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Starters, Snacks & Soups

Starters, Soup & dim sum

No tourist destination in China would be without a collection of little food stalls at the entrance, selling all kinds of onion cakes, noodles, dumplings, steamed buns and fresh fruit or nuts. The Chinese are great snackers, although these days some of those snacks are as likely to come from packets as to be bought freshly made on the street.

However, there is a strong tradition throughout China of teasing the appetite before a meal by sharing a selection of small, cold dishes, which might include cold meats, such as sliced goose with soy sauce, jellyfish, a fish dish, like Whitebait with Green Chilli, pickled vegetables or a marinated vegetable, such as Marinated Soya Beans. These might well be on the table before diners sit down or, in a restaurant setting, represent the Chinese equivalent of amuse bouches in French culinary culture.

Soups which are almost exclusively clear soups, are particularly important in Chinese cuisine. Soups are used as a tonic, as preventative medicine, and to help protect the body from extremes of weather. Dishes such as shark's fin soup or snake soup are expensive, prestigious, gourmet delicacies, served at banquets or on other important occasions. A basic chicken stock is vital to the Chinese kitchen, often forming the base for the daily soup. Simply simmering a few different ingredients in a base stock can transform the flavor and appearance into something quite new. Sometimes such soups, with many different meats and vegetables added, resemble meals in their own light, but they are almost always light, even such an impressive soup as Whole Chicken Soup. Soups, such as the delicate Sichuan Pumpkin Soup, also serve to freshen or cleanse the palate after a series of spicy Sichuan dishes. Thus there are no rules as to exactly when during the meal the soups should be served. While high-class Chinese restaurants might serve diners separately, elsewhere a huge tureen is almost always brought to the table, and diners simply serve themselves and others. Soups are normally drunk, rather than eaten with a spoon.

Spring roll

One of the most important snack foods in China is Cantonese dim sum, an array of dozens of dishes including steamed and fried dumplings and buns, savory or sweet, small bowls of noodles or congee, and items such as chicken's feet. This popular snack or urea' can be taken at any time from breakfast to lunch, together with tea. The skilled dim sum chef is revered as an artist, and few people would ever attempt to prepare dim sum in their own kitchens. The great southern weekend tradition of yum cha (literally 'to drink tea', but including the eating of dim sum) is a high social occasion for family and friends outside the home.