Chinese Culinary Facts

Chopsticks

The origin of chopsticks has been lost in time but the fundamental use remains the same. When you pick up a morsel of food with chopsticks, you are forging the correct ration of sauce-to-meat, thereby ensuring harmony. When you pick up with a spoon, or worse, mash it against your fork with a knife, you are disrupting the Yin Yang universal harmony.

Knives are forbidden!

No Chinese dinner table would ever feature knives. All the cutting is done in the kitchen and a chef would not deem himself skilled if he cannot present a meal which all the diner has to do is eat.

No seasoning at table!

For the same reason, no salt or pepper cruet sets are offered because to season your food after the cook has spent hours preparing it, is a gross insult.

Noodles for longevity

Noodles symbolise long life and are always served at birthdays and special occasions when long life and age are revered. Cutting noodles at the table before you eat them is also be bad for long life.

Chickens symbolise the Phoenix and rebirth

Many Chinese restaurants serve poultry with their heads still on. This is because all poultry symbolises the Phoenix rising from the ashes to be reborn and no-one wishes to come back into this world decapitated!

Golden Promise

Anything that resembles gold, either phonetically or visually, is deemed good for prosperity. The word tangerine has the same sound as the word gold in Cantonese, so oranges are always given out during Chinese New Year.

Rounding things up

Anything round is perceived as perfect such as the moon and the sun. Roundness also signifies harmony as can be seen in the circular symbol for Yin and Yang. Hence, banquet tables are always round, cakes are round in shape and spring rolls are not only round, but represent the shape of early Chinese currency.

Symbolism of foods