Looking at the Chinese Approach to Cooking

You don't have to be well versed in Confucianism or Taoist principles to think like a Chinese cook, and you don't have to master fancy cooking techniques or buy a ton of kitchen equipment either. You really need only a few simple tools and the willingness to follow a few basic guidelines — not rules — that all Chinese cooks first learned as children in their own parents' kitchens.

Keep it in balance
The Chinese pay a great deal of attention to contrast and harmony in their everyday existence. Balancing yin and yang is a way to achieve harmony in your life, as well as your culinary creations. These two elements complement and contrast each other, and a thorough understanding of them goes a long way toward understanding the Chinese philosophy in the kitchen. Here's what these two terms mean:

Yin represents feminine, soft, cold, and wet forces.
Yang is masculine, bright, hot, dry, and vigorous.
So how does this harmony translate to food? Chinese classify bland, low-calorie foods as yin, whereas richer and fattier items fall within the yang category. By harmonizing the yin and yang ingredients in a dish, the cook creates a good meal that maintains a healthy balance. If this concept sounds a bit too abstract, consider the popular dish sweet-and-sour pork — a clear example of the yin-yang balance of taste (sweet is yin, and sour is yang).

Balancing isn't restricted to taste alone. You can create texture contrast by combining soft, steamed items with crispy, fried ones. Or how about contrasting the color scheme with the spiciness in a single dish? Cooking techniques as opposite as deep-frying and steaming can join forces to create meals that are not only tasty but also philosophically stimulating.


Cook seasonally, buy locally
For much of China's history, its people have had to adapt their daily menus to those ingredients available in their own gardens and at local markets on that particular day. Chinese home cooks somehow managed to turn this liability into an asset, taking limited, simple ingredients and turning them into masterpieces. The popularity of wheat-flour dumplings and noodles and of root-based dishes in northern China; the deft preparation of fresh seafood in the regions running along the country's coast; and the prevalence of fresh produce and rice dishes in the semitropical south all attest to the use of local, seasonally accessible foods.

Perhaps the best place to start is at your local farmers market. Always ask what's in season. Fruits and vegetables that are in season are abundant and at their peak of flavor, color, and texture, while those out of season are few, and their quality can be questionable. Go with the numbers, and you have a better chance at getting high-quality ingredients.


Don't see what you want in your local market? Check out the seed store, and you may turn your backyard into a healthy Asian vegetable garden. You can rather effortlessly grow many vegetables that are common in Chinese dishes in small backyard plots or gardens.

Granted, raising poultry and hogs in midtown Manhattan or catching live river shrimp in Nebraska may not be practical. Nevertheless, you should still think "fresh, fresh, fresh" when seeking these and other ingredients at your local market or your favorite butcher's counter.

Many substitutes are available for the traditional ingredients and cooking tools used in Chinese cuisine. But there is no substitute for freshness. None.


If all else fails, improvise!
Chinese chefs are experts in developing endless alternatives in ingredients and cooking methods in the face of scarcity and hardship. If you want to cook like the Chinese, you, too, should adopt a flexible approach when it comes to the availability of ingredients.

Many ingredients in traditional Chinese dishes sound foreign to novice cooks — and for good reason! Even with the ever-expanding stock of most supermarket chains, finding yard-long beans in suburban Detroit may still be a bit challenging. However, regular green beans can make a nice substitute. So be flexible: Buy fresh, crisp regular green beans and enjoy.

The next time you hit an ingredient-availability wall, don't give up on the whole recipe. Use your imagination to scope out attainable items that can take the place of ones not quite at peak freshness or still on the dock in Shanghai. No one but you will know the difference.

In all Chinese markets, you find an array of dried, pickled, salted, bottled, canned, or otherwise-preserved counterparts for seasonal or less-readily available ingredients. Take advantage of the assortment and stock up on dried noodles, grains, and dried black mushrooms, for starters.

If you don't have the time or inclination to make your own sweet-and-sour stir-fry sauce, the Asian foods section of your local store can pick up the slack with countless bottled versions. Remember that canned, sliced water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, and straw mushrooms — all easy to find — take the core out of your prep work. By throwing in a little patience and imagination, anyone can cook Chinese like the Chinese.