The Art of Ordering Chinese Food for Festivals
"Ordering food is an art in itself, considering seasonality, flavor, price, ingredients, and combination. When choosing a restaurant, it's best to determine its signature style rather than opting for one that claims to offer everything. Normally, one should be familiar with the five major Chinese cuisines, or ask the waiter to recommend one or two signature dishes. For frozen and fresh ingredients, emphasis is placed on being in season and freshness. When ordering, you also need to consider the pairing and quantity of dishes. For example, for four people, 3-4 cold dishes, 3-4 hot stir-fries, one main course, one soup, and 1-2 dim sum dishes are usually sufficient. The dishes should emphasize a balance between meat and vegetarian, rich and light flavors, and dry and wet textures, using various cooking methods, and avoiding repeated ingredients as much as possible.
Understand your guests' tastes: The general taste profile for domestic guests is 'sweet in the south, salty in the north, spicy in the east, and sour in the west.' Hong Kongers generally prefer light flavors, while Americans like dishes that are light, fresh, tender, refreshing, slightly spicy, not too sour, and sweet with a hint of salt. British tastes, on the other hand, are for light, sweet and sour, and mildly spicy flavors. Be mindful of guests' dietary restrictions: For example, in Islam, pork is forbidden; for Buddhists, vegetarian dishes are recommended; and for Indians, beef should not be offered.
The general serving order for Chinese food is: Appetizers --- Main Courses --- Dim Sum.
Appetizers: Usually consist of a large platter with four cold dishes. Sometimes, there can be as many as ten types. The most representative examples are jellyfish salad and century eggs. After a number of cold dishes, four hot dishes may follow, commonly including stir-fried shrimp or stir-fried chicken. However, the hot dishes are often omitted.
Main Courses: These follow the appetizers and are also called 'main dishes' or 'large dishes,' served at an appropriate time. If the menu specifies 'Eight Great Dishes,' it means there are eight main courses in total. The number of main courses is usually an even number, such as four, six, or eight, because Chinese people consider even numbers to be auspicious. At a lavish banquet, there can be as many as sixteen or thirty-two main courses, but typically, there are six to twelve. These dishes are made from various ingredients, combined with the five flavors of sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and salty, and prepared using a variety of cooking methods like frying, steaming, boiling, pan-frying, roasting, and stir-frying. They are paired with light and rich flavors, or with dry-braised dishes and soups. The course concludes with a soup.
Dim Sum: These are the sweet desserts served after the main courses, such as pies, cakes, buns, and almond jelly, followed by fruit.
Meanings of Common Dish Names:
"Baiyu" (White Jade) usually refers to shrimp, but sometimes it can mean tofu.
"Feicui" (Jadeite) generally refers to green peas, broad beans, or bell peppers.
"Furong" (Hibiscus), "Xuehua" (Snowflake), and "Xueshan" (Snow Mountain) all refer to egg whites.
"Mudan" (Peony) can be either a pattern made with cooked eggs or a dish with tremella fungus.
"Baihua" (Hundred Flowers) is a mixture of minced shrimp and minced pork fat.
"Jin gou" (Golden Hook) refers to soaked dried shrimp, while "Yin ya" (Silver Sprouts) is mung bean sprouts.
"Shuijing" (Crystal) and "Boli" (Glass) usually refer to meat jelly.
"Shanhu" (Coral) is shredded white radish tossed in chili oil, while "Jinsi" (Golden Threads) refers to shredded carrots.
"Er dong" (Two Winters) are mushrooms and winter bamboo shoots, while "Shuang cui" (Double Crisps) are chicken gizzards and pork tripe.
"San si" (Three Strands) has many variations, but it generally involves selecting three types from a variety of strands, such as bamboo shoot shreds, pork shreds, chicken shreds, egg skin shreds, bean curd skin shreds, eel shreds, green pepper shreds, or potato shreds.
"San xian" (Three Treasures) can include ham, mushrooms, winter bamboo shoots, eggs, pork, chicken, shrimp, or pork tripe.
"Wu cai" (Five Colors) refers to five colors: red, yellow, green, white, and black, which are typically ham, winter bamboo shoots, green peas, fresh mushrooms, and soaked mushrooms.
"Ba bao" (Eight Treasures) is complex, but generally includes ham, duck gizzards, soaked mushrooms, fresh mushrooms, bamboo shoots, chicken breast, and soaked sea cucumber.
"Fenghuang dan" (Phoenix Eggs) are hard-boiled eggs coated with minced pork, first baked and then steamed.
"Qiang huwei" (Stir-fried Tiger Tail) is stir-fried tail section of eel.
The southern "Shizitou" (Lion's Head) is the same as the northern "Sixi Wanzi" (Four-Joy Meatballs).
In Shanghainese cuisine, "Longfeng" (Dragon and Phoenix) refers to shrimp and chicken, while in Cantonese cuisine, it refers to snake and chicken.
Dishes with names containing "Zhenzhu" (Pearls) or "Mingyue" (Bright Moon) will contain either quail eggs or pigeon eggs. Dishes with "Xiangu" (Fairy) in the name will definitely contain fresh mushrooms.