The highly sophisticated food culture is a unique characteristic of Chinese culture. It is probably also the best-known feature of Chinese culture by foreigners. In almost every country in world, you can find Chinese restaurants. It is said that the Chinese people is a lucky people because wherever they go, they can always have hometown food.

Chinese food appeals to senses through color, shape, aroma and taste. Chinese food's entree normally strives for three to five colors, made up of the main ingredient, with more secondary ingredients of contrasting colors and textures. They are prepared to enhance their own qualities, with the use of appropriate condiments and garnishing, enabling chef to present a delicious platter of fragrant delicious food art. In prepared dishes, scallion, fresh ginger, root garlic, wine, aniseed, cinnamon, peppercorn, etc. are used to excite people's appetites, while soy sauce, sugar, vinegar and other seasonings used discreetly for the purpose of adding some delicate tastes to the dishes and meeting as many as possible dinner-takers individual taste requirement.

Chinese food enjoys a high reputation in the world for its diversity as well. Due to different climates and customs, there are sharply varied food styles and tastes in various parts of China. Because China's local food has their own distinctive characteristics, it is now generally accepted that Chinese food as whole can be divided into eight regional cuisine families:

Shangdong Cusine. It is characterized by its emphasis on aroma, freshness, crispness and tenderness. Shallots and garlic are often used, and thin soups are clear and fresh, while the creamy ones are thick and tastes strong. The cooking techniques mainly include deep-frying, pan-frying, stir-frying.

Sichuan Cuisine. It is one of the most famous Chinese cuisines in the world. It is characterized by it spicy and pungent flavors, using chili, pepper and prickly powder. Besides, garlic, ginger and fermented soybean are also used in cooking. Common cooking techniques include frying, frying without oil, pickling and braising.

Guangdong Cuisine. Also known as Cantonese Cuisine, it tastes clean, light, crisp and fresh, and usually uses fowl and other meats to produce dishes of unique features. The main cooking techniques include roasting, stir-frying, deep-frying, braising, stewing and steaming, of which steaming and stir-frying are quite frequently applied to preserve its natural flavors. Besides, Guangdong cuisines also show a lot of attention to the artistic effects of the dishes.

Fujian Cuisine. As a combination of Fuzhou Cuisine, Quanzhou Cuisine, and Xiamen Cuisine, it is famous for its choice of seafood, beautiful color and wonderful tastes of sweet, sour, salt and savory. The most distinctive feature is its pickled taste.

Jiangsu Cuisine. Also called Huaiyang Cuisine, is quite popular in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Taking fish and crustaceans as the main ingredients, Jiangsu Cuisine stresses freshness, and its cooking techniques involve stewing, braising, roasting and simmering. Its flavors are light, fresh and sweet.

There are also other regional cuisine families with varied characteristics in China, like Zhejiang Cuisine, Anhui Cuisine, Hunan Cuisine, but Chinese medicine cuisine is truly unique and has a very long history. Sun Simiao, a renowned doctor of Tang Dynasty (618A.D.－907A.D.), once said, “Food has the function of eliminating evil influences and soothing the vital organs, cultivating one's mind and building up one's strength.” In China, people contend that food tonic is much better than medicine tonic in enhancing one's health. Based on traditional Chinese herbal medicine practice, it combines processed Chinese medicine with traditional culinary materials to produce delicious food tastes with health-restoring qualities. To cook medicine food, one has a large variety of fine materials to choose as each one has its own unique flavor. Generally, processed herbal materials commonly preferred to avoid strong odors. But in fact, the selection of herbs depends on the health condition of each individual. Due to the variety of herbal's nature, it is advisable to take medicine-valued food with the guide of a doctor's instruction or prescription. Meanwhile, in the cooking of medicinal food, slow cooking methods like stewing, braising and simmering are usually used to extract more of the herbs' healing essentials. (Source: Chinaguide)