[Sca-cooks] Misha's Food question was: regional potluck)

[Philip W. Troy & Susan Troy]

Elizabeth A Heckert wrote:

>       My knowledge of Chinese geography is nil, so it didn't occur to me
> to ask where she lived in reference to Beijing or any other place I might
> recognize--I was more interested in language, and hearing about when she
> lived in one of Mao's camps.
>
>        The impression she gave me was that stir-frying was pretty
> 'normal' daily fare--she was tickled to find the kidneys, and laughed at
> the faces I made, and then laughed when I liked it.  As I said, she was
> from Hunan province originally, but came to the US from a university in
> Beijing, where she'd lived for a while.
>
>         So is stir-frying common to most of China?  If it is or isn't,
> why?

Stir-frying is found in virtually all of China, but it was my impression
that it originated in the South, for reasons discussed previously,
mostly to do with fuel and such. As it happens, I just looked at a map
of China, and find that Hunan is considerably closer to the South and
East coasts than I had supposed. Of course, this is like saying Alaska
isn't so far north, it's just over there by Canada. Very roughly
speaking, if you think of Quangdong Province (where places like
Quangzhou and Hong Kong are) as Florida, Alabama, and Misissippi, then
Hunan would be Arkansas and Missouri, neither especially northern and
western, except in relation to Quangzhou, which we all know is the
center of the world ;  ) . So this is largely my error.

However, while I do have lots of Hunan recipes that call for
stir-frying, quite a few of them involve grilling on griddles (you know,
like the Mongolian barbecue that is neither exclusively Mongolian nor
barbecued), dry-sauteeing of previously fried meats, and various other
multiple cooking processes that are different from the typical Southern,
coastal stir-fry.

I think that its use has spread to more Northern and Western parts of
China, but it has also been adapted to the tastes of the local culture.
In general Hunanese dishes seem to be less saucy, more glazed, than
you'll find further south.

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98