| Some differences are determined by climate and | | | | pork, chicken, and duck, along with soybeans, are |
| agriculture. Northern China is a land of wheat and | | | | the chief source of high-quality proteins. (Those in |
| millet, southern China a land of rice. The coastal | | | | cereal grains are of low quality for human |
| provinces, especially in the south, are naturally the | | | | consumption. This fact has led to the recent |
| experts at cooking seafood. The interior provinces | | | | invention, in Hong Kong, of a soft drink made |
| raise and prefer to eat meat. So certain | | | | from soy extracts-a possible solution to the |
| distinctions may be generalized. Mandarin cuisine | | | | problem of poor nutrition in overpopulated |
| uses wheat flour instead of rice, salt instead of | | | | countries.) The prevalence of the same major |
| soy sauce, and no sugar. It leans to lamb and | | | | foods, plus bamboo shoots and other vegetables, |
| poultry instead of the Cantonese pork and fish, | | | | in all Chinese cuisines makes them more alike than |
| and roasts or sautes the meat in preference to | | | | they are different. |
| steaming. Finally, northern food is generally served | | | | Each flowered in a particular Chinese province with |
| with meat and vegetables in separate dishes. All in | | | | the rise at some time in local history of a wealthy |
| all, these are closer to our Western ways of | | | | and highly cultured leisure class. Thus Shandong |
| preparing and serving food than is the southern | | | | was the home of Confucius, evidence enough of |
| Chinese style, which may help to account for the | | | | an advanced culture thousands of years old. |
| foreigner, unwilling to adventure in the exotic, | | | | Honan and Sichuan have been government seats, |
| finding Mandarin dishes more to their taste. | | | | the latter as recently as World War II, while |
| However, while some cattle and sheep are raised | | | | Zhejiang once boasted a class of salt mine |
| in China, almost every inch of arable land is | | | | tycoons. Shanghai, with its foreign settlements, |
| cultivated, leaving little grazing area. The grain | | | | was the New York or London of the Orient for |
| needed to feed animals yields- more food value | | | | half a century. But the greatest culinary flowering |
| when the people eat it themselves. Milk is a rare | | | | took place in Guangzhou as merchants grew rich |
| commodity, too; China's dairy-like proteins come | | | | on foreign trade.Their 19th-century descendants |
| from soybeans. But pigs and chickens can be fed | | | | developed a gracious way of life still mourned as |
| on scraps that otherwise would be thrown away, | | | | "the good old days." Social leaders rivaled one |
| and ducks catch their own food in the | | | | another in having the best cook or in creating the |
| waterways.. The pigs, incidentally, also eat wild | | | | best new dishes. Some of this one-upmanship in |
| water hyacinths that, if not eaten, would choke | | | | proud gourmandry survives in the wealthy homes |
| the borders of rivers and canals. | | | | and exclusive clubs of Hong Kong, the British |
| Consequently "red meat" of any kind is unusual, | | | | enclave into Guangdong (Canton) province. |
| rather than typical, in Chinese cookery, while fish, | | | | |