Famous Chinese Dishes

There are many Chinese dishes that are well known throughout the world and even though hey may not have beer tasted by a great many, people have hard of them. For example, one of the great dishes is Birds’ Nest Soup, which is made from the mucus from the salivary glands of the small salangane The mucus is collected by boiling the nests of these birds It is a soup with a most subtle flavor.

Shark’s Fin is another rare and famous dish and. because the fins are purchased dr ed requires a long and careful preparation, after which only about half is unable. The shark’s fin is usually braised in three changes of chicken stock before it can be served. In preparing shark’s fin soup, half a catty is required for 12 servings. Only the loose shark’s fin is used, and this is prepared with shredded chicken, crabmeat, or pork in chicken stock. The finest and most costly shark’s fin soup is a clear one to which no starch is added. To allow guests to savor the delicate soups made from shark’s fin, they are served at the beginning of a banquet, a rare exception to the Chinese practice of serving soup at the end.

Another world-famous dish is Peking Roast Duck, one of northern China’s famous specialties. It is prepared from a 3-4 month-old white Peking duck after cleaning, the duck is plugged and half filled with water; it is then placed in the oven so that while the water steams he inside of the duck, the outside is roasted over a fire made from wood of the jujube, pear, or apricot tree. The duck is cooked for about three-quarters of an hour and is basted, with its own fat.

The whole duck is usually brought to the table by the chef and then taken away to be cut into thin slices which are eaten wrapped in thin crepes or in rolls covered with sesame seed. The slices of duck are usually dipped into a thin brown sauce, chopped leeks, cucumber, and scallion.

In the famous Mongolian tint Pot, thinly sliced strips of lamb are cooked in boiling water contained in a special vessel attached to a brazier. The lamb strips are picked up with chopsticks and placed in the boiling water, then taken out a few minutes later, when cooked, to be dipped in one or more of the sauces that are set out for each gust, such as soy, shrimp, pimiento, wine, chive, bean-curd, or sesame-seed sauce. To end the meal a soup is prepared using vegetables, noodles, and bean card which are added to the boiling st~k in the brazier

Sea Cucumbers are aim well known to foreign visitors, perhaps more for the distaste they arouse than the delight they bring to the palate. However, to the Chinese these small sea creatures represent one of the finest gastronomic experience possible. They are often served with abalone or fish maw so ,if you do not like the thought of swallowing the sea slugs themselves, concentrate on the other portion of the dish.

Another famous dish consists of “Hundred-Year-Old Eggs.” these, despite common belief, are not over 100 years old but have been slowly cooked by chemical reaction brought about by immersing them in a lime bath.