Food groups

• As mentioned earlier, Chinese are not too concerned about eating within the five food group guidelines. There is more emphasis on how to eat to balance yin and yang. High importance is placed on freshness and flavor of produce or food. A typical Chinese's meal usually consists of rice, soup and three to four side dishes. Dishes are made of seasonal vegetables, fresh seafood or bite-size portion of meat or poultry. Because
  broccoli
  
  Chinese expect to have fresh fruit and vegetable in their daily meals, it is not difficult to comply with a provider's suggestion to increase intake of these items. However, it might be more of a drastic change to ask an anemic Chinese patient to add more meat to her diet to help control her anemia. Again, in Chinese food, meat portions are usually small, and often used for the purpose of flavoring the dish or soup. It might be helpful if the provider recognizes the challenge of increasing meat intake and suggests culturally appropriate ways to do so. For example, the patient could add meat to dishes that were originally purely vegetable (e.g., adding chicken to boy choy, minced pork to green beans, or beef to Chinese broccoli, aka "gai lan".
  
  Grains and carbohydrates - Rice, Noodles, Buns
  
  Rice and noodles are a very important part in the Chinese diet. Rice and noodles are equivalent to potato and pasta in the western diet. Handfuls of bite-sized meat and vegetables accompany the rice and noodles. Almost every meal uses rice. The different types of rice are sweet rice, long grain rice, short grain rice, jasmine rice, and brown rice. The different ways to prepare rice are steamed rice, rice soup, fried rice, and pot rice. People living in south China especially consume large amounts of rice. On the north side of China, people consume more noodles or steam buns (bread). Polished rice (white rice) contains 25% carbohydrates and small amounts of iodine, iron, magnesium, and phosphate.4 For brown rice, the bran part has not been removed from the rice. In the old days, only the poor Chinese people ate brown rice, but now studies show that brown rice actually contains more vitamin B than the polished rice. There are many processes involved before the white rice is ready for the market. Rice is treated most respectfully in China. Every grain of rice represents a hardship of labor. Parents always tell their children to finish every grain of rice in the bowl; otherwise, they will marry someone with a pimple-scarred face.
  
  Noodles
  
  Chinese noodles come in different sizes and shapes. They can be cooked in the soup or stir-fried, which is known as "chow mien." Noodles are usually served for breakfast, lunch, or late snacks. During birthday celebrations, noodles are served to symbolize long life. The longer the noodle, the longer the life will be for the birthday person. Accompanying meat and vegetables are chopped up into small pieces and stir-fried or steamed. A dinner meal usually has soup in the middle, surrounded by 3 to 5 main dishes of vegetables, seafood, and poultry dishes.
  
  Buns and breads
  
  Chinese bakeries carry pastries and sweet buns filled with delights such as red bean paste, egg custard, BBQ pork, or coconut cream. Families eat them on the run for breakfast, or to curb a midday snack attack. Hong Kong bakeries are known for their wide variety of baked and steamed buns, which may have been influenced by English high tea culture during British rule of the colony. Northern Chinese are known for their fluffy white buns, which may be served in place of rice during meals. In the US, we often see these white buns served with Peking Duck.

  Chan 14 Apr 2008, 11:32 - Report

Chinese Food Culture