The color of  food

A: Chinese food stresses color, smell and taste. Is this correct?

B: correct. This is why people also refer to food as ‘mei shi’, meaning beautiful food. The primary element is color because only a good color combination can arouse peoples’ appetite. Color is emphasized in home cooking as well. Color combination is at its best with some of the traditional household dishes, such as tomatoes with eggs or baby onions with tofu.

A: I assume color combination is stressed even more with major culinary styles.

B:Yes.There are eight major culinary styles in china. Color combinations reflect the local features of each style. Take Guangdong food for example. Because it is hot and humid there, people are mindful of the heat on their internal organs. Therefore Guangdong food is mild in both taste and color combinations. You don’t find a lot of hot and spicy food in Guangdong dishes because warm colors in the hot summer can be repulsive to people’s appetite. Sichuan food is just the opposite. Sichuan is also very humid but unlike Guangdong, Sichuan people choose to use extremely hot peppers to open their stomach.

A:Absolutely right! It is very strong and uses a lot of red color. Shanghai food, on the other hand ,uses a lot of oil and soy sauce. On the surface ,this style doesn’t seem to go along with Shanghai people’s preference for delicacy and tenderness. But if you take a closer look at the lifestyle in Shanghai, you will be able to appreciate why this is so .Once I was invited to dinner with a Shanghai family and they cut the fish into two portions, saving one portion for another meal. So the four of us ended up sharing half a fish, together with a few other dishes, none of which were very big. This is when I came to understand the role of thick oil and soy sauce.

B:You seen to suggest that milder dishes are short on the rich taste while dark color dishes are short on fun. Are there any culinary styles that combine the best of everything?

A:I would say Shandong food. Shandong food tends to highlight taste and color in order to satisfy the appetite for both.

B:That’s an interesting observation.

A:This is similar to knowing a person from Shandong. At first sight that person may look tough and unrestrained, but once you get to know him better, you will find he is in fact very refined and sensitive. Only people with such qualities can develop a culinary style that is at once neutral and balanced ,and able to appeal to all appetites.