Tuesday, December 27, 2005 @10:20 PM
Name a quintessential Chinese dish. I guess many will provide this answer, sweet and sour pork (
咕老肉) since it is the typical Chinese dish that many non-chinese know about.
Actually this would not be my answer, though I’m Chinese and I’ve been fed mostly with Chinese food. No doubt sweet and sour pork is a Chinese dish. However there are other dishes that are more well-known than this. But for some reason, sweet and sour pork has become a typical Chinese dish in many Chinese restaurants in the West.
Have you tried this dish before? Don’t you find it a little peculiar of eating some type of food that has a combination taste of sweet yet sour?
In fact in the Chinese cuisine, in particular the Szechuan style, often contains many flavors. The main flavors are sweet, sour, bitter and hot (spicy). Even the widely known Kimchi of the Korean cuisine, crosses these four frontiers of taste.
The Chinese place great emphasis on food. Funny how it is that there is such a phrase in the Chinese language using these four main tastes, “Sweet, Sour, Bitter and Hot” (甜酸苦辣). “Sweet” is betokened as happiness. “Sour” emblematizes unpleasantness. “Bitter” symbolizes unhappiness. “Hot” connotes excitement. Doesn’t this just describe basically everything about life? Yes, it does. I think so.
Now since tastes like sour and bitter are associated with some type of negative emotions and events, why do some of us like to include these so-called negative flavors in our food? In fact these taste undoubtedly conjure up an indescribable taste to different dishes. We can basically use one word to describe it. Yummy! *rlol*. Let’s take the sweet and sour pork as an example; this dish uses both sweet and sour sauce as its main component. Yet, the combination makes the taste so aperitive (due to the sour component) and luscious sweet. However if the dish only contains one single taste, it will either be boringly sweet or uninterestingly sour only.
Have you tried some bitter related taste food? There is a type of vegetable called bitter melon/bitter gourd. It is considered the most bitter among all edible vegetables. Again, this can be found in Chinese cuisine. Not many people appreciate the acquired taste though. When I was younger, I didn’t like this vegetable at all and refused to take a single bite of any dish cooked with this melon. But one day I decided to be less stubborn and took my first bite expecting it to be really bitter. However, that dish of bitter melon with chicken turned out to be not that bitter at all. Again, the combination of the taste in that dish has created an incredible taste. The bitterness from the melon was diluted and sweetened by the taste from the chicken meat. My other favorite is bitter melon soup. I certainly experience ineffable joy in drinking the soup.
Well these four flavors describe it all about our lives. Some are happy sweet incidents. Some are bitter dramas. Sometimes we have a bit of challenge to overcome that may end up as an exciting adventure. Sometimes there are just certain annoying or helpless situations that we can’t help but feel the sourness. Well c’est la vie. But come to think about it, we do need these flavors, be it sweet pleasant or bitter annoying. This is because we just won’t appreciate or enjoy too much if life were just plainly sweet. Some sour, bitter and occasional hot further add flavors to our life. And better still, our lives are just like those food dishes, the combination of the flavors make our lives a bit more meaningful. Don’t you think life would be a little boring and dull if we just have smooth and calm days?
I was watching a drama series. One of the dialogues in the show was pretty intriguing and captivating.
Lady A: Have some oranges.
Lady B: No, some oranges are sour. I hate the sour taste.
Lady A: Well, don’t you think that’s the beauty of an orange. The ascorbic acid causes the sour taste. You need to get some Vitamin C from the oranges.
Lady B: But that’s just too sour for me. I want something sweet.
Lady A: If you just like sweet, you should just have a glass of sugar water. That’ll be just sweet and nothing else.
That’s right. Not all sourness and bitterness bring negativities. And certain things that are sweet may just look positive on surface. I guess we just have to learn to appreciate all tastes. They do bring flavors for our taste bud.
What sound's that? Did my entry make you hungry? *lol* Now maybe it’s time to rush to a Chinese restaurant to try out the sweet and sour *pork, prawn, chicken* whatever you want to name. Eh, perhaps I can get you try some bitter melon too. How about that? *teehee*
