Hi Bloggers!

Next stop on our trip was Beijing! What a lovely city! As usual we made a lot of fun en we’ve seen a lot of places. The thing that impressed me the most was the magnificent food despite the fact that the hygiene in the restaurants wasn’t all that good.

Food is a central point in the Chinese culture. It’s a moment of gathering, a moment of social contact and maintaining family ties. In the past there used to be a lot of famine in China and so food was very important. Now China knows a lot of prosperity but food still plays an important role in their culture. At noon when it’s time to eat and at six in the evening the city stops moving. Everybody stops his activity to eat together with friends and family.

All senses are important in Chinese culture and all have to be stimulated. Smell as well as taste are important but the eye has to be pleased too. Dishes have to be a feast for the eye and they are decorated with sculptures of radishes, carrots, apples and mangos.

Basic principle within Chinese food culture is that the ingredients have to create a balance between Yin (negative) and Yang (positive) in the body. Some examples of Yin food: apples, bananas, salt, fish, spinach and some examples of Yang food: potatoes, onions, garlic, pepper,… In many Chinese dishes fish and flesh will be combined because this creates a good balance.

Chinese kitchen is a very refined cuisine with a lot of different flavours and ingredients. The most important taste givers are:
Five-spice powder
Soy sauce
Ginger
Coriander
Garlic
Oyster sauce
Hoisin sauce
Ve-tsin
Sugar
Chili peppers
In Beijing dishes are prepared according to the Mandarin cuisine. Beijing duck is a local famous dish and nowadays it is eaten in all types of Chinese restaurants all over the world.

Also tea plays a very important role in Beijing as it does in the rest of China. Tea has a lot of positive characteristics for our health and so a lot of Chinese people drink it. There are a lot of teahouses to be found in Beijing where we can drink a lot of different varieties and all prepared in the traditional way.

Ilse xxx

Sources:

http://www.voorbeginners.info/china/volk-en-cultuur-2.htm

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_keuken


http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peking