Ironically I once made an Italian (like authentic northern Italian recipe, may have been CIA, not gabagool Yankee Italian) mushroom soup for my family in Wuhan and they thought it was too oily.
Wuhanese people have deep fried dough (油条） for breakfast
How much of that is traditional Chinese food though, vs. food that Chinese people have started eating in the last century?
Or in other words, were Chinese people using tons of soybean oil back in the 1800s? Not saying they weren't, but it wouldn't surprise me if they weren't
Anecdotally, I’ve eaten dinners cooked by poor rural grandmothers and it’s still pretty oily.
Yeah, I know, but oil is pretty dirt cheap and has been for a while. What poor peasants eat today, or even 50 years ago, could be different from what they were eating in 1850.
I think they may have put on some fancier dishes for guests. My grandmother used to have mantou and a hard-boiled egg for breakfast. And some pickled mustard tubers for flavour.
Yeah, she's from the north. Another food item I didn't really get was just plain Coogee/rice porridge with a few slices of pickled radishes. No sauce or oils of any kind. Just wet rice to start the day.
As a Chinese from China, that channel has been very accurate but I've noticed with a slight southern bias. E.g. with se stir frys he cooks each ingredient to about 90% of the way done, takes it out, repeat until the end and then combines them for like 45 seconds to finish
Which does end up with a less greasy end product but I generally see 小炒 where I'm from which is throwing ingredients into the same wok at different times, from things that require the longest time to cook to those that require the least.
Chinese restaurant food is completely different from home cooked Chinese meal. They use a lot of oil and seasoning, they deep fry almost everything, including vegetables before stir frying. It's all based on getting repeat customers, but this applies for all restaurants especially fast food. You're not supposed to be eating restaurant food on a daily basis, maybe once or twice a month.
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Ironically I once made an Italian (like authentic northern Italian recipe, may have been CIA, not gabagool Yankee Italian) mushroom soup for my family in Wuhan and they thought it was too oily.
Wuhanese people have deep fried dough (油条） for breakfast
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How much of that is traditional Chinese food though, vs. food that Chinese people have started eating in the last century?
Or in other words, were Chinese people using tons of soybean oil back in the 1800s? Not saying they weren't, but it wouldn't surprise me if they weren't
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Yeah, I know, but oil is pretty dirt cheap and has been for a while. What poor peasants eat today, or even 50 years ago, could be different from what they were eating in 1850.
I think they may have put on some fancier dishes for guests. My grandmother used to have mantou and a hard-boiled egg for breakfast. And some pickled mustard tubers for flavour.
that sounds a lot less oily.
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Yeah, she's from the north. Another food item I didn't really get was just plain Coogee/rice porridge with a few slices of pickled radishes. No sauce or oils of any kind. Just wet rice to start the day.
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Also watch Li Ziqi, she makes traditional Sichuan food in very pretty videos. Well known in China.
As a Chinese from China, that channel has been very accurate but I've noticed with a slight southern bias. E.g. with se stir frys he cooks each ingredient to about 90% of the way done, takes it out, repeat until the end and then combines them for like 45 seconds to finish
Which does end up with a less greasy end product but I generally see 小炒 where I'm from which is throwing ingredients into the same wok at different times, from things that require the longest time to cook to those that require the least.
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Chinese restaurant food is completely different from home cooked Chinese meal. They use a lot of oil and seasoning, they deep fry almost everything, including vegetables before stir frying. It's all based on getting repeat customers, but this applies for all restaurants especially fast food. You're not supposed to be eating restaurant food on a daily basis, maybe once or twice a month.