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Chinese Food IS the Solution:
Ancient Chinese philosophy has a very important influence in Chinese food culture. Let's first look at a very interesting picture:
This is the traditional symbol for the forces of yin and yang, sometimes described as two fish swimming head to tail. The left half is yin and the right half is yang. Taken literally, yin and yang mean the dark side and sunny side of a hill.
People commonly think of yin and yang as opposing forces. However, it is really more appropriate to view them as complementary pairs. The Chinese believe problems arise not when the two forces are battling, but when there is an imbalance between them. Floods, divorce, or even a fire in the kitchen - all can be attributed to disharmony in the forces of yin and yang.
How does the concept of yin and yang relate to food?
A basic adherence to this philosophy can be found in ANY Chinese dish, from stir-fried beef with broccoli to sweet and sour pork. There is always a balance in color, flavors, and textures.
However, belief in the importance of following the principles of yin and yang in the diet extends further.
Certain foods have yin properties, while others have yang properties - Cooling or warm, fat or non-fat, high-calorie or low- calorie, and etc.
Almost no foodstuff is purely yin or yang - it's more that one characteristic tends to dominate. It also reinforces that it is not so much the individual ingredients, as the the balance and contrast between ingredients in each dish, that is important. Interestingly, cooking methods also have more of a yin or yang property, as the list below demonstrates.
Cooking Methods:
Yin Qualities
Yang Qualities
Boiling Deep-frying
Poaching Roasting
Steaming Stir-frying
Types of Foods:
Yin Foods Yang Foods
Bean Sprouts Bamboo
Cabbage Beef
Carrots Chicken
Crab Eggs
Cucumber Ginger
Duck Glutinous Rice
Tofu Mushrooms
Watercress Sesame Oil
Water Wine
Chinese food emphasizes on consuming a diet that contains a healthy balance between yin and yang. You'll find most Chinese dishes are made of a mixture of ingredients and each meal is made up of a combination of dishes.
That's why:
You always get a cup of steamed rice for every entree
There is usually vegetable mixed with meat entree
A fried dish usually comes with a steamed dish or soup
I know you have already realized that Chinese food is healthy and balanced food that is good for your health.
Actually according to a survey held by the food industry,
72.4% people think that Chinese food is healthy
89.3% people like Chinese food
67.8% people would like to cook Chinese food if they know how
Before you start looking for vitamin pills or supplements, start eating a health and balanced diet from today.
Heart-Healthy Shopping (19 Feb 2007)
Over the next several days you will be receiving additional installments in this series. If you are truly serious about learning how to eat a heart healthy diet, I hope you will take time to read each one carefully. In fact, it would probably be a good idea to print out each installment and save it so that you can refer to it in the future.
5 Tips for Making Your Vegetarian Diet a Heart Healthy Diet as We (18 Feb 2007)
In this, the first installment of the "5 Tips for Making Your Vegetarian Diet a Heart Healthy Diet as Well!" mini-ecourse, we are going to discuss: "Heart-Healthy Cooking."
Chicken and Pork Adobo (13 Jan 2007)
Chicken and pork adobo is a delicios philippino dish! it is also great served with rice. I personally like the chickken adobo but pork is great to! I hope you like the recipe!
Poncit (07 Jan 2007)
Poncit is a very tasty traditional philippino dish. You usually use thin noodles and it is sort of salty. My mom usual makes this dish alot and i really like it
Soimai (05 Jan 2007)
Siomai
Siomai is a dimsum of Chinese origin which is also quite common in the Philippines. One can order different kinds of siomai but the base is always pork. The ground meat should have some fat otherwise the cooked siomai will be too tough. I tried to experiment on chicken siomai some years back and made the mistake of taking out the skin and fat and it turned out to be tough. Prawns or shrimps can be substituted for part of the pork if desired. For the binder, some use flour or corn starch but I find it to leave a raw taste so I use egg instead (proportion is 1 egg to 1 kg pork). I strongly recommend adding vegetables to give the dimsum some crunch and for nutritional reasons too. If desired ¼ cup of chopped mushrooms or black ear fungus and 1/3 cup fresh or frozen green peas can be added to the recipe below:
Ingredients
1 kg ground pork (suggested proportion of fat to lean meat is 1:3)
1/3 cup chopped water chestnuts or turnips (singkamas)
1/3 cup chopped carrots
2 medium or 1 large minced onion(s)
bunch of spring onions or leeks
1 egg
5 tablespoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon salt
50 pcs. large or 100 pcs. small wanton or siomai wrapper
soy sauce, calamansi (lemon or kumquats), sesame oil and chilli paste (for the sauce)
Directions
Mix all the ingredients for the filling in a bowl.
Spoon 1 tablespoon of mixture into each wrapper. Fold and seal.
Meanwhile, boil water and brush steamer with oil.
When the water gets to a rolling boil, arrange the siomai in the steamer and let stand for 15-20 minutes, longer for larger pieces.
Serve with soy sauce, calamansi and sesame oil. Chilli past is optional.
Update: Someone asked me for the recipe of chilli paste and siomai wrapper that's why I'm reproducing it here.
Siomai Wrapper
Ingredients
1/4 cup water
1 egg
1 tablespoon vegetable or corn oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Directions
Beat egg and mix with flour till free of lumps.
Bring water, cooking oil and salt to a boil, then pour in flour.
Remove from heat and beat until mixture forms a ball.
Divide the dough into 1 1/4 -inch balls.
Roll each ball on a floured board until paper thin. Set aside.
Simplest version of chilli sauce would be to chop chillies well and fry them in oil, sesame or vegetable oil, never olive oil if you want it to have an Asian taste.
The chilli paste found in restaurants is a combination of chillies, garlic and oil. Combine chopped chillies and mashed garlic then simmer for around 20 minutes or till most of the water has evaporated. Add oil, simmer and stir well.
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