Flour Food

Flour food has been popular with the Chinese people since ancient times. Flour of various materials is used to make all types of delicacies using an awful lot of cooking ways, such as steaming, boiling, frying, roasting, frying and stewing etc. Common flour food include noodles, dumplings, wontons, stuffed buns, steamed bread and so on.

The Chinese flour food culture originated from the Yellow River Basin, where simple flour food was made in remote ancient times. In the Spring and Autumn Period, flour food was generally referred to as “cakes”. There appeared things similar to steamed bread, boiled dough slices, fried pastry and noodles etc. And there were cooking utensils like pans and steamers especially used for making flour food.

In the Tang and Song Dynasties, Chinese flour food underwent further development. Meanwhile, exchanges with other countries on flour food were carried out. As a result, various flavors and styles of Chinese flour food took shape in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, when large-scale pastry bakeries were mushrooming in the market. Well-known products included palace pastry in Beijing and Jiuyuan stuffed buns in Sichuan.

Flour food has a long history in China. Take the most common type, noodles, for example. Noodles can be dated back to the Eastern Han Dynasty according to historical records. They are a type of food made into long and thin strips through rubbing and pulling dough pieces formed by pressing or rolling flour dough. Noodles can be boiled, stir-fried, braised or deep-fried. It is said that during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Gao Ze, Emperor of the Northern Qi Dynasty, loved eating tangbing (soup with dough slices, similar to today’s noodles). So much so, he held a banquet and treated his court officials to tangbing.

Noodles are considered as a symbol of longevity in China. That’s why a “tangbing feast” would be held as a birthday celebration on the third day of a baby’s birth, the completion of its first month of life, or the first birthday. There’s a saying in China that goes like this: “The best Chinese noodles are in Shanxi and the best Shanxi noodles are in Taiyuan.” There are numerous types of noodles in Shanxi. The cooking ways are special, with great emphasis on the vegetables and meat served with the noodles. The main types include hand-pulled noodles, knife-sliced noodles, rubbed noodles and helou noodles (made from coarse food grains) etc.

Well-known noodles in other parts of China include Fried Sauce Noodles in Beijing, Plain Noodles in Shanghai and Hand-Pulled Noodles with Beef in Lanzhou, to name just a few.

With an equally long history as that of cuisine styles of China, Chinese flour food is a key component of Chinese food culture as well as an invaluable cultural asset. As time goes by, the flour food culture will definitely be carried forward and further developed, spawning more and more innovative flour delicates combining tradition and modern styles.

                                                         面食

面食自古以来就深受中国人的喜爱。人们用各种面粉制作了各式各样的美味佳肴，而且烹饪方法也很多，像蒸、煮、煎、烤、炸、焖等等。最常见的面食有面条，饺子，馄饨，包子和馒头等等。

中国的面食文化起源于黄河流域，这里在远古时代就已经有面食了。在春秋时期面食通常被称作“蛋糕”。那里还出现了一些类似于馒头，煮面皮，炸油糕和面条等的食物，而且还有很多专门为制作面食准备的厨具，像平底锅、蒸笼等等。

在唐朝和宋朝，中国的面食得到了进一步的发展。同时也开始与其他的国家进行有关面食的贸易。最终，各种风味的面食都在明清时期具体成形，而且此时众多的糕点铺也都如雨后春笋般在市场上涌现出来。最著名的面食还是北京的宫廷糕点和四川的九园包子。

面食在中国有着悠久的历史。以最常见的面食—面条为例：据历史记载，面条最早可以追溯到东汉时期。（那时）面条是一种长条形的食物，主要是通过挤压或者轧的方式使生面团成为长条状。面条可以煮、炒、焖或者炸。据说南北朝时期，北齐的皇帝高泽，很喜欢吃汤饼（有汤的面皮，类似于今天的面条），所以他就以汤饼来宴请群臣。

在中国面条是长寿的象征，所以人们会在小孩出生后的第三天、小孩满月以及小孩周岁的时候，都举行一次汤饼宴来庆祝。中国有句俗语是这样说的：“中国最好的面条在山西，山西最好的面条在太原”。山西有很多种不同风味的面条,而且面条的制作方式也很特别，它们着重强调荤素的搭配。其中主要包括拉面，刀削面，揉面以及helou 面（一种用粗粮制成的面条）等等。

中国其他地区比较有名的面条还有北京的炒面，上海的阳春面以及兰州的拉面，这些只是其中的一小部分而已。

和中国烹饪一样历史悠久的中国面食，是中国饮食文化的重要组成部分，并且还是一种无价的文化遗产。随着时光的流逝，中国的面食文化必定会继续前行并得到更为深入的发展，结合传统饮食和现代风味的特点，创造出更多新鲜美味的食物。