On the Differences between Chinese and Western Dietary Cultures

Summary: The differences between Chinese and Western cultures have created the differences between Chinese and Western dietetic cultures, which come from different ways of thinking and philosophy of life. China people pay attention to "harmony between man and nature", while westerners pay attention to "people-oriented". This difference in value concept forms the characteristics of Chinese food, which expresses the meaning with food and conveys the feelings with things. It pays too much attention to the meaning, color and shape of food, and basically pursues color, fragrance and taste. China people with extensive thinking characteristics rarely consider the nutrition of food for thousands of years. Westerners insist on the basic characteristics of practicality of food from beginning to end when cooking. From the point of view of nutrition, they don't pay attention to the variety and despise other functions of food, so they don't leave a deep impression on people except for some complicated rules of eating western food.

In China, cooking is an art; In the west, cooking is a kind of labor.

Keywords: food culture, food concept, taste, nutrition, diet object, eating manners

For China people, we began to taste Chinese food when we were born, so we will be more or less tired of Chinese food. At the same time, we are in the form of economic globalization. The entry of western food into China has made us feel fresh, which makes us have the desire to enter western fast food restaurants to taste western food or western fast food different from Chinese food. To eat western food, we must understand the difference between western food and Chinese food and eat some. Secondly, with China's entry into WTO, China's contacts with western countries have become more and more frequent, and China people have more and more opportunities to go abroad. When going to western countries, when in Rome, do as the Romans do, it is inevitable to dine with westerners. In order not to be ignorant, we must also understand the dining style and etiquette of westerners. Only from this perspective, this paper briefly talks about the differences between Chinese and western food cultures, hoping to provide some reference for us in China to understand the western food culture.

First, two different dietary concepts

Compared with the China diet which pays attention to "taste", the west is a rational dietary concept. Westerners pay attention to scientific diet, pay attention to nutrition, and take nutrition as the highest criterion. Eating is like adding fuel to a biological machine, with particular emphasis on the nutritional components of food, whether the contents of protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and various inorganic elements are properly matched, whether the calorie supply is just right, whether these nutritional components can be fully absorbed by the eater, and whether there are any other side effects. These questions are asked by the university in cooking, and the color, fragrance and taste of the dishes are second-class requirements. Even in France, the leading food country in the west, although its food culture is similar to ours in many aspects, when it comes to nutrition, the two sides have pulled away.

Western diet has almost no art because it pays too much attention to nutrition. The scientific composition of various catering products is clear at a glance. At banquets, people can pay attention to tableware, materials and services, and pay attention to the collocation of the shape and color of the raw materials of the dishes, but no matter how luxurious and high-grade, from L.A. to new york, steak has only one taste, and there is no art at all. As a dish, chicken is chicken and steak is steak. Even if there is collocation, it is only carried out in the plate, with a plate of "French steak" with mashed potatoes and lamb chops beside it. And China is very particular about "five flavors harmony", that is, on the basis of attaching importance to the natural taste of cooking materials, this harmony is guided by the basic laws of Yin-Yang and Five Elements, which should conform to the time sequence and pay attention to the season, and the final result of harmony should be delicious and palatable. Therefore, almost every Chinese dish has to be blended and cooked with more than two kinds of raw materials and various seasonings. That is, home-cooked dishes are usually cooked with vegetarian dishes, such as fried pork with leek, fried garlic sprouts with sliced meat, braised pork with yuba, and fried dried bean curd with celery ... If these raw materials are cooked in the west, shredded pork with milk and boiled leek with white water, or fried pork chops with boiled garlic sprouts with clear water, China diners will naturally "cry and laugh" if they see this Chinese dish cooked in the west.

Because of the importance attached to nutrition, Westerners eat more vegetables raw, not only tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce, but also cabbage, onions and broccoli. Therefore, their "salad" is like a plate of rabbit feed, which makes it difficult for us to accept. Modern China people also talk about nutrition and health care, and know that once vegetables are heated, vitamins will be destroyed, so we advocate stir-frying with strong fire. Although this also reduces the content of vitamins, it will not be completely lost, but it tastes much better than rabbit feed. Therefore, China's modern cooking aims at the best balance between nutrition and taste, which is of course a kind of "golden mean". Western cooking also pays more attention to nutrition but ignores taste, at least not to enjoy taste as the primary purpose. They eat with cold drinks, and ice cubes are added to the chilled wine. Once the taste nerves all over the surface of the tongue are chilled, they greatly lose their taste sensitivity and gradually become unable to distinguish taste. The bloody steak, great white fish, great white meat, raw vegetables, boiled beans and boiled potatoes, although they have a "taste" into the "Tao", all of which reflect westerners' neglect of taste. Their refusal to use monosodium glutamate is more than enough to prove that this generation belongs to people who don't know the taste, and they are not guests who know the taste!

To be fair, talking about nutrition also touches the biggest weakness of China's diet. Although we pay attention to dietotherapy, food supplement, and food support, and attach importance to keeping healthy and strengthening the body through diet, our cooking takes the pursuit of delicacy as the primary requirement, resulting in many nutrients being lost in the processing.

we have always regarded the pursuit of delicacy as the primary purpose of eating. There is a folk saying: "Food is the most important thing for the people, and taste is the first thing to eat". Although people always say "good color, smell and taste" when praising food, it is because our sensory organs "eyes, nose and mouth" are arranged in this order. People's inner feelings about "color, fragrance and taste" have always been "taste".

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diet culture difference between China and America. This article can be referred to:) ~

The main difference between Chinese and American eating habi. ts is that unlike, where everyone has their own plate of food, in China the dishes are placed on the table and everybody shares. If you are being treated by a Chinese host, be prepared for a ton of food. Chinese are very proud of their culture of food and will do their best to give you a taste of many different types of c uisine. Among friends, they will just order enough for the people there. If they are taking somebody out for dinner and the relationship is polite to semi-polite, then they will usually order one more dish than the number of guests (e.g. four people, five dishes). If it is a business dinner or a very formal occasion, there is likely to be a huge amount of food that will be impossible to finish.

A typical meal starts with some cold dishes, like boiled peanuts and smashed cucumber with garlic. These are followed by the main courses, hot meat and vegetable dishes. Finally soup is brought out, which is followed by the starchy "staple" food, which is usually rice or noodles or sometimes dumplings. Many Chinese eat rice (or noodles or whatever) last, But if you like to have your rice together with other dishes, you should say so early on.

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On the differences between Chinese and American food cultures

Abstract With the continuous improvement of people's economic level, people's requirements for food quality are getting higher and higher. Therefore, food culture has gradually become a topic of concern. With China's closer integration with the world, many new things are pouring into China, including diet. For example, in some cities in China, similar to McDonald's, KFC's restaurants have mushroomed. China's food is also world-renowned, and wherever there are Chinese, there must be China restaurants. In the United States, China restaurants are everywhere, and China restaurants have a history of one hundred years in the United States. It is precisely because China people went to all parts of the world and brought our food culture with them, and foreigners gradually entered China to spread their food culture, so a variety of different food cultures coexisted. In today's society, many people taste food from different countries with curiosity, but few people really understand the differences of food culture.

Keywords China; United States; Diet; Differences

Introduction

As the saying goes, "Eating, clothing and shelter are the three major things when going out", and "eating" is the first thing, which shows the importance of "eating" in the eyes of China people. Diet is a culture in China. Diet and daily life is a topic that people often talk about. With different regions, there are also significant differences in living habits, and food culture is often the most significant representative of this difference. Xu Xiong (21) pointed out that the differences in food culture between Chinese and American people can be said to be caused by different factors such as culture, customs, atmosphere, historical connotation, nutritional values and economic conditions of the two countries. Nowadays, people only think that the biggest difference between Chinese and American food cultures lies in that most people in China eat rice with chopsticks and spoons. Americans, on the other hand, eat steak and bread with knives and forks. In fact, these are only superficial differences, but there are still deeper differences, which are often ignored by people, for example, the differences in dietary concepts? Different eating habits, different ways of eating, different eating habits, different cooking methods, and different objects of "eating" and so on. These differences are the root of the differences between Chinese and American food cultures. These differences will be explained in more detail below.

(1) Different dietary concepts

When it comes to China's food culture, many people will praise China's recipes and the color, aroma, taste and shape of Chinese food. Many characteristics of China's diet are reflected in the diet culture, which directly affects the development of China's diet culture. Because of the great population pressure in China and other reasons, the diet of China people started from the pre-Qin period, which was mainly grain, with less meat and more food, supplemented by vegetables. This is a typical meal structure. Among them, rice is the staple food, while vegetables are for eating and helping the rice to swallow. Why do you want to help you swallow? That's because the staple food is not delicious, and there must be a substance to help people eat it. Of course, the function of vegetables is similar to that of salt, but it is not the same as salt. The primary purpose of this promotion of China's cooking is to decorate the diet and make the unpalatable food exquisite; It is precisely because our nation has been at a low level of productivity for thousands of years, and people always do not have enough to eat. Therefore, people in China regard the pursuit of food as the greatest pleasure in life, and eating becomes the first requirement. Xu Wangsheng (1993) pointed out that Chinese people attach great importance to "eating", and the proverb "Food is the most important thing for the people" shows that we regard eating as important as the sky, so there will be a unique food culture that values eating above everything else. The reason why China people can eat as they please is largely forced by the days when China did not have enough to eat.