China's food culture has a long history, broad and profound, far-reaching influence and is popular all over the world. After thousands of years of historical development, it has become an excellent cultural heritage of the Chinese nation and a bright pearl in the treasure house of world food culture. Some western countries used to be colonies of some countries, and immigrants from various countries gathered together. Therefore, these countries are deeply influenced by the food culture of various countries, eclectic and combined with their own eating habits, forming a mature and self-contained food civilization.
The differences between Chinese and western cultures have created the differences between Chinese and western food cultures, which come from different ways of thinking and philosophy of life.
Differences between Chinese and Western Dietary Concepts
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 pay special attention to whether the nutritional components of food are appropriate, whether the calorie supply is just right, and whether these nutritional components can be fully absorbed by consumers and whether there are other side effects. They try to keep the original flavor and natural nutrition of food, instead of pursuing the perfection of color, fragrance, taste and shape of food. Even if it tastes the same, even if it is like chewing wax, they will eat it. Westerners eat nutrition. They rarely or hardly associate diet with spiritual enjoyment. It embodies a strong practical and utilitarian purpose in diet. Westerners believe that diet is only a means of survival to satisfy hunger, but it adopts a more scientific, standardized and reasonable way. 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 is mechanical and inflexible in cooking skills. Steak is steak and chicken is chicken. All kinds of vegetables will never be mixed, and there will not be many tricks.
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 and shape" and pursue an indescribable artistic conception. Simply put, what China people eat is taste, and "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.
The beauty of harmony is the essence of China's cooking art. For example, the famous Fujian dish "Fotiaoqiang" contains chicken, duck, pork tendon, abalone, sea cucumber, pork belly, shark's fin and other main ingredients, as well as several auxiliary materials. In this way, the personality of the finished product is completely buried, but the whole product is radiant, similar to the China people's golden mean of belittling personality, emphasizing average and harmony.
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.
Differences between Chinese and Western Dietary Contents
Westerners have inherited the cultural lineage of nomadic and marine peoples, mainly fishing, hunting and breeding, supplemented by gathering and planting. They eat a lot of meat, wear animals, and even western medicine is made of animals. Pay more attention to protein and fat intake of animals. Diet structure, mostly animal dishes, mainly beef, chicken, pork, mutton and fish. Therefore, the proportion of meat in the diet has always been high. In modern times, the proportion of cultivation has increased, but the proportion of meat in the diet is still higher than that of China people.
Because China has been a big agricultural country since ancient times, coupled with population pressure and other reasons, China people's diet has been dominated by cereals since the pre-Qin period, with less meat and more food, supplemented by vegetables and plants. 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. Usually eat more "vegetarian dishes" and add meat dishes during the New Year. This eating habit is deeply influenced by Buddhist culture. Buddhism believes that animals are "creatures" and creatures cannot be killed, let alone eaten. In addition, Taoism forbids eating meat and fish, which makes vegetarianism popular in China and promotes the development of vegetable cultivation and cooking technology, especially the development of bean products. 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 has tended to merge.
The difference between Chinese and western food content is also manifested in the fact that westerners like cold food and cold dishes. From cold dishes to salads to cold drinks, cold dishes are indispensable on the table. Westerners eat more vegetables, not only tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce, but also Chinese cabbage, onions, cauliflower and broccoli. People in China like to eat spicy food, except that the side dishes in front of the main course are cold and the main course is hot. 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.
Differences between Chinese and Western Cuisine
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 further standardize raw materials according to their characteristics, and chefs no longer judge and decide which raw materials to use simply based on their own experience.
Differences between Chinese and western diets
The way of eating, that is, how to eat, is obviously different between China and the West. In China, whether it's a family dinner or a formal banquet, people will sit around for dinner and enjoy a seat. People toast each other and exhort each other to show the virtues of mutual respect and friendship and the atmosphere of harmony and 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. In the process of eating, China people don't need others to distribute food in advance, but take what they need. The amount of food eaten by diners or the proportion of food eaten by each person to the total food is uncertain. Westerners are used to eating separately, and there is a special person to distribute food first, which is a ration for one person. At western banquets, although people sit together, their food is served separately. You don't have to have a fixed seat, you can walk around freely, which can not only fully satisfy your personal preferences for food, but also facilitate social interaction and emotional and information exchange between individuals, and you don't have to make all activities public at the dinner table. This way of eating fully reflects Westerners' respect for human nature and self, and emphasizes individual independence.
In addition, the differences between Chinese and western food cultures are also manifested in the differences in 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 and color of tableware and dishes, and pays attention to "beauty". Delicate food should be matched with exquisite utensils, and attention should be paid to harmony. Dishes and utensils should be harmonious in color decoration, form and space. To regard diet as an artistic activity, we should not only have a good meal, but also get a beautiful artistic enjoyment from it. Westerners use metal knives and forks and all kinds of cups, plates, cups and saucers. However, western food doesn't emphasize the artistic beauty of dish loading and dish dividing like China people, and the types of tableware and the shapes of dishes are 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. In recent years, with the improvement of the quality of life, China's tableware is emerging with a new look of "specialization, diversification and combination", adding new ideas and interests to daily family dining. The west has also begun to pay attention to the design of tableware, and various styles of tableware have appeared on the market. These tableware usually have colors and patterns, and appear in various styles, which are decorative and interesting. They are sold as gifts.
There are obvious differences between Chinese and western food cultures, each with its own strong points. With the acceleration of economic globalization and information exchange, Chinese and western food cultures will merge in collision and complement each other in integration. Nowadays, Chinese food has begun to pay attention to nutrition, health and scientific cooking; Western food has also begun to develop into the realm of color, fragrance, taste, meaning and shape of Chinese food. Chinese and western catering cultures will develop together in communication, and people will enjoy more delicious, faster and more nutritious food.