Talk:Chinese cuisine

To guide?

What's needed to bring this article to guide status? Pinging User:Ikan Kekek and User:The dog2, who have contributed to the article significantly. —Granger (talk · contribs) 14:16, 27 September 2019 (UTC)

I wonder if we should expand a bit on overseas Chinese cuisine. Speaking of which, there is a dish in Xiamen called shacha noodles (沙茶面) that clearly is of overseas Chinese origin; most certainly inspired by satay sauce in Malaysia and Singapore. In fact, the local Minnan pronunciation of shacha is sah-teh. The dog2 (talk) 14:48, 27 September 2019 (UTC)

The article seems quite good to me. One thought is that the "Dishes" section should probably be enlarged. For example, is Wuxi spare ribs a nationally known dish? I suspect so. We should probably mention at least one or two dishes in every Han province or major region. Ikan Kekek (talk) 06:18, 28 September 2019 (UTC)

I agree with expanding that section. Here are some well-known dishes that came to mind for me: over-the-bridge noodles, stuffed tofu, Tibetan cheese, Buddha jumps over the wall, fried noodles, biangbiang noodles. I'm a fan of Sichuanese dandan noodles, though I'm not sure how famous they are. Come to think of it, we could probably have a whole subsection for noodles. —Granger (talk · contribs) 11:34, 28 September 2019 (UTC)

A subsection on noodles is an excellent idea. Ikan Kekek (talk) 22:21, 28 September 2019 (UTC)

I think we should also have a subsection about tea. There are just so many varieties of tea you can try in China. The dog2 (talk) 04:21, 29 September 2019 (UTC)

There's already a subsection about tea lower down: Chinese cuisine#Tea. I've added a bunch of noodle dishes and some others—every top-level region listed in China is now represented in the "Dishes" section. All but a handful of provinces are mentioned somewhere in the article. —Granger (talk · contribs) 05:48, 29 September 2019 (UTC)

I think this is a Guide now and could be nominated for FTT. What do you think? Ikan Kekek (talk) 08:27, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

I agree, and I have plunged forward and nominated it. —Granger (talk · contribs) 13:30, 5 October 2019 (UTC)

[reset] As I mentioned in the nomination, it could be useful to add information about meals and meal times if these are somewhat uniform around China. Ypsilon (talk) 19:09, 5 October 2019 (UTC)

That's a good idea. It might be mentioning, too, that the Chinese words for breakfast, lunch and dinner translate to "morning rice", "noon rice" and "evening rice", because that illustrates the centrality of rice in Chinese cuisine, generally. Ikan Kekek (talk) 19:17, 5 October 2019 (UTC)

It's a bit like in Korean then, where (if I remember correctly) "rice" is also used as a general term for food. Ypsilon (talk) 19:34, 5 October 2019 (UTC)

Often in Malay, too, though there are other words for the meals. I think it's probably common in rice-growing countries. Ikan Kekek (talk) 19:36, 5 October 2019 (UTC)

I've added a paragraph on meal times based on my experience. I think it's pretty accurate for eastern China, at least in the south, but I wouldn't be surprised if meal times are different in western China, where non-Han peoples are prominent and the sun rises and sets much later. —Granger (talk · contribs) 01:01, 6 October 2019 (UTC)

Interesting comments?

Decades back, we lived in Singapore and had an amah (nanny/housekeeper) who made some interesting statements about Chinese food.

• The best part of Peking duck is the skin; in Imperial times, the nobles ate that & left the rest for the servants
• The best Chinese food she had had was in San Francisco; the good restaurants get their chefs from Hong Kong & some American ingredients are higher quality than is available in Asia

She was a superb cook, and well-travelled; she & her husband spent Chinese New Year in Hong Kong most years & they'd also visited Taiwan, and on the mainland at least Beijing, Shanghai & their ancestral region (they were Hokkien speakers). I believe both claims, but what do others think?

More generally, the article does not have the word "Chinatown" & perhaps it should. Someone might even write a travel topic article on Chinatowns around the world. Pashley (talk) 14:33, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

I married into a Chinese Canadian family, and live in Toronto, which has excellent Chinese restaurants. When I spent a month in China in 2007, my husband and I were amazed by the food. Our meals weren't always excellent, but they were often.

I agree that an article on Chinese cuisine shouldn't be limited to China, but maybe overseas Chinese food should be a separate article. Ground Zero (talk) 07:52, 9 October 2019 (UTC)

I've added a couple of sentences about Chinatowns. Pashley (talk)

Chinese food wiki

I just happened upon this site: https://www.chinesefoodwiki.org/Main_Page

Should we reach out to them or cooperate with them in some way? Ikan Kekek (talk) 22:08, 31 October 2019 (UTC)

Which way to scoop the spoon

Other guidebooks say this too—that you're supposed to scoop the spoon away from you in "the West" but towards you in China "to rake in wealth". But is this widespread and important enough to be worth mentioning? I was so puzzled by this advice when I encountered it elsewhere that I asked a couple of Americans and a couple of Chinese people and none of them thought that it mattered which direction you move the spoon. —Granger (talk · contribs) 23:20, 5 November 2019 (UTC)

I've never heard that there was any etiquette on how to scoop a spoon in the West. Granted, I wasn't raised on Miss Manners, but still. Ikan Kekek (talk) 01:53, 6 November 2019 (UTC)

What I wrote was taught to me in school during etiquette lessons. I would certainly say that scooping your soup towards you is the norm when eating Chinese food, but I'm not sure how out of place you would look if you scooped away from you. I personally couldn't care less which direction you want to scoop so long as you're not making a mess, but if that is the proper etiquette, I think we should make a note. I would say though that because Singapore was a British colony, it is certainly possible that the "Western" table manners we were taught in school were specifically British table manners.

@ThunderingTyphoons!, AlasdairW: What's your take on that? Is it rude to scoop your soup towards you in the UK? The dog2 (talk) 17:23, 6 November 2019 (UTC)

Maybe if you're dining at Buckingham Palace or somewhere of similar prestige. Nowhere else. It's certainly part of our etiquette to the extent that it was taught to me by my dad (who incidentally has dined at Buckingham Palace on numerous occasions, so perhaps that bit of etiquette was drilled into him by his regimental sergeant major), but I can't imagine anyone will care how you hold your spoon in any other situation. Blowing loudly or slurping the soup, on the other hand, would be frowned upon by most, in my experience.

"The West" doesn't have a unified set of table manners. The way a lot of fully grown adult Americans eat (i.e. cutting the food up at the start of the meal, and then eating exclusively with a fork or spoon using the dominant hand) is how you might expect a European child who is just learning to feed himself to eat, except the cutting at the start would have been done by mum or dad. But what do I know, I can't even hold two chopsticks together.--ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 20:17, 6 November 2019 (UTC)

It is not important which way you scoop the spoon, and formal meals tend not to serve dishes like soup. It would be considered "odd" to pick up the bowl and drink directly out of it. AlasdairW (talk) 20:54, 6 November 2019 (UTC)

OK, I guess it doesn't really matter that much from the "Western" perspective then. Let's also get the "Chinese" perspective from more people instead of just relying on my personal sentiments.

@OhanaUnited, 廣九直通車, Yuriy kosygin, Skyjjjjjjzzh: What do you think? The dog2 (talk) 22:00, 6 November 2019 (UTC)

I have never heard of this. After consulting with my mom, she said this only applies to sweeping the floor and not eating. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 02:47, 17 November 2019 (UTC)

On the basis of this discussion, I'm going to remove the sentence in question. —Granger (talk · contribs) 11:01, 17 November 2019 (UTC)

Better than what? Or is "bitter" meant?

From the article:

"China's most prominent wine-growing region is the area around Yantai. Changyu is perhaps its best-regarded brand: its founder introduced viticulture and winemaking to China in 1892. Some of their low end wines are a bit better." [emphasis added]

Ikan Kekek (talk) 22:06, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

Street food

I think we should tweak this somewhat, because it might mislead people into thinking that street vendors always use inferior ingredients. Sure, some of them may, but there are also street vendors who only use fresh ingredients, and they're usually popular among the locals because of that.

@Mx. Granger: What do you think? Since you understand Chinese, if you want, I can send you vlogs of people eating street food and commenting on how fresh the ingredients are. The dog2 (talk) 05:44, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

I agree that a lot of street vendors use delicious, fresh ingredients. If you think the section gives the wrong impression, please do adjust it. —Granger (talk · contribs) 14:07, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

Rinsing utensils and bowls

@廣九直通車: Regarding this – certainly this is common in Guangdong and Hong Kong, but my friends in Shenzhen told me that it's not common in other parts of China. I don't remember seeing it in other parts of China either (though I've spent more time in Guangdong than anywhere else in the country). How does this compare to your experience? —Granger (talk · contribs) 18:52, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

I've been to Shanghai, Beijing, Hainan and Fujian, and it was not common in those parts of China in my experience, The dog2 (talk) 19:13, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

I'll remove it for now. It's already mentioned in the Guangdong article. —Granger (talk · contribs) 19:29, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

@Mx. Granger, The dog2: I see both your opinion (and quite sorry that my relatively lack of travel experience caused such mistake), but given that our article on Guangdong is simply an outline, and readers may first seek advice from this article, should we also include this fact at here so that the exposure will be larger?廣九直通車 (talk) 04:30, 28 June 2021 (UTC)

That would be fine with me, as long as we mention that it's specific to Guangdong and Hong Kong. —Granger (talk · contribs) 16:17, 28 June 2021 (UTC)

Speaking of regionalisms, if you go to a very traditional Teochew restaurant in Singapore, they will serve you a very bitter kind of tea at the beginning of the meal. I'm not sure if they still do that in China since I haven't been to that part of China yet, or if they do it at Teochew restaurants in Hong Kong. The dog2 (talk) 16:29, 28 June 2021 (UTC)

Not sure to me either.廣九直通車 (talk) 13:06, 2 July 2021 (UTC)