Chinese Lunch

Come and discover traditions, history and food of China. Wednesday 25th September 12 pm in Rotorua Library Te Aka Mauri

China has a vast territory and abundant resources, and each region has different climate, natural products and folk customs. After a long time, different region has formed its own food flavors. For example, people in southern China take rice as staple food, while people from northern China are used to eat noodles or steamed buns as staple food.

As for the flavor, the whole country can be generally divided into four parts: sweet south, salt north, sour east and spicy west.

Chinese people will change their menus as the switch of each season, from the raw materials to the cooking methods, each season uses different seasonings and accompany dishes. Winter has a thicker and rich flavor, while summer features in light and cool flavor; cuisines in winter are most braised or stewed, while in summer, they are mostly served as cold and dressed with sauce.

Chinese cuisine puts great importance on the aesthetic sense of the dish, and pursues the harmony in color, aroma, taste, shape and utensil. The aesthetic sense of the cuisine can be expressed from multiple aspects. No matter the raw material is Chinese cabbage or carrot, they can all be cut into different shapes to match the whole dish, which gives people a highly unified mental and physical enjoyment.