CHINESE COOKERY
China is one of the biggest countries in the world. The weather ranges from bitterly cold in the northern climes of Mongolia during the winter to almost sub-tropical in places like Canton (Guangzhou) and Guangdong in the south. Thus in a country as vast as this and with so many different climates and terrains, it is not surprising that there are also many different types of cuisine. As with music, dance, painting and drama, Chinese people look on cooking as an art which combines sight, smell, touch, taste and even sound.
Chinese cooking ranges from the simplicity of boiled rice to an elaborate 'bird's nest' filled with eight treasures (a nest of deep fried yam, filled with a stir fry of pork, beef, chicken, king prawns, scallops, squid, mushrooms and Chinese leaf, flavoured with ginger, garlic, sesame oil and oyster sauce).
Essentially there are four schools of Chinese cookery: Peking, Shanghai, Sichuan and Canton, based loosely on geographical area. The Peking style of cookery is from the north of China and is a style with strong and intense flavours. Typical dishes are stir-fried lamb with spring onions, and egg rolls. There are several dishes that have become popular in the west, the most famous dish being Peking Duck.
Shanghai represents the cooking of the east and the eastern seaboard of China. Thus, one of the distinctive characteristics of this type of cookery is the use of fish. Fish, fried whole and covered is sauces such as sweet and sour, hot and sour, chili and black bean, are ways of cooking the fish.
From Sichuan, or the western school of cookery, there are two dishes that are found in most Chinese restaurants in the west. The fragrant 'crispy duck' and 'hot and sour soup'. It is also from this region of China that we find the origin of sweet and sour sauce, a popular flavour in the west.
Finally, there is Canton, the southern school. Restaurants in the west today serve mostly Cantonese style food. One of the hallmarks of Cantonese cuisine is Dim Sum. Chow mein and sweet and sour pork also originate here. Cantonese dishes tend to be lightly cooked, reflecting the very real scarcity of fuel for cooking in times past, hence the dominant method of cooking is stir frying.
Our cooking tour explores the cuisine of Sichuan province. Over time, chefs in this land-locked, mountain-ringed province developed a cuisine distinct from other Chinese cooking styles, but heavily influenced by the foreigners journeying along the famous Silk Road. Buddhist missionaries introduced them to the hot spicing that characterizes Indian cuisine, and which the Chinese chefs replicated by making liberal use of Sichuan pepper. In the 16th century, Spanish traders introduced chilies to this region. Like their northern neighbours, Sichuan cooks prefer pungently flavoured vegetables such as garlic and onions. When you mention Sichuan cuisine, most people think of hot, spicy foods. You will be surprised to discover that, despite this well-deserved reputation, at least one third of Sichuan dishes are not spicy at all. The same cuisine that came up with the classics 'Kung Pao Chicken' and 'Twice Cooked Pork' is also the home of 'Tea Smoked Duck', a fascinating dish in which a steamed duck is smoked over green tea leaves.
Moreover, the chili peppers that have made Sichuan cuisine famous, are a relatively recent addition. It was Christopher Columbus who brought chili peppers back with him from his travels. By the time this Spanish explorer set foot in the New World, chili peppers were flourishing in South and Central America. It is unclear how these peppers were introduced to Sichuan province, a land-locked region of western China. The most accepted view is that Indian missionaries brought chilies with them during their travels along the Silk Road, a series of pathways originally constructed during the Han dynasty for military and strategic purposes, that subsequently gained more importance as a major trade route. Dried peppers are frequently used in Sichuan cuisine. Sichuan pepper is another important ingredient in Sichuan cooking. Also known as pepper flower, Chinese pepper, and 'fagara', Sichuan pepper, is not a pepper at all. The red fruit is a berry that comes from the prickly ash tree. While it is not as hot as chili pepper, it does have a unique flavour, and is famous for its numbing effect on the tongue.
A common theory of how the Sichuanese developed their taste for hot food is that Sichuan's humid climate encourages people to eat strongly spiced foods. Sichuan dishes contain many flavours, such as sweet, sour, bitter, hot, salty, aromatic and fragrant. Sichuan cooks employ a variety of cooking methods, from stir-frying to roasting and simmering. 'Twice Cooked Pork", where the pork is first boiled then stir-fried, is a classic regional dish. Hot foods like red chili stimulate the palate, making it more sensitive to all these flavours. The palate is cleansed in preparation for the next dish by eating rice which absorbs the hot oil.
We have developed a very special week-long cooking seminar in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. The program was created by a master Sichuan chef and culinary instructor using the facilities of his traditional restaurant. You will learn to select vegetables, meats and spices at the morning market; you will learn the proper technique of chopping ingredients into thin, bite-sized morsels; you will be introduced to different cooking styles such as sautéing and stir-frying, dry braising, Pao (cooking in oil or water) and Hui (frying then braising with cornflour sauce). And you will learn the art of presenting each dish with garnishes of carved vegetables and fruit.
Among the famous dishes you will prepare are Ma Po Tofu (bean curd with spicy minced pork); Kung Pao Chicken (stir-fried chicken with dry chili peppers); Sichuan Hot and Sour Soup; Kung Pao Beef, and Huiguo Rou (Double-Cooked Pork). You will also be introduced to famous Sichuan snacks and desserts. While you are immersed in the art of Sichuan cuisine, you will also have ample time to explore the lovely Chengdu tea houses, and visit the nearby Giant Panda research station on the outskirts of Chengdu.
