Spring rolls are one of the best-known Chinese snacks.

They are not difficult to make and are a perfect starter for any meal. Spring rolls should be crisp, light and delicate. Avoid the greasy, bulky imitations which are sometimes called egg rolls. The skins for spring rolls can be obtained fresh or frozen from Chinese grocers. Be sure to let them thaw thoroughly if they are frozen.

As their name suggests, the snacks symbolise and commemorate the coming of the spring season. They are one of the traditional foods eaten in China on New Year’s Eve, which, by the Chinese lunar calendar, marks the end of the winter season. Such foods as spring rolls and jiaozi (a popular northern Chinese dumpling) are always at hand then for family and for visitors.

Makes about 15-18 spring rolls

Ingredients

1 packet spring roll skins, preferably the Shanghai type
25 g (1 oz) black mushrooms
100 g (4 oz) uncooked prawns, peeled and minced
100 g (4 oz) minced pork
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry
1½ tsp salt
½ tsp cornflour
½ tsp sesame oil
1¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1½ tbsp groundnut or peanut oil
2 tbsp garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp fresh ginger, chopped finely
1½ tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry
3 tbsp spring onion, finely chopped
1 tsp salt
250 g (8 oz)Chinese leaves, finely shredded
1 egg, beaten
1.2 litres (2 pints)groundnut or peanut oil
Method: How to make spring rolls:

1. Soak the mushrooms in warm water for 20 minutes. Then drain them and squeeze out the excess liquid. Remove and discard the stems and finely shred the caps into thin strips.

2. Combine the prawns and meat with soy sauce, rice wine, cornflour, sesame oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl.

3. Heat a wok or large frying-pan over high heat until it is hot. Add the oil, and when it is very hot and slightly smoking, add the garlic and ginger and stir-fry for 20 seconds. Then add the rest of the ingredients, the prawns-meat mixture, Chinese leaves, mushrooms and stir-fry for 5 minutes. Place the mixture in a colander to drain and allow it to cool thoroughly.

4. Place 3-4 tablespoons of filling near the corner end of each spring roll skin and fold in each side and roll up tightly. Use the beaten egg mixture to seal the open end by brushing a small amount on the edge. Then press the edge onto the roll. You should have a roll about 10 cm (4 inches) long, a little like an oversized cigar.

5. Wash the wok and reheat it over high heat until it is hot, then add the oil for deep-frying. When the oil is hot and slightly smoking, gently drop in as many spring rolls as will fit easily in one layer. Carefully fry them until the spring rolls are golden brown on the outside and cooked inside, about 4 minutes. Adjust the heat as necessary. Take the spring rolls out with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. You will have to do this in several batches. Serve them at once, hot and crispy with the sweet and sour sauce on the side for dipping.

Hot pot - is the most famous and favorite dish in Chongqing. Chongqing local people consider the hot pot a local specialty, which is noted for its peppery and hot taste, scalding yet fresh and tender. People gather around a small pot boiled with charcoal, electric or gas filled with flavorful and nutritious soup base. You have a choice of spicy, pure and combo for the soup base. Thin sliced raw variety meat, fish, various bean curd products and all kinds of vegetables are boiled in the soup base. You then dip them in a little bowl of special sauce. Be careful since the spicy soup base is burning hot. 

First eaten by poor boatmen of the Yangtze River in Chongqing area and then spread westwards to the rest of Sichuan. Now is a very popular local flavor and can be found at every corner of the city. There are a great variety of hotpots, including Yueyang Hotpot, Four Tastes Hotpot, Yashan Hotpot and Fish Head Hotpot. If you are adventurous enough, you can basically cook anything with hot pot, e.g., pig’s brain and duck’s kidney. 

Chongqing people love their hotpot, especially when the weather is steamy. The fire dances under the pot, the heavily oiled and spiced soup boils with hazy steam, and the people are bathed in sweat. Although hotpot can be found wherever there are street vendors or small restaurants, chongqing Hot pot has the greatest variety and is known for its delicious soup base and dipping sauce. 

 

Yuanyang hotpot

Big hot pot for 56 person

It is a traditional signature in Dezhou, previously known as “Dezhou Five-fragrant Boneless Braised Chicken”. Invented by Deshunzhai Restaurant in Dezhou in the era of Emperor of Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty. Procedure: Deep-fried chicken of about one kg till lightly burned; add mushrooms, premium soy sauce, clove, villous autumn fruit, cardamon, angelica dahurica, fennel and malt sugar. The finished dish is bright, lustrous, tender, fleshy and smells good. The more the chewing, the more appealing. It gained popularity and became nationally known. In the past 100 years or so, this dish is favored by domestic and international visitors.      

China covers a large territory and has many nationalities, hence a variety of Chinese food with different but fantastic and mouthwatering flavor. Since China’s local dishes have their own typical characteristics, generally, Chinese food can be roughly divided into eight regional cuisines, which has been widely accepted around. Certainly, there are many other local cuisines that are famous, such as Beijing Cuisine and Shanghai Cuisine.　　

       Shandong Cuisine

　　Consisting of Jinan cuisine and Jiaodong cuisine, Shandong cuisine, clear, pure and not greasy, is characterized by its emphasis on aroma, freshness, crispness and tenderness. Shallot and garlic are usually used as seasonings so Shangdong dishes tastes pungent usually. Soups are given much emphasis in Shangdong dishes. Thin soup features clear and fresh while creamy soup looks thick and tastes strong. Jinan cuisine is adept at deep-frying, grilling, frying and stir-frying while Jiaodong division is famous for cooking seafood with fresh and light taste.

　　Shandong is the birthplace of many famous ancient scholars such as Confucious and Mencius. And much of Shandong cuisine’s history is as old as Confucious himself, making it the oldest existing major cuisine in China. But don’t expect to gain more wisdom from a fortune cookie at a Shandong restaurant in the West since fortune cookies aren’t even indigenous to China.

　　Shandong is a large peninsula surrounded by the sea to the East and the Yellow River meandering through the center. As a result, seafood is a major component of Shandong cuisine. Shandong’s most famous dish is the Sweat and Sour Carp. A truly authentic Sweet and Sour Carp must come from the Yellow River. But with the current amount of pollution in the Yellow River, you would be better off if the carp was from elsewhere. Shandong dishes are mainly quick-fried, roasted, stir-fried or deep-fried. The dishes are mainly clear, fresh and fatty, perfect with Shandong’s own famous beer, Qingdao Beer

 

　　Sichuan Cuisine

　　Sichuan Cuisine, known often in the West as Szechuan Cuisine, is one of the most famous Chinese cuisines in the world. Characterized by its spicy and pungent flavor, Sichuan cuisine, prolific of tastes, emphasizes on the use of chili. Pepper and prickly ash also never fail to accompany, producing typical exciting tastes. Besides, garlic, ginger and fermented soybean are also used in the cooking process. Wild vegetables and animals are usually chosen as ingredients, while frying, frying without oil, pickling and braising are applied as basic cooking techniques. It cannot be said that one who does not experience Sichuan food ever reaches China.

　　If you eat Sichuan cuisine and find it too bland, then you are probably not eating authentic Sichuan cuisine. Chili peppers and prickly ash are used in many dishes, giving it a distinctively spicy taste, called ma in Chinese. It often leaves a slight numb sensation in the mouth. However, most peppers were brought to China from the Americas in the 18th century so you can thank global trade for much of Sichuan cuisine’s excellence. Sichuan hot pots are perhaps the most famous hotpots in the world, most notably the Yuan Yang （mandarin duck） Hotpot half spicy and half clear.

　　Guangdong Cuisine

　　Cantonese food originates from Guangdong, the southernmost province in China. The majority of overseas Chinese people are from Guangdong （Canton） so Cantonese is perhaps the most widely available Chinese regional cuisine outside of China.

　　Cantonese are known to have an adventurous palate, able to eat many different kinds of meats and vegetables. In fact, people in Northern China often say that Cantonese people will eat anything that flies except airplanes, anything that moves on the ground except trains, and anything that moves in the water except boats. This statement is far from the truth, but Cantonese food is easily one of the most diverse and richest cuisines in China. Many vegetables originate from other parts of the world. It doesn’t use much spice, bringing out the natural flavor of the vegetables and meats.

　　Tasting clear, light, crisp and fresh, Guangdong cuisine, familiar to Westerners, usually chooses raptors and beasts to produce originative dishes. Its basic cooking techniques include roasting, stir-frying, sauteing, deep-frying, braising, stewing and steaming. Among them steaming and stir-frying are more commonly applied to preserve the natural flavor. Guangdong chefs also pay much attention to the artistic presentation of dishes.

　　Fujian Cuisine

　　Consisting of Fuzhou Cuisine, Quanzhou Cuisine and Xiamen Cuisine, Fujian Cuisine is distinguished for its choice seafood, beautiful color and magic taste of sweet, sour, salty and savory. The most distinct features are their “pickled taste”.

　　Jiangsu Cuisine

　　Jiangsu Cuisine, also called Huaiyang Cuisine, is popular in the lower reach of the Yangtze River. Aquatics as the main ingredients, it stresses the freshness of materials. Its carving techniques are delicate, of which the melon carving technique is especially well known. Cooking techniques consist of stewing, braising, roasting, simmering, etc. The flavor of Huaiyang Cuisine is light, fresh and sweet and with delicate elegance. Jiangsu cuisine is well known for its careful selection of ingredients, its meticulous preparation methodology, and its not-too-spicy, not-too-bland taste. Since the seasons vary in climate considerably in Jiangsu, the cuisine also varies throughout the year. If the flavor is strong, it isn’t too heavy; if light, not too bland.

　　Zhejiang Cuisine

　　Comprising local cuisines of Hangzhou, Ningbo and Shaoxing, Zhejiang Cuisine, not greasy, wins its reputation for freshness, tenderness, softness, smoothness of its dishes with mellow fragrance. Hangzhou Cuisine is the most famous one among the three.

　　Hunan cuisine

　　Hunan cuisine consists of local Cuisines of Xiangjiang Region, Dongting Lake and Xiangxi coteau. It characterizes itself by thick and pungent flavor. Chili, pepper and shallot are usually necessaries in this division.

　　Anhui Cuisine

　　Anhui Cuisine chefs focus much more attention on the temperature in cooking and are good at braising and stewing. Often hams will be added to improve taste and sugar candy added to gain

This is a standard filling used throughout northern China. Dried shrimp (available at Chinese food stores) add depth to the relatively bland pork–and–napa cabbage mix. If you wish, add up to 2 cups (500 mL) finely chopped Chinese or garlic chives. Others might like to add a handful of finely chopped fresh coriander.

Servings: 60 dumplings

Ingredients:

2 tbsp (25 mL) dried shrimp (optional)
3 cups (750 mL) finely chopped napa cabbage(8 oz/250 g)
1 tsp (5 mL) salt
1 lb (500 g) lean ground pork
1/2 cup (125 mL) minced green onion
1 egg, beaten 
1 tbsp (15 mL) soy sauce
1 tsp (5 mL) grated gingerroot
1 tsp (5 mL) sesame oil
1/4 tsp (1 mL) white or black pepper
Pinch cayenne pepper

Preparation:

        Introduction: This is a typical dish of fish soup cooked with weever and sour vegetables. The creamy soup is very appetizing.  Ingredients: (1) Fresh weever (600g) (2) Sichuan sour vegetables (200g) (3) ginger sliced, 2 dried red chilies and 1 bar of cucumber Â

  Directions:     (1) Bleed the weever, clean the scale, extract the bones, slice up the cleaned fish into butterfly shape, clean up the Sichuan sour vegetables. (2) Fry the bones into golden, then pour 700ml water to cook for 2-3 minutes, separate the bones and dish up the soup. (3) Boil the sour vegetables for 1 min and saute until get dry, pour the soup to boil for 3-4 minutes, dish up the sour vegetables and preserve the soup. Boil the filet for 1 min and dish up above the sour vegetables, pour the preserved soup to the plate and serve. Â

  Taste:     Perfect combination of delicate creamy, smooth filet and lightly sour soup that makes it not only delicious but also nutritional. Â

        The Hotel Iron Chef: Ken Shao - Golden Eternal Member of La Commanderie des Cordons bleus de France - Master of Chinese Cooking  Present:  Executive Chef of Chinese Kitchen of Radisson Hotel Pudong Century Park Radisson Hotel Pudong Century Park 1199 Ying Chun Road, Pudong, Shanghai 200135, China Tel: (8621) 5130 0000 Fax: (8621) 5130 0111 Email: info.pudong@radisson.com

Chinese dumpling is a traditional Chinese Food, which is essential during holidays in China. Chinese dumpling becomes one of the most widely loved foods in China. 
Chinese dumpling is one of the most important foods in Spring Festvial. Since the shape of Chinese dumplings is similar to ancient Chinese gold or silver ingots, they symbolize wealth. Traditionally, the members of a family get together to make dumplings during the New Year’s Eve. They may hide a coin in one of the dumplings. The person who finds the coin will likely have a good fortune in the New Year. Chinese dumpling is also popular in other Chinese holidays or festivals, so it is part of the Chinese culture or tradition. 

Chinese dumpling is a delicious food. You can make a variety of Chinese dumplings using different fillings based on your taste and how various ingredients mixed together by you.
Making dumplings is really teamwork. Usually all family members will join the work. Some people started to make dumplings when they were kids in the family, so most Chinese know how to make dumplings.

 (purse like dumplings)

  (triangle dumplings)

from:http://www.china-fun.net/topics/120070126/1184916.shtml

by Jacqueline M. Newman

Historians agree that two thousand two hundred to three thousand eight hundred years ago, China had a fully developed cuisine. They do not agree nor do they even mention what the cuisine was or what specific foods were in use.
 

In the 11th century B.C., The Middle Kingdom, as China is known, was no more than one-sixth the size it is today. In small separated communities, Beijing and the Yellow River delta were where people lived. By the fifth to third centuries B.C., the population had both concentrated and expanded. More food was grown in central areas, more animal husbandry practiced in the west and north, and more fisheries developed in the east. The country was one-quarter the size it is today, the west was near the midpoint of the country or just above where Xian is today. Sichuan and Hunan were not part of China and the piquancy of foods associated with those provinces had no part in the country’s early food history.

 

In these centuries, many grains were used, the literature inconsistent as to what they were. Historians simply call this “the period of five grains” and in all probability mean two kinds of millet, soybeans, wheat, and rice.

 

We think of rice as a quintessential Chinese food, yet early in their food history little was known and very little consumed. It did not come into common use until the first century B.C., perhaps because the area around the Yellow River produced very little of it. About two hundred years later, rice moved south and gained popularity; climate and geography enhanced availability and use. Climate and concentration of people affects foods grown and consumed. People eat what is locally grown along with foods they can hunt, fish, or forage for.

 

Until 500 B.C., there was no reports of organized system of how the Chinese cooked their foods. The sage Confucius, who lived between 551-479 B.C., gets credit for developing protocols of cutting, cooking, and eating. His rules remain intact because there was limited contact to impact them.

 

Foods and related foodways changed when communities make choices among possible foods and cooking techniques in a given geographic environment. Increased population and need for additional land expands communities and contribute to food migrations. As travellers move from place to place, they talk about foods seen, they even serve them when they return home. Thus foods of different areas slip into and become localized fare.

 

In China, from the time of the building of the Grand Canal, ingredients and preparation variations moved. Emperor, Chin Shih Huang Ti, build this first contour canal, called the Grand or Magic Canal, to connect waterways of nearly 1,100 miles (the equivalent of New York to Florida) to supply his troops on the move. On the canal’s connected pair of rivers, each flowing in the opposite direction, he ordered the shipping of grain supplies and other foods for the troops. This movement of foods, brought rice to the north, and wheat, millet, and sorghum to the south. This interchange was regional food co-mingling of the grandest proportion.

 

China’s early trade with the Philippines and Indonesia, and in 260 A.D. Syria and beyond, brought items from outside the country to the countryside infiltrating areas around seacoasts first. Broken Chinese porcelain on the beaches of Tanzania and Mozambique attest to things moving in the other direction in exchange for fruits and other foods.

Tea is a good illustration of a food on the move. Before the time of the Three Kingdoms and during the reign of Sun Hao in 264 A.D., tea was reasonably unknown. By the 4th century A.D., some say it became China’s universal drink. Others believe that in the late Tang period, 618-970 A.D., tea was still new and exotic, probably brought by Buddhist monks from the Burma-India border-country. In either case, tea was originally imported and it became the national drink. Today, it is common throughout China though not always considered the number one beverage.

 

Mongolian influences, circa 1125 A.D., moved northern ideas, northern foods, and northern food preparation techniques southward. Specific illustrations include grilling and hot pot cookery. Hot Pot is now considered both a northern and southern delicacy. This period of Mongol influence was unidirectional, north to south.

 

From 1386 to 1398 A.D., Tai Tsu also known as Ming Emperor Hung Mu, moved thousands upon thousands of people westward to resettle unpopulated areas. His reign and that of others in the Ming dynasty, 1368-1644 A.D., limited movement of foods westward. Some years later, Manchu rulers and their subjects adopt, adapt, and incorporate foreign foods and cooking techniques moved northward. These new foods and preparation techniques, acquired from trade with the Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, English, and French. One example is a food not indigenous to China, the sweet potato; it migrated all over the country. This tuber entered southern ports, became popular near the end of the 15th century, and made its way to every region of China as a common winter food. It can be found in Beijing, Xian, Chengdu, and Shanghai roasted and sold as a street food.

 

Cuisine, culture, and people are not static. The movement of people and food make for continual culinary melting pots. The one billion Chinese, just over one-quarter of the world’s population, still use grain as the basis and majority component of their diet and they supplement it with old or new foods that look, smell, and taste like Chinese food. Their changing foodways are expressions of cultural continuity over time.

Introduction
Chinese name: 水煮鱼
Though the history is short than twenty years, it has a wide spread in Chinese restaurants, no matter they are famous or not. Actually, A cook, whose father and grandfather were also cook, invented these style in Yubei District of Chongqing. As a symbol of Sichuan dishes, the flavour is directly determined by the quality of the chilli and pepper.

Ingredients:
800-1000 g Fish fillets (preferably river or lake fish)

Condiments:
250-300 g Cooking oil
3 tbsp Hot bean sauce
1 chunk Ginger root, sliced
8 clove Garlic, sliced
3 stalk Scallion
2 handful Sichuan peppercorns
1 rice bowl Sichuan dried chilli
2/3 tbsp Chilli flakes
2 tbsp Jiafan rice wine
2/3 tbsp Light soya sauce
700-800 ml Stock
1/3 tsp Pepper powder
½ tsp Salt
1 tsp Sugar
Chicken powder to taste
Marinade:
1 Egg white
2/3 tsp Salt

1 tbsp Jiafan rice wine
2 tbsp Cornstarch
Salad Base:
½ head Iceberg
1 rice bowl Black fungus, soaked in water
150 g Cucumber, sliced

Method:
Rinse the fish fillets and cut each into 3 pieces. Dry the fish well with a clean kitchen cloth. Combine the fish with the marinade in a large bowl and set aside for about 30 minutes. Prepare the salad base in a bowl.
Heat up some oil in a wok or heavy skillet and slowly stir in the marinated fish. Cook until fish just starts to turn white, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.
Pour off the frying oil, leaving about 2 tablespoons in the pan. Add in hot bean sauce and stir until fragrant. Stir in ginger, garlic, half scallion sections, chilli flakes, half of each Sichuan peppercorns and dried chilli. Stir over the medium heat until their fragrance is fully released. Drizzle in rice wine and light soya sauce. Continue stirring. Pour in stock, adjusting the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Season it with pepper, salt, chicken powder and white sugar. Return fish to the skillet and cook for about 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and pour the fish stew into the prepared bowl with salad.
Heat up 200 grams of oil in another pan. Add in another half peppercorns and dried chilli. Stir till fragrant over the slow heat. Pour over the fish and garnish with the curled, drained spring onions or coriander leaves.

Today, i will intruduce a dish about port  named “Stir Fry Sliced Pork With Orange & Sesame”, hope you can enjoy it.

Materials
Pork 300 g
Orange 1 pc
White Sesame 1 tbsp

Sauce
Light Soy Sauces 1 tbsp
Orange Wine 1 tbsp
Orange Juice 3 tbsp
Orange Rind Jam 1 tbsp

Seasoning
Light Soy Sauces 1 tbsp
Sugar 1/2 tbsp
Pepper a little
Orange Wine 1 tbsp

　

Steps
1) Clean and slice the orange, onto dish
2) Slice the pork into think pieces, marinate 15 minutes with seasoning
3) Dust the cornflour fully around the sliced pork
4) Heat the wok with plenty of oil, deeply fry the sliced pork, dish up
5) Heat the wok with few oil, add deep fried pork and sauce, stir fry
6) Dish up the fried pork onto the orange, then dust the sesame on