What are the differences between Chinese and English food cultures?

Abstract: 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. People in China pay attention to "harmony between man and nature", while westerners pay attention to "people-oriented". This difference in values forms the characteristics of Chinese food, which expresses meaning with food and conveys feelings with things. It pays too much attention to the meaning, color and shape of food, and basically pursues color, fragrance and taste. For thousands of years, China people with extensive thinking characteristics seldom consider the nutrition of food. Westerners always adhere to the basic characteristics of food practicality when cooking. From the point of view of nutrition, they don't pay attention to the diversity of food and despise other functions of food, so they don't leave a deep impression 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, food object, food style and dining etiquette.

For China people, we have been tasting Chinese food since we were born, so we are 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 gives us a sense of freshness, and makes us have the desire to enter western fast food restaurants to taste western food or western fast food different from Chinese food. When eating western food, we must know the difference between western food and Chinese food, what to eat and how to eat it. Secondly, with China's accession to the WTO, China has more and more contacts with western countries, and China people have more and more opportunities to go abroad. When you go to western countries, when in Rome, do as the Romans do, it is inevitable to have dinner with westerners. In order not to be ignorant, we must also understand the dining style and etiquette of westerners. From this perspective, this paper briefly talks about the differences between Chinese and western food cultures, hoping to provide some reference for us to understand the western food culture in China.

First of all, two different dietary concepts

Compared with China's taste-oriented diet, the West is a rational concept of diet. 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 special emphasis on the nutritional components of food, whether the contents of protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and various inorganic elements are properly matched, whether the heat supply is just right, whether these nutritional components can be fully absorbed by consumers, and whether there are any other side effects. These problems are put forward by the university in cooking, and the color, aroma and taste of dishes are second-class requirements. Even France, the leading food country in the west, although its food culture is similar to ours in many aspects, in terms of nutrition, the two sides have already pulled away.

There is almost no art in western diet because it pays too much attention to nutrition. The scientific composition of various catering products is clear at a glance. At the banquet, people can pay attention to tableware, materials and services, and pay attention to the matching of the shapes and colors of the raw materials, but no matter how luxurious and high-end, from L.A. to new york, steak has only one flavor, and there is no art at all. As a dish, chicken is chicken and steak is steak. Even if there is a match, it is only done on the plate, with a plate of "French steak" next to it, with mashed potatoes and lamb chops. China is very particular about "harmony of five flavors", that is, on the basis of attaching importance to the natural taste of cooking materials, this kind of harmony is guided by the basic laws of Yin and Yang and the five elements, which should conform to the time sequence and pay attention to the seasons, and the final result of harmony should be delicious. Therefore, almost every Chinese dish must be cooked with more than two kinds of raw materials and various seasonings. That is, home-cooked dishes are generally vegetarian dishes, such as fried shredded Chinese chives, fried garlic sprouts with sliced meat, braised pork with yuba and fried dried beancurd with celery ... If these raw materials are cooked in the west, boiled shredded Chinese chives with milk or fried pork chops with garlic sprouts with clear water, China diners will naturally "laugh and cry" when they see this western-cooked Chinese dish.

It is precisely because of the emphasis on nutrition that westerners eat more vegetables, not only tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce, but also Chinese cabbage, onions and broccoli. So 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, knowing that once vegetables are heated, vitamins will be destroyed, so they advocate frying with strong fire. Although this also reduces the content of vitamins, it will not be completely lost, but it is much more delicious than rabbit feed. Therefore, modern cooking in China aims at the best balance between nutrition and taste, which is of course a "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 cold drinks and ice cubes in iced wine. Once the taste nerves all over the surface of the tongue are chilled, they lose their taste sensitivity greatly and gradually become unable to distinguish taste. The bloody steak, white fish, white meat, raw vegetables, boiled beans, and boiled potatoes all reflect the westerners' neglect of taste. Their refusal to use monosodium glutamate is enough to prove that this generation belongs to people who don't know the taste, and they are not guests who know the taste!

In all fairness, talking about nutrition also touches the biggest weakness of China's diet. Although we pay attention to diet therapy, food supplement and food supplement, and pay attention to keeping fit through diet, our cooking takes the pursuit of delicacy as the primary requirement, which leads to the loss of many nutrients during processing.

We have always regarded the pursuit of food as the primary purpose of eating. There is a folk proverb: "Food is the first priority for the people, and taste is the first priority for food". 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".