Chef: I suppose one thing that everybody knows about Japanese, Chinese and Korean cooking is that they all use chopsticks rather than knives and forks like people in the West. The chopsticks that people use in the different countries are quite different though. In China the chopsticks tend to be made of wood and are round at the end, whereasin Korea they're made of stainless steel and are rough at the end. This is because in the past the emperor would use silver chopsticks, as they changed colour if there was any poison in the dish. They can be quite tricky to use, but in Korea people use a spoon to eat their rice. In Japan they use a variety of things to make chopsticks. Wood and plastic are the most popular now, but you can find bone, metal and even ivory ones.
If we look at the food of the different countries, it's very difficult to talk about China in general terms because it has many different cuisines. So it might be better if we look at Korean and Japanese food a little more. It's well known that Koreans tend to like spicier food and red peppers can be found in a wide number of dishes. I suppose that everybody thinks of sushi when they think of
Japanese food, but you can also find a lot of influences from all over Asia and even Europe, for example tempura, which came to Japan from Portugal. Those aren't present in Chinese and Korean food.
Traditionally, in both Japan and in Korea meat plays less of an important role than in Europe, perhaps because it's so expensive due to the lack of space for keeping animals. That said, both the Japanese and Koreans enjoy meat. Barbecues of all types are popular in Korea and beef forms the basis of many special meals in both of the countries. Now moving back to Chinese cuisine ... |
