Thanksgiving, Chinese-style

It’s Thanksgiving! Time to talk about food. No, not stuffing, turkey and pumpkin spice. Let’s instead learn about Shandong cooking – the oldest cuisine in China. We are in the north, in the Shaanxi Province. (Don’t confuse it with the Shanxi Province: totally different place. I wonder how many train travelers try to buy train tickets for Shaanxi, and instead get a ticket to Shanxi…. But I digress.)

Noodles in Soup

Noodles not in soup

The northern part of China is characterized by vast plains. It’s dry, and so best suited for growing wheat, millet, barley – not rice. Here we eat, rich stews and deep clay pots of mushroom, chicken, lamb and beef. But the true art form is the noodle.

Just last week, Dave and I ran an English Corner (a non-credit weekly class run by the foreign teachers). Dave asked the students what was the attraction in their home town. One went into a deep meditation on the difference between the noodles in his town and the noodles in Xi’an. His town made them thinner, lighter and more able to absorb the broth and gravy made by his grandmother. Other students dissented. Whether true or not, noodles can definitely provoke conversation deeper than any discussion of American Literature or Persuasion Essays.

Noodle chef

Noodle makers

Noodles are old. There is an archaeological site in Northwest China that have found remnants of noodles that date back 4000 years. They are long. There are master Chinese noodle pullers who can make noodles longer than one can imagine. The longest noodle on record is 10,000 feet long. That is almost 2 miles long. They are the customary birthday meal, because they symbolize long life. You also can eat them at New Years – again, probably pulling on the longevity card.

Dumplings

Amazing Bead

Other wheat-based foods prized by the Chinese include dumplings, Baozi (a bun with meat or vegetable tucked in it), and of course breads of all varieties.

Some fun facts about Chinese cooking: traditional Chinese medicine calls on meals to contain all of the following – sweet, sour, salty, bitter and spicy.

Chinese eschew canned vegetables. You can’t find them in the grocery store. According to Chinese medicine, you must eat foods when they are in season to maintain balance. As a result, rarely are you far from a “wet market” – a street that serves freshly butchered animals and freshly picked foods.

Wet Market

Chinese like spicy, fun names. “Ants Climb Trees” is actually vermicelli with pork. “Husband Wife Lung Slices” is some sort of animal innards with spicy oil. Tianji – which means literally “field chicken”-- is actually frog.