Taste hotpot and peking roast duck to experience Chinese food culture
Almost all dishes of Chinese food are, as a rule, cooked in the kitchen by stir-frying, shallow frying, deep frying, stewing, steaming, etc. and then presented to the diners. Only the chafing dish merges the cooking and the eating processes. What is more, the cooking apparatus is placed on the table and fire is made to burn from the beginning to the end of the dinner. Doesn't this remind you of the way of eating our remote ancestors were habituated to? Even now, in our times, those who eat together around a chafing dish must be family members or close companions. They are your good friends, if not brothers. Doesn't this smack of a deep feeling of perfect human relationship? Especially in deep winter, when the north wind is howling and snowflakes are flying, what can surpass dinning around a chafing dish for the enjoyment of life and sincere human relationship?
It is obvious that for Chinese people the pleasure and delight of dining together is afforded not merely by the taste and flavor of the food and the drink. What must be included in addition to the sensuous excitement is the joy of human relationship which is specific to the dining table. The various kinds of Chinese cooked food gives embodiment to the group consciousness and cultural spirit consisting in unity, harmony and complete blending. For example, dishes of Chinese food, whether prepared by frying in shallow oil, stir-frying, steaming, boiling, stewing, roasting, or deep-frying, almost always have the principal element mixed with the seasoning and cooked together with it. Such a dish is to be served as one entity. Historically, there has never been an occasion when meat or fish and salt or pepper are brought to the table in this country as separate units.
Some famous big dishes styled as "The Whole Family's Fortune", "The Buddha Making a Trespass over the Wall", "The Hegemonic King Bidding Farewell to His Beloved Consort (before their tragic ending)", etc. are representative of the harmonious blending of several principal foodstuffs, or elements, all the more so because their respective tastes are blended far beyond distinguishment. What is more, according to the views expressed by China's experts in the fields of culinary art, nutriology and dietotherapy, such harmonious blending conduces to compatibility and mutual enhancement of tastes of two foodstuffs which are opposite in certain respects. This is a highly scientific method for producing excellent cuisine.
The method used at first in China for roasting a duck was almost the same as that used in the Western world for roasting a goose. It was called "roasting duck in the hermetic oven". As a matter of fact, its main features were essentially those that characterized the Western mode of preparation of roast goose. An oven was built by laying stones or bricks. A fire was made to burn inside the oven, so that a large amount of heat was absorbed by the walls of the oven, and the duck placed in the oven later was roasted by the heat dissipated by the walls until it was well cooked.
Epicures contend that roast duck is most palatable in three seasons, namely winter, spring and autumn. The reason is that the flesh of Beijing duck is full and tender during winter and spring. In the fall the sky is clear and seems higher as a result, the air is refreshing, and both the temperature and humidity are appropriate for making roast duck. What is more, duck are generally fat and stout at that time.
August is the time when air is crisp and temperate for the season. It is the proper occasion for tasting roast Beijing duck. How can you count yourself as one who has been to Beijing if you have not eaten any roast Beijing duck?
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