Differences between Chinese and American food culture Essay

The histories, boundaries, population, religions, politics, folks, economy of America and China are not the same, so the food culture of the two countries are not the same. Chinese culture starts from 1,700,000 years ago. When someone says something about Chinese food culture, they must praise the color, taste, smell, shape of the Chinese dish and the types of the dish. Most of people in China are used to have rice and wheat as their daily main food resource. Meat is not the major food for us. Chinese people always believe that rice, wheat, vegetable, fruit are the best for our health. In contrast, meat would give more troubles to our health, for example, heart attack, high blood pressure, and etc. It is because the population pressure, we should have the rice and wheat for the main food, we do not have enough meat to eat. We eat vegetable to help pharynx the main food, for the main food is not delicious, the function of vegetable in china is like salt. Chinese cook should decorate the food, so the food which is not delicious becomes more delicious and wonderful. Because of handicraft industry in china is develop, the technology of processing the food is the second to none in the world. These are the characters of Chinese food culture. The technology of processing the food in China is very develop, a lot of food that the foreigner thought is unable to eat can be made when you see it, your appetite will develop at once. We eat every thing if possible. we do not have any taboo. The writings about aid the famine are a lot, so we can know which potherb can be eaten when the famine comes. Dining is the first require in China, we thought eating food is a happy thing. We can not eat full and dress warm in the past years, so eating has the special position in Chinese lives. American people mostly have meat as their food resource. The most important is that they mostly have beef, chicken, shrimp, turkey, instead of pork and lamb. The food style gives American people much more energy than we have. They are much stronger than us. That is the fact! For meat is delicious in nature, American do not need to decorate their food, it limits the development of the cook. When they are rich, they use the dining tools to represent their rich. They do not purse eat because it is easy content for them, they purse love instead. Americans do not daintily the details of the food, it is not excessive too, it is in a popular style, it is voluntary the whole day. In restaurants, you can easily find hamburger, steak, ribs with a little rice and a piece of bread, because their live style are so fast. The styles that Chinese and Americans eat are very different too. In China, any dinner party has a form that everyone sits around the table. We use round table in the banquet, it means solidify, manner and having the common habits. The delicious dinner is placed in middle of the table. People toast for each other and take vegetables to others. It shows the respects and comity among people in front of the fantastic thing. Although this kind of eat method has obvious shortages in sanitation, it matches the common thought â€Å"reunion† of our race. In American dinners, though the food and wine are important, actually that is a setoff. The purpose of the party is making friends. They make friends by chat with their neighbor. It also represents Americans personality and respect. When Americans have meals, they do not allow people make a noise, they do not allow take vegetables for others, do not allow smoking, do not allow compelling others drinking wine, do not allow take off clothes in public, do not allow discuss sickening. If you have finished food in a restaurant, you should leave a ten per cent tip for lunch, fifteen per cent for dinner. The tip should be calculated on the basis of the total before the addition of tax. The method we drink tea is the quintessence of our country, it has a long standing. When we drink tea, we emphasize clear and elegant. We daintily the matching of the tea and tea cups. There are many kinds of tea cups in China. Chinese rarely hold on tea party, if there are some, the hosts themselves pour tea for the guests. Chinese like drinking tea instead of drinking coffee. But Americans like drinking coffee, they also drink tea, they hold tea parties sometimes. The conversation is the core of the party. The tea party is a place where can train the diplomat. The dining tools between the two countries are different. Chinese use chopsticks. The thin and long chopsticks cannot be used to cut food, so we usually use our teeth to act as knives. We hold our food, meat or vegetable, with the chopsticks, send them to the mouths, bite off a part of it and remain the other part on the chopsticks. That’s the usual way we eat. We are also used to hold up our bowls when having rice or soup. The etiquette in the America requests that when eating, bowls and plates cannot leave the tables. Food should be cut by knives to fit into the mouths. Of course your mouth cannot touch the plates or bowls. So the regular process is like this. You cut your steak on the plate with fork and knife, send the meat cube into the mouth with fork and nothing will be returned back but the fork alone.