In the contemporary society, almost every
detail about food is industrialized. From the raw material, processor, producer,
transportation and wholesale, general food industry business mans only keep
their eyes on the goal “less time, less space and less money”. I hold the view
that those industrialized food we get from supermarket is only presenting its
hollow shell rather than full spiritual inside. To be specific, a incredible
percentage of cook tool we human beings are using is metal, such as iron pot is
most common stuff in Chinese kitchens. I feel the world of food becomes
unnatural and unbalanced by full filling with the “grey” and “cold”
industrialization. Traditional and natural food making processes are regarded as
inefficiency and old by most of people nowadays. Gradually, people lost their
direction on the way to finding healthy food. However, few people are still
insist in using traditional ways to make food. For example, using natural and
traditional container to cook food.
There is a group of people who
prefer heritage the traditional food culture and keep using ethnic and ancient
cooker and food container all the time in a peaceful and beautiful area of
China: Yunnan. As a Yunnanese, I would
definitely go after this ethnic food value: using the most natural and
traditional way to treat and cook your
food. Yunnan is my hometown where people could know the original definition of
food by seeking this food value. Even some of my Chinese friends who come from
other part of China have never heard about those Yunnan traditional cooking
style and cook tool. I believe we Yunnanese could making the most delicious and
nitrous food in this way.
People would have a basic understanding of
how Yunnan people using the most natural and traditional way to treat and cook
your food by listing some Yunnan cuisines. Be specifically, steam pot chicken,
Stone steam pot fish, over-the-bridge rice noodle, cooper hot pot and mini jar
rice noodle are typical Yunnan food that represent Yunnaneses’ love of natural
materials.
First of all, I’d like to introduce the
steam pot chicken. The chicken soup is cooked in a pottery steam pot by the
heat of steam. The pottery would be putted in hot water. The steam of the water
would enter the team pot through a tube. The soup has good protein flavor and
the chicken is soft and juicy. Similarly, fish also would be cooked in a stone
steam pot. Hot steam has much higher energy than hot water and food could be
cooked in a short time. Secondly, the over-the-bridge rice noodle is another
famous Yunnan food. After the chicken soup is boiled, it will be served in a
big bowl. Then, adding raw pork slices, smoky meat, a raw quail egg and raw
vegetables into the soup. After 5 minutes, adding rice noodle and stir it. The
over-the-bridge rice noodle is done. Finally, mini jar rice noodle is quite
popular in Yunnan too. Rice noodle is cooked in a mini pottery jar with a tiny bottleneck.
During the process of cooking, people do not need a top of the jar to keep the
flavor and water be evaporated because the narrow bottleneck. The taste of the
mini jar rice noodle is great because most flavor and nutrient is “locked” by
the narrow bottleneck of the mini pottery jar.
Further more, I think people like me who
believe and follow the goal “using the most natural and traditional way to
treat and cook your food” because three
main reasons: ethnic impacts, Chinese philosophy of balancing yin and yang
effects, as well as unique geographic position and ecosystem influences.
First of all, ethnic impact
plays an important role in the Yunnan’s food tradition. Yunnan is unique
province in China because it’s ethnic kaleidoscope. “Of China’s 56
recognized nationalities, 24 live in Yunnan – making up a third of its 41
million inhabitants” (Carol, 15). Each
of nationalities in Yunnan has their own languages, architecture and other
cultures. More importantly, varies food cultures from the 24 diverse
nationalities have a huge impact on Yunnan food culture. Most of people from
the 24 minority nationalities inhabit in rural areas in Yunnan where are far
away from major cities. They keep using their specialized traditional ways to
cook their food with natural materials. For example, Dai has the fourth
population in minority nationalities in China and Dai people cook rice in
Bamboo. Raw rice would be putted inside of bamboo. After the bamboo is sealed,
it will be boiled in hot water until it is done. Bamboo rice tastes sweet,
sticky and soft with the wonderful smell of bamboo. More importantly, it’s
health and natural.
Secondly, Chinese philosophy of
balancing yin and yang is also crucial factor. The Chinese philosophy of
balancing yin and yang equals to Chinese nutrient theory. To be specific,
“foods which are categorized as hot or cold are not based on their physical
appearances but from their taste, methods of preparation and their physical
effects on the body via observations and personal experiences.” For example, “Oily,
high calorific or strongly spiced foods are commonly classified as hot foods
while bland or low calorific vegetables are labeled as cold foods” (Wu, 24).
Obeying the rule of nature is the key element in the philosophy of balancing
yin and yang. For example, fish is grow up in stream ways and it is familiar
with water and stone. Yunnaneses obey the rule of nature and cook fish in Stone
pot (stone). Furthermore, instead of boiling the fish by electricity or BBQ the
fish by fire, Yunnaneses cook the fish by steam (water). This is how the Chinese
philosophy of balancing yin and yang strongly influences Yunnan people to cook
in a natural way.
Except
ethnic impact and influence of yin and yang philosophy, Yunnan’s geographic
position and biodiversity is the third major factor of Yunnanese’s dietary guidance “using the most
natural and traditional way to treat and
cook your food”. “Yunnan has great diversity —to the south rest Viet
Nam, Laos and other Southeast Asian countries. Yunnan food- stuffs are unique.
Our culinary traditions do resemble those to the south, as many non-Han Chinese
people live in the province” (Sartor, 48). Yunnan is a unique Alpine region
where “A massif with more than four climate zones within similar latitudes can
be found everywhere in the province. This unique climate creates varied
habitats and provides diversified bios for the province” (Yang, 815). In
stem of the special climate and topography in Yunnan, Yunnan is regarded as the
paradise of animals and plants in China, as well as the nature kingdom of flora and fauna. “There are more than 18000
high plant species (51.6% of China’s total), 1836 vertebrate species (54.8% of
China’s total) and 15000 seed plant species (50% of China’s total) in Yunnan,
where the land area is 39.4 × 104 km2, which is only 4.1% of China’s total” (Yang, 817). By the influence of
multi-culture and multi-region, as well as available adaptive environment for
living organisms, Yunnan people have the strength to make the local cuisine
reach the highest diversity only with natural materials. There is a species of hot pepper called “Ten-Thousand
Year’s Hot Pepper” that is only habit in Yunnan. This kind of hot pepper is
super hot. Yunnanese would soak them in a bowl of water and cook food with the
“pepper water”. One or two drop of the water is good enough to make spicy food.
In America, I observe that people would store chili sauce bottle in the
kitchen and use it when people want spicy food. Compared with Yunnan’s “pepper
water”, the chili sauce bottle contains more harmful chemical materials and
pigment that are unhealthy.
According to my research, the claim “using the most natural and traditional way
to treat and cook your food”
would still be my manifesto when I cook and chose food. I believe choosing
natural material and cook it in a natural way could help me keep healthy. Even
I am an international student in America, I would try my best to choose natural
food to eat or cook by my self. I bought a pottery soup cooker and I usually
would making Yunnan style soup during the weekends. I would share my soup with
my friends and they love it and tell me they feel it is healthy too. Some
times, I would tell my foreign friends about Yunnan food and the cooking
process. They told me they were curious about it and they could not wait to try
them and watch how Yunnanese cooks those food. I promised I would take them to
Yunnan and let them try those food. I deeply believe we are lost in the chaos
of the modern food culture. We really should take time to slow down and go back
to the origin of the food, go back to nature and go back to traditions where we
could find balance and healthy.
Work Cited
Yee-man Wu. "Food and
Health: The Impact of the Chinese Traditional Philosophy of Food on the Young
Generation in the Modern World." Nutrition & Food Science 95.1
(1995): 23-7. Print.
Valerie Sartor. "Yummy
Yunnan." Beijing Review 53.29 (2010): 48. Print.
Turner, Carol. "Yunnan,
China: Minority Peoples Observed." Asian Affairs 36.1 (2005):
12-34. Print.
Yang, Yuming, et al.
"Biodiversity and Biodiversity Conservation in Yunnan, China." Biodiversity
and Conservation 13.4 (2004): 813-26. Print.
Jianfei Li"
The promotion video of Yunnan at Shanghai Expo 2010." Expo 2010
SHANGHAI CHINA.CNBN, Inc., 11 Oct. Web. 1 Jun. 2012.
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