What's the difference between western food and Chinese food?
By Betty Deng
@bettydeng5 (1822)
China
November 24, 2009 2:35am CST
Some people think Chinese food is too greasy. But I thihk Chinese food is more delicious and nutritious.How about the western food? what's the difference between western food and Chinese food?
3 responses
@BART78 (2927)
• Canada
24 Nov 09
obviously the different is the method, western-style food is simple but chinese food is complicated, in cook book alone, western-style food varies ingredients such as the flour, sugar, butter etc, have been indicated several grams, cups, and spoons but for chinese is not that easy, because chinese cookbook doesn't tell you how grams of each ingredients..
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
24 Nov 09
Chinese cookbooks adapted for Western cooks do give the quantities of ingredients. I always use quantities as a guide only, however.
Chinese cooking is mainly distinguished by the amount of preparation that is needed before cooking. The actual cooking time is often the bare minimum needed to make the meat and vegetables palatable. Western cooks tend to be unused to spending a long time in preparation and often find Chinese recipes time consuming as a result.
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
24 Nov 09
In my experience, Chinese cuisine is much less 'greasy' and healthier than Western cooking. The principles behind Chinese cookery are all very sound: less meat and more vegetables; minimum cooking time (which means more time spent in preparation but results in a much healthier meal); a minimum of oil and fat and salt used in cooking.
Of course, China is a large country with many different styles of cuisine, so it's dangerous to generalise but I believe that the above sums up the main differences. Western cooking (especially in America, Britain and Europe) tends to have far too much meat these days and a rather poor balance of the different kinds of protein and carbohydrate. We, in the West, eat far too much pre-processed, factory produced food and not enough fresh meat and vegetables. Most of us could cut our meat consumption by 60% or even 75% without any ill effect. I am not a vegetarian - I like meat and think that it is naturally part of the human diet - but I do think that most people, especially in the West, eat far more than is healthy for us.
@OrangJuice (687)
• China
24 Nov 09
Yes, betty, I agree with you. People always think Chinese food greasy and MSG-added. (I confess some dishes in restaurants are really cooked in this way.) I think it's a one-sided opinion.
As I'm a Chinese and I also cooked, the real Chinese food is tasty and nutritious.
I think the difference between Chinese food and western food is obviouse. Such as cook styles, Chinese food uses more methods, such as fried, steamed, stired, boiled, ... It's said 18 kinds, I don't know if it's really.
And also material, such as oil, western food always uses olive oil or butter.
And also material, such as oil, western food always uses olive oil or butter.