First, the differences in dietary concepts.
Diet is the most basic activity of human beings, but if the problem is raised to the level of why and how to eat, it will be reflected as a consciousness or concept. There are obvious differences in dietary concepts between China and the West.
The west is a rational and scientific concept of diet. They emphasize the nutritional value of diet, pay attention to the amount of protein, fat, calories and vitamins contained in food, and do not pursue the perfection of color, fragrance, taste and shape of food. Even if it tastes the same, even like chewing wax, they will listen to rational warnings and eat because it is nutritious. Westerners eat nutrition. They rarely or hardly associate diet with spiritual enjoyment. It embodies a strong practical and utilitarian purpose in diet.
Diet is only a means of survival to satisfy hunger, but it adopts a more scientific, standardized and reasonable way. Influenced by the receptive way of thinking, western diets pay more attention to science, especially after the emergence of modern nutritional analysis science, which encourages them to have an inherent tendency of rational analysis in diet and makes them pay more attention to the combination of nutritional components in diet collocation and quantitative diet according to the specific situation of human body. For example, their primary and secondary schools are equipped with nutritionists to ensure adequate and balanced nutrition for teenagers. This scientific and reasonable diet concept is worth learning from Chinese food. But at the same time, it also makes western food greatly limited in materials. For example, westerners don't eat animal offal, and everything they think has no nutritional value. At the same time, it also appears mechanical and inflexible in cooking skills. Steak is steak, chicken is chicken, and all kinds of vegetables will never be mixed and will not change a lot. If you want to say grade, you must distinguish it by the collocation of tableware, environment and the collocation of raw materials in shape and color. This mechanical nature of western food is something we must overcome. In a word, western diet uses absolute rationality to regulate human behavior, and uses "science" and "nutrition" to exclude delicious food that can bring people pleasure. Although it can meet the physiological needs, it can't make people get spiritual pleasure from it, which is a fly in the ointment, while Chinese food is just the opposite.
China people's diet emphasizes sensibility and artistry, pursues the taste and feeling of food, and ignores the nutritional components of food. They evaluate the quality of food from the aspects of "color, fragrance, taste, shape and utensils" and pursue an indescribable artistic conception. Simply put, people in China eat taste. Taste is the charm of China's diet. The purpose of China people's diet is not only to satisfy their hunger, but also to satisfy their thirst for delicious food and bring them physical and mental pleasure.
China cooking often mixes a variety of raw materials together, making them almost lose their original color, but it produces a new and complete delicacy. For example, Fujian famous dish "Buddha jumps over the wall" contains chicken, duck, pig's trotters, scallops, abalone, sea cucumber, pork belly, shark's fin and other main ingredients, as well as several auxiliary materials. Starting from this dish, you can no longer eat the original flavor of every dish, but taste a delicious taste. In this way, the personality of the finished product is completely buried, but the whole product is brilliant, which is in line with the China people's golden mean of belittling personality, stressing average and emphasizing harmony. The sensibility of China's diet makes it full of imagination and creativity and tends to be artistic, which is a realm of freedom beyond necessity, and its greatest feature is randomness. The same dish is treated differently due to different regions, seasons, objects and grades. In the use of raw materials, you can turn decay into magic, chicken feet into "chicken feet" and fish heads into "casserole stewed fish heads". In terms of production techniques, it is a delicious food at your fingertips. China's diet is only an empirical fuzzy grasp of nutrition science. Like a banquet, there must be all kinds of meat and vegetables. The reason is very simple, meat is easy to get greasy, and there must be light and refreshing dishes to neutralize it. There is no rational analysis and logical judgment here, just an experience and a habit. This is also the deficiency of China's diet. China's diet overemphasizes the sense of taste and the spiritual enjoyment of eating, but ignores the rational collocation of nutrition analysis and nutrition, which is one-sided. Western diet pays attention to scientific analysis and nutrition. Although it is mechanical, it is fundamentally positive for maintaining the healthy development of the human body. Therefore, in the development of Chinese food, we should learn from the "scientific" concept of western food, learn from each other's strengths and make it more perfect.
Compared with China's "taste" diet, the West is a rational concept of diet. No matter the color, fragrance, taste, shape and nutrition of food, how many calories, vitamins, protein and so on should be taken in a day. Even if it tastes the same, you must eat it-it is nutritious. This concept of diet is compatible with the whole western philosophy system. Metaphysics is the main feature of western philosophy. The object of western philosophy is the cause of things, often metaphysical, and metaphysical theories are interrelated, thus forming metaphysical philosophy. This philosophy has brought vitality to western culture and made it develop by leaps and bounds in natural science, psychology and methodology. But in other aspects, this philosophical proposition has great obstacles, such as food culture. At the banquet, you can pay attention to the collocation of tableware, materials, services and raw materials in shape and color. But no matter how luxurious and high-end, from L.A. to new york, steak has only one flavor, and there is no art at all. As a dish, chicken is chicken and steak is steak. Even if there is a match, it is done in the disk. A plate of "French lamb chops" with mashed potatoes, leaning against the lamb chops, and boiled green beans and some tomatoes on the other side. The colors are in sharp contrast, but the raw materials are irrelevant, the taste is harmonious, each has its own flavor and is simple and clear.
China people attach great importance to "eating". The proverb "Food is the sky for the people" shows that we regard eating as important as the sky. Because our nation has been in a state of low productivity for thousands of years, people are always hungry, so we have a unique food-oriented diet culture. I think this is probably due to the need of survival. If a culture takes eating as the first thing, then there will be two phenomena: on the one hand, to maximize its function is not only to maintain survival, but also to preserve health, which is the cultural basis of "medicine tonic is not as good as food tonic"; On the other hand, excessive attention to food will make people admire the pursuit of food.
In China's cooking, the pursuit of delicacy is almost to the extreme, so that China people make a living by opening restaurants overseas, which has become the foundation for us to settle down in the world! Unfortunately, when we regard the pursuit of delicacy as the first demand, we ignore the most fundamental nutritional value of food. Many of our traditional foods have to be fried in hot oil and stewed with low fire for a long time, so the nutritional components of the dishes are destroyed and many of them are lost in the processing. So when it comes to nutrition, it actually touches the biggest weakness of China's food culture. There is a folk proverb: "Food is the first priority for the people, and taste is the first priority for food". It is this pursuit of food that makes us ignore the true meaning of eating.
When people in China taste dishes, they often say that this dish is delicious and that dish is not. However, if you want to further ask what is "delicious", why "delicious" and where "delicious" is, I am afraid it is not easy to make it clear. This shows that China people's pursuit of delicious food is an indescribable "artistic conception", which is still difficult to cover with what people usually call "color, fragrance, taste, shape and utensils".
The key to the unique charm of China's diet lies in its taste. The production of delicious food lies in harmony, so that the original flavor of food, the cooked taste after heating, the taste of ingredients and auxiliary materials and the harmonious taste of seasonings are intertwined and coordinated with each other, so that they complement each other, penetrate each other and blend with each other. The harmonious beauty of China's cooking is the essence of China's cooking art, and the variety of dishes is an external thing, while the taste is an internal thing. It is the most important embodiment of China's aesthetic diet view that he pays attention to the interior without deliberately modifying the appearance, and pays attention to the taste of dishes without revealing the shape and color of dishes excessively.
In China, the pursuit of beauty in diet obviously overwhelms rationality, and this view of diet is also consistent with China's traditional philosophy. As a representative of oriental philosophy, China's philosophy is macroscopic, intuitive, fuzzy and unpredictable. The method of making Chinese food is to reconcile, and ultimately to reconcile a beautiful taste. This emphasizes the sense of proportion, that is, overall cooperation. It contains rich dialectics of China's philosophy. Everything is based on the beauty and harmony of food. The variety in the range determines the richness and diversity of Chinese food, determines the characteristics of Chinese food, and even determines the characteristics of every chef.
Second, the differences between Chinese and western dietary contents.
The content of diet is the question of what to eat, and the differences on this issue are rooted in the differences of cultural backgrounds of various ethnic groups. Westerners eat more meat dishes and pay more attention to the intake of animal protein and fat. In their diet, most of them are animal dishes, mainly beef, chicken, pork, mutton and fish. This is related to western nomadic and marine national culture. Sailing and nomadic people take fishing, hunting and breeding as their main activities, supplemented by planting, which determines that their main source of diet is animals. Not only diet, but also many other needs in life are taken from animals. China people are influenced by agricultural civilization. In their traditional diet structure, the staple food is grain, supplemented by vegetables and a small amount of meat, and plant dishes are dominant. We usually call it "vegetarian dishes", and meat dishes are usually added only during the Spring Festival. This eating habit is deeply influenced by Buddhist culture, which is more obvious. Buddhism believes that animals are "creatures" and creatures cannot be killed, let alone eaten. The idea of "forbidding killing and releasing" advocated by Buddhists is consistent with the Confucian view of "benevolence and righteousness". In addition, Taoism also forbids eating fish and meat, which makes vegetarianism popular in China. At the same time, it also promoted the development of fruit and vegetable planting and cooking technology, especially the development of bean products technology.
However, with the improvement of living standards and the popularization of nutritional concepts, the proportion of meat and dairy foods in China is increasing. Similarly, in the diet structure of westerners, vegetables are also increasing obviously, and the diet structure of China and the West is gradually merging. The difference between Chinese and western food content is also manifested in the fact that westerners like to eat cold food and cold dishes. From cold dishes to salads to cold drinks, cold dishes are indispensable on the table. People in China like to eat spicy food. The main course is hot, except a few side dishes in front of the main course are cold dishes. In the eyes of China people, hot dishes lose a lot of flavor when they are cold, and only when they are hot can they taste the food. As the saying goes, "three fresh vegetables are hot" means this.
Westerners believe that dishes are to satisfy hunger, so they specialize in "hard dishes" such as large pieces of meat and whole chicken. China's food is "delicious", so China's cooking also shows great arbitrariness in the use of materials: what many westerners regard as discarded is an excellent raw material in China, and what foreign chefs can't handle can be turned into magic as soon as it reaches the hands of China chefs. It shows that China's diet has a wide range of randomness in materials.
According to the survey of western botanists, people in China eat more than 600 kinds of vegetables, six times more than those in the west. In fact, in Chinese cuisine, vegetarian dishes are ordinary foods, and meat dishes only enter the ordinary diet structure when the living standard is high, so there has been a saying of "vegetable food" since ancient times, and vegetable food plays a dominant role in the ordinary diet structure. China people's plant cooking is closely related to the advocacy of Buddhists. They regard animals as "living things" and plants as "lifeless things", so they advocate vegetarianism.
When introducing the dietary characteristics of their own countries, westerners think that they pay more attention to the reasonable collocation of nutrition than China. There are developed food industries, such as canned food and fast food, which are time-saving and nutritious, so people in their country are generally stronger than people in China: tall, with long legs, wide shoulders and muscular; China people, on the other hand, are thin, with narrow shoulders and short legs and light yellow color. According to the obvious differences between Chinese and western food objects, some people call China a plant word, while westerners call it an animal word.
Third, the differences in dietary patterns.
The way of eating, that is, how to eat, is obviously different between China and the West. In China, whether it is a family dinner or a formal banquet, everyone gets together, sits around and enjoys their seats. People toast and exhort each other to show mutual respect, the virtue of friendship and the atmosphere of harmonious reunion. Especially in various festivals, it is also a diet for advice. This way of eating is an important tradition of China's food culture, which is based on the patriarchal concept. Dietary patterns first existed in families and families, and later extended to external families. China people often use this way to educate and express various "rituals" to reflect the relationship between young people and the elderly, respect and inferiority, intimacy and inferiority, and exchange feelings. Because this way of sitting around drinking caters to the traditional family concept and objectively plays a role in maintaining family stability and promoting family members' unity and harmony, it has been circulating for a long time. It is really a family pleasure to have a big meal with the whole family. But at the same time, this way of eating also has its disadvantages, mainly unscientific, unhygienic and wasteful. Now, people have gradually realized this drawback and started to reform. For example, the state banquet in our country has implemented a separate meal system, but it has yet to be popularized in the whole society.
Westerners are used to eating separately. At western-style banquets, although people sit together, their food is served separately. Buffet is the most typical form of western food system. Diners each take a set of tableware and take what they need from the prepared food, so they can walk freely without a fixed seat. This way of eating can not only fully satisfy the individual's preference for food, but also facilitate social communication and emotional and information exchange between individuals, without having to disclose all activities at the dinner table. Therefore, in western-style catering, food is only a means and foil, not the whole purpose. The core of the banquet lies in friendship. This way of eating fully reflects Westerners' respect for individuality and self, and emphasizes individual independence. At this point, it is completely different from China's unified cultural model. Especially since the Renaissance, western society has vigorously advocated the spirit of equality, freedom, human rights and personality liberation, which has greatly promoted people's personality and freedom consciousness and created a cultural environment that emphasizes the free development of personality. More importantly, this way of eating is civilized, hygienic and in line with the scientific spirit. The styles of western food are very different, and this difference also has an impact on national character. In China, any banquet, no matter for what purpose, has only one form, that is, everyone sits together and enjoys a seat. Banquets should use round tables to create a United, polite and interesting atmosphere in form. Food is placed in the center of a table, which is not only the object of appreciation and tasting, but also the medium of emotional communication. People toast each other, offer food to each other and exhort each other, which embodies the virtue of mutual respect and courtesy between people in the face of beautiful things. Although from the perspective of hygiene, this kind of diet has obvious shortcomings, but it conforms to the universal mentality of "happy reunion" of our nation, embodies the influence of the category of "harmony" in China's classical philosophy on later generations' thoughts, and is conducive to collective emotional exchange, so it is difficult to reform so far.
Although food and wine are very important at western-style banquets, they are actually used as foil. The core of the banquet is friendship, which is realized by talking to the guests next door. If the sociality of banquets is compared to dancing, it can be said that Chinese banquets are like group dances, while western banquets are like ballroom dancing for men and women. It can be seen that the purpose of friendship between Chinese banquet and western banquet is obvious, but Chinese banquet is more about the friendship of the whole banquet, while western banquet is more about the friendship between neighboring guests. The more obvious difference from China's diet is the buffet which is popular in the west. This method is: all the food is displayed one by one, and everyone needs what they want, so they can move freely without being fixed in their seats. This way facilitates the emotional communication between individuals, without putting all the words on the table, and also reflects the respect of westerners for individuality and self. But each eats his own food, does not interfere with each other, and lacks some China people's mood of chatting and having fun.
So in the final analysis, it is the difference between sensibility and rationality. However, this difference seems to be blurred with the development of science. More and more people in China are not only concerned about the color, smell and taste of vegetables, but also about their hygiene and nutrition. Especially after SARS. Also, because people are getting busier and busier at work, they think Chinese food is too much trouble to cook, so it's better to have a hamburger or something. In this way, the difference in diet is not obvious.
Fourth, the differences in cooking methods.
In China, cooking is an art, which attracts people in China who take food as their greatest pleasure, and has a strong interest, even some banter. For China, cooking is as important as music, dance, poetry and painting. There are too many cooking methods in China: sliding, stewing, roasting, stewing, steaming, frying, crisp, stewing, roasting, stewing, frying, casserole, drawing, and so on, and the dishes made are even more dazzling. The change of Chinese food technology is more complicated. Many dishes are time-consuming and have too many decorations. Many of them are inedible, which not only wastes raw materials, but also may not be effective. There is a saying in China Kitchen: "A chef's craft is divided into three parts and the materials are divided into seven parts", which emphasizes the importance of the chef's personal choice of raw materials and the use of different grades, that is, the standard of raw materials plays a decisive role in the cooking.
Westerners emphasize science and nutrition in diet, and the whole process of cooking is carried out in strict accordance with scientific norms. When cooking is standardized, the work of chefs becomes extremely monotonous mechanical work. Furthermore, the purpose of westerners' eating is to absorb nutrition. As long as the nutrition is up to standard, everything else can be tolerated. Therefore, it is definitely meaningless for a chef to repeat mechanical work every day with an extremely tolerant attitude towards diners. Western cooking methods are not as complicated and changeable as those in China. Western food is three-dimensional and edible, and most of the food put on the plate can be eaten. Ornaments are the side dishes of the main course. The raw materials of western food are mostly fresh, pollution-free, natural and natural in operation technology, so as to give full play to its original flavor. Don't use too much dry goods. Milk is an indispensable raw material in western food. Suppliers have further standardized and standardized raw materials according to their characteristics, and chefs no longer judge and decide which raw materials to use simply based on their own experience.
Five, the difference of dining etiquette
In terms of etiquette, the difference between China and the West is even greater. In the dining process in ancient China, there was a set of red tape. Book of rites? "Qu Ji" contains: "* * * does not have enough food, * * * does not eat well. No food, no food, no food, no biting bones, no fish, no dog bones, no harvest, no rice. No chopsticks, no soup, no catkins, no teeth, no soup. Guest flocculant soup, the owner can't quit. The guest is a guest, and the host won't say anything. Don't bite meat, don't bite dry meat, don't simmer. When eating, the guests kneel down from the front and can take a group photo only after the meal is finished. The general idea of this passage is: when eating together, you can't eat alone. If you eat with others, you must check your hands. Don't put the extra rice back into the pot, don't monopolize the food, and don't fan the hot rice. After eating, the guests should get up and clean up the dishes on the table and give them to the host. The host will get up and tell the guests not to work, and then the guests will sit down. Some of these manners are also necessary in modern times.
In western-style banquets, the host usually serves only one dish to the guests, and the rest is eaten by the guests themselves. If the guests don't want it, they won't persuade others to eat it, and they won't toast and take food to the guests frequently according to the habits of China people. Don't make any noise when eating, but guests should pay attention to the food prepared by the host. If you talk to people, you can only talk to your neighbors, not to people far away. The specific differences are as follows.
In terms of clothes, in China, people can wear casual clothes in restaurants, even T-shirts and jeans, and only at important banquets will they wear grand clothes. But when going to high-end restaurants in the west, men should wear neat tops and leather shoes; A lady should wear a suit and shoes with heels. If formal clothes are required, men must wear ties. Don't wear casual clothes to eat in a restaurant.
The seats are different. In China, guests are usually seated after they arrive, and the seats are arranged in the order of seniority. The seats are "Jingdong" and "Chaomen". In the west, generally speaking, the seat facing the door farthest from the door belongs to the hostess, and the opposite is the host's seat. The seat on the right of the hostess is the first guest seat, usually a man, and the seat on the right of the male host is the second guest seat, usually the wife of the guest of honor. Western countries are dominated by women and pay attention to gentlemanly manners.
In the order of serving, in China, the first dish is soup, followed by dry rice and other staple foods, and then the last dish is fruit that promotes digestion; In western countries, the order of serving is usually vegetables and soup, fruit, table wine, staple food, and finally dessert and coffee.
The food was put on the table differently. Chinese food was served at one time, and everyone enjoyed all the dishes. In western-style dining, everyone has his own set of tableware, and one dish is eaten before the other. In terms of food requirements, China does not need guests to finish all the dishes, while in the west, it is a courtesy and respect for the host to finish it by himself.
Sixth, the difference of dining utensils.
The tableware in China is mainly chopsticks, supplemented by spoons, and there are cups, plates, bowls and saucers of various shapes. China pays attention to the coordination of the shape, size, color and dishes of tableware, and pays attention to the beauty of utensils. It regards diet as an artistic activity, not only for a good meal, but also for a beautiful artistic enjoyment.
Westerners mostly use metal knives and forks, mainly stainless steel or silvered, sterling silver and other tableware, as well as various cups, plates, cups and saucers, which also perform their respective duties and cannot be mixed. However, western food doesn't emphasize artistic beauty as China people do in plate loading and side dishes, and the types of tableware and the shapes of dishes are also monotonous. In short, Westerners pay attention to the content of food, while China people emphasize the form of dishes and the feelings gained from them.