Chinese Food: inexpensive, nutritious, delicious... and fun!

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Since I've mentioned stoves I would like to add that, in my opinion, gas stoves are infinitely better to cook on than their electric counterparts . . . especially when you're preparing Chinese food. Heat control is so much better on the gas stove and the danger of overcooking by leaving a pan on an "off" electric ring is eliminated. But you use what you have, I guess.

I've read in several CF cookbooks that western taste buds react negatively to the flavor of some Chinese dishes and that most of the recipes commonly repeated in North American Chinese cookbooks have been selected for their compatibility with western tastes. Be that as it may, the strongest flavors I've yet encountered is that of soy and oyster sauce and I find them quite to my liking.

Actually, the Chinese are masters when it comes to accenting flavors of all kinds. There's no way to adequately describe the delicate and unique taste of Honey Chicken or the mixture of contrasting flavors in Sweet and Sour Pork . . . but, as you know if you've savored them, both dishes are delightful and impossible to forget once tasted.

Interestingly enough (considering that they handle it so well), the Chinese think of flavor as only one of three equally-important elements in their cooking. The other two aspects which they value just as highly are texture and eye appeal and—when proper attention is paid to these two qualities—the final dish can, indeed, be sheer delight.

Texture is most important in combination recipes such as Chicken Sub Gum where soft, smooth, hard and crunchy ingredients are all blended together so well that it's always a surprise and a pleasure to discover crisp wafers of water chestnut hidden among other, creamier vegetables. The variety of textures in the dish is impossible to describe . . . but certainly a distinct and delectable addition to the luscious taste of the recipe.

Close attention to both the color of ingredients and the manner in which they're sliced adds a great deal to the eye appeal of CF. Tomatoes, green peppers, celery, peas, water chestnuts, mushrooms, bamboo shoots and other vegetables are carefully chosen and blended in a good recipe with a constant awareness of the pleasing arrangement of compatible colors in the final dish.

Much of the eye appeal of Chinese food is also the result of the unusual cutting and slicing of the ingredients that go into every recipe. Chinese chefs spend up to three years in apprenticeship learning nothing but how to cut things properly!

The general idea in chopping and slicing both meat and vegetables is to cut each ingredient so that it will appear compatible with every other in the finished dish. For example, chunks do not go well with long skinny bean sprouts. When vegetables are diced, meat should be diced also . . . but, of course, experimentation is a big part of the fun in any cooking and—unless you plan to become a famous Chinese chef—there's no need to limit yourself to the strictest of these rules.

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