, floods and famine. They have much to be thankful for and dining has become so integral to their culture that they typically give thanks to their many gods and beliefs while gathered around the dining table. Any event can be and is used as a worthy cause for a feast. In no other people has the cultivation, preparation, preservation, cooking and serving of food taken such a dominant and pervasive role.
Intertwined with good food also are the ancient basic philosophies of China, the belief in harmony, the balance of nature and the blending of contrasts — yin and yang. Yin is soft and yang is hard. Thus in food there is sweet and sour, and crunchy and soft. Their diversity extends to cooking methods — such as steaming and stir-frying. While today experimentation is still encouraged in Chinese kitchens, family favorites tend to hold a tight gastronomic rein.
I have come to realize when working in my kitchen with my utensils that the innovative Chinese has created almost everything I use — the frying pan, the steamer, the roaster and the cleaver. I also am impressed that many of my basic ingredients — rice, flour, noodles and spices — also have been around since the beginnings of Chinese cuisine.