CHINA A vast country where relatively little of the land is arable. Add to that equation world's largest population and the effects of drought and flood on food crops - little wonder the Chinese have learned to make use of everything edible. Boasting one of the oldest cuisines in the world, it must also surely be one of the most diverse. Within its borders are numerous provinces with distinctive climates, produce and cooking styles. Although no two authorities seem to be in agreement as to which are most important, the diversity is well represented by just five: Canton, Fukien, Honan, Peking (Shantung) and Szechwan. The Cantonese style is characterised by its light, digestible foods which use less fat (e.g. stir-fried dishes, steamed dumplings and dim sum). The Fukien school is famous for its clear soups, seafood dishes and subtle flavours. Honan is spicy, sweet and sour. Peking is famed for delicacy of flavour. And Szechwan food is hot and spicy.
MALAYSIA Malaysia is fortunate to be conspicuously devoid of equatorial calamities such as floods, monsoons, typhoons and active volcanoes. The country still enjoys all the earmarks of its tropical situation - lush greenery, dense jungle, cool highlands, fertile deltas, swampy mangroves and golden beaches. The natives of the peninsula, Orang Asli, comprise 20 tribes and today number less than 100,000. The ancestors of the majority of Malays came from Yunnan province of south China some 4,000 years ago. Traders arrived from the West, first Africa and then India, and their religion of Islam was practised by the 15th century sultan of Malacca, as the kingdom was known in those times. The predominantly Moslem population was to experience a shift (both in its religious persuasion and accompanying dietary habits) as the result of an influx of Chinese and Indian labourers brought in by the British in the 1900s. In 1963, the Federation of Malaysia merged the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak with the peninsula. While the Chinese, Indians and Malays perpetuate their own culinary traditions, their presence has resulted in the emergence of a distinctly Malaysian cuisine. In this culinary arena shines a star player, a distinctive and innovative blend of Malay and Chinese called Nonya cuisine, the cooking of Straits-born Chinese (see NONYA). SINGAPORE The Lion City, as the name 'Singa Pura' translates, only came into its own as a vital sea port and exporter of rare and exotic foodstuffs in the 19th century. Sago, tea, sugar, cloves, coriander, cassia, nutmeg and that most sought-after spice, black pepper, were the precious cargo. By the start of the 20th century, Singapore was the cosmopolitan hub of Asia, trading in commodities such as ebony, ivory, gold, silk and cotton. The original melting pot, the culture that is now so distinctively Singaporean is the result of a mingling of many ethnic backgrounds and their time-honoured traditions. Moslems and Buddhists live side by side, Indians and Chinese cook side by side, and as a result there has been an inexorable blurring of the edges. A fusion food culture is nowhere more clearly illustrated than in the emergence of Nonya cuisine. The cuisine of the Straits-born Chinese reflects their mixed Malay and Chinese heritage (see NONYA). JAPAN Distinct from the cuisine of every other Asian country is the gastronomy of Japan. It is impossible to separate cuisine from culture and the prevailing sensitivity to nature that permeates all things Japanese. Their cookery is as much the embodiment of their respect for nature as is their art, and a sense of the aesthetic is as evident in the presentation of a meal as it is in a silk painting or ceramic form. The beauty of Japanese cuisine, of all Japanese artistic tradition in fact, is the subtle art of balance. The essence of the Japanese aesthetic can be summed up in two words: simplicity and elegance. What this means in Japanese cuisine is that food looks and tastes as natural as possible. Ingredients are always of premium quality, at their peak of freshness and, of course, in season. Unlike Westerners who try to outwit the seasonal nature of produce, the Japanese yield to the ebb and flow of climate and how it affects the availability of produce. Where is the thrill of the first ripe strawberry of the season if, by trickery or technology, that fruit is available year round? Regional produce is the fingerprint of regional cookery. Because of the insistence on freshness, this means that regional delicacies are usually only available in their region of origin with an emphasis on freshly gathered seasonal ingredients. Source: www.asiafood.org Back to Top |