Chinese Cuisine Gets Its Closeup With Documentary ‘A Bite of China’
"The most widely-viewed food film of this year is probably one you’ve never heard of. Called “Shejianshang de Zhongguo” in Mandarin — variously translated into “A Bite of China,” “Tasting China,” “Taste of China” or “China on the Tongue” — it deserves your immediate attention."
This says it all, almost. It's a not exactly a food documentary but it is about the cuisines and history of China. The seven episodes are not quite 1 hour long. Totally fascinating. Highly recommended. In Mandarin with subtitles.
Here's the original article...
http://zesterdaily.com/world/chinese-cuisine-gets-its-closeup-with-bite-of-china/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=chinese-cuisine-gets-its-closeup-with-bite-of-china
Here's the YouTube episodes link...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRHNa9...
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I flicked through it and have also recently watched 4 episodes of 'Exploring China: A Culinary Adventure', in which Ken Hom and Ching-He Huang toured China to demonstrate the basics of each of the regional cuisines.
Can't say that either have changed my impression that Chinese cuisine consists of producing a few variants of stodge (slimy, encased in steamed dough, overcooked, drowned in oil, drowned in sauce, gelatinous, and fermented are a few that come to mind) using all of about 5 cooking techniques - with a bit of cruelty to animals, ecologically-destructive practices, and ridiculous superstitions to season it.
No troll, and I'm willing, by way of demonstration, to put together screenshots of all the food from any episode of the documentary to prove my point. I've attached a preview, because this is the revolting boiling cauldron of beef and lamp (?) livers that happened to be visible when I closed the Youtube tab.
›4 Replies
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re: mugen
TheCarrieWatson
Jan 30, 2013 10:11 AM
Ooooooookaaaaay.
Isn't that a little like saying that all Mexican food consists of refried beans and gooey cheddar cheese?
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re: mugen
TheCarrieWatson
Jan 31, 2013 09:24 AM
I got the impression that you already had a strong opinion about Chinese food and probably didn't have any intention of having that opinion changed. "Confirmation bias", I think it's called. I haven't seen the show yet though, so I can't attest to its quality. It was your blanket assessment of Chinese cuisine that I didn't agree with.
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re: mugen
Gio
Jan 31, 2013 10:19 AM
It was your blanket assessment of Chinese cuisine with which I don't agree. You must be a tremendous expert on Chinese food to summarily dismiss the cuisine of an entire nation, one with many provinces with varying culinary origins. A country whose history goes back many centuries. A country that has had global impact for many generations. A country whose regional variations and differences have caused the development of a cuisine with as much diversity and influence as any European nation and more.
You must have been exposed to all and everything China has to offer: street vendors, high end fine dining restaurants, holes-in-the-walls, Chinese home cooking with Grandmothers to have the authority to cancel out the food of an entire country.
Or is it that you know what you like and you don't like that...
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This is the essence of what CH is about. Sharing. Thank you so much. I've 'bookmarked' it.
Have you seen this series? http://vimeo.com/30959868
Go to the top right of the page to 'see all'. Quite something.›2 Replies-
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re: Puffin3
TheCarrieWatson
Jan 29, 2013 06:21 PM
Thanks for posting that link - I've never heard of this site. Man, there's a lot of stuff on there. Watching "The Middle Way" right now. Very well put together and compelling production. A lot of these are just beautiful, and I like the very manageable short duration of them. You can enjoy a couple in between other things w/o a big time investment. Gorgeous stuff.
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