Hunan cuisine (which is also known as Xiang cuisine) comes from the Hunan province in south-central China. Dishes from this region tend to be hot and spicy thanks to the liberal use of chilies and can be found on the menu of many Chinese restaurants.
Dim sum actually comes from Cantonese-style Chinese culinary traditions. This Americanized tradition is fashioned after the custom of feasting on a variety of pastries and dumplings in China’s teahouses.
You probably already know there are different types of rice, like long grained white rice and the round sticky rice used to make sushi. Care to guess how many types of rice are cultivated around the world? The answer is 40,000. Yikes!
You know soy sauce is a traditional Chinese condiment, but it actually started life as a salty fish preservative. Care to guess what other popular condiment may have been developed with soy sauce as an inspiration? That would be ketchup.
Did you know that one of the first Chinese domesticated sources of protein was the dog? Dog and pig both were farmed up until around 6000 BCE. Currently, pork is the number-one animal protein and in fact comprises 70 percent of all animal protein consumed on a yearly basis.
When sitting down to Chinese cuisine you may notice a lack of cheese. That's because the country of China isn't known for unique cheeses like many other countries. Unlike Western cuisine, Chinese food doesn't incorporate dairy products on a regular basis, concentrating more on rich sauces, vegetables, and rice or noodles.
