Ingredients

    A wide variety of material choices allows Chinese food to provide many possibilities for Chinese chefs to be more creative. These include various grains, vegetables and the meat of different animals.

    The Chinese also use poultry(家禽), eggs and milk. Poultry includes chicken, duck, goose, turkey, pigeon, quail（鹌鹑）, and pheasant（野鸡）. Seafood and freshwater fish – hairtail（带鱼）, salmon, squid（鱿鱼）, sea cucumber, oyster（牡蛎）, black carp（黑鲤）, catfish（鲶鱼）, grass carp（草鱼）, variegated carp（七彩锦鲤，鲢鳙）, shrimp, prawn（对虾，明虾）, crab, and turtle – are also used in Chinese food.

    Vegetables are also cooked, such as eggplant, bean, turnip（芜菁，大头菜，香大头）, potato and pepper(辣椒，胡椒). Dried pork and dried fish are also often used in Chinese cooking. Drying vegetables is a way to store produce(名词：农产品) to use in winter. More importantly, it has a special taste different from fresh vegetables.

Cooking Methods

    Chinese people have around 40 ways to cook. Let's take a look at a few major of the methods of cooking. 

炒（chǎo）

    Stir frying is the most common cooking method. First, the Chinese cut raw ingredients into small pieces, heat oil in a pot, then add their ingredients to the hot oil. Many Chinese chefs add spices, salt and MSG (味精, 谷氨酸钠，Monosodium Glutamate). Before plating the food, chefs add some starch（淀粉） to bind stir-fried pieces of food to the sauce in the pot. 

炝（qiàng）

    This means cutting ingredients into slices, and pouring them into boiling water for a short time. For this method, chefs add spices after draining the water. 

煮（zhǔ）

    This entails boiling food in a mixture of water and various spices.

煎（jiān）

    This means putting food on the bottom of a pot with a little oil and heating the food to golden-brown. 

炸（zhá）

    This is frequently used in Chinese cuisine. Half a pot of oil is heated to a very high temperature and food is cooked in the hot oil. In most cases, spices have been added to the food before frying.

涮（shuàn）

    It means cutting food into thin slices, briefly boiling water and dipping the food into the sauce to eat. The popular hot pot dish is typical combined with the cooking skills of 涮（shuàn）.

Branches of Chinese Cuisine

    Chinese cuisine is divided into eight major branches: Lu Cuisine, Chuan Cuisine, Su Cuisine, Yue Cuisine, Zhe Cuisine, Min cuisine, Xiang Cuisine and Hui Cuisine.

    All eight branches stress the nutrition and the artistic beauty of Chinese dishes.

1. 【只有攥紧中国种子，才能端稳中国饭碗。】China's food security can only be achieved when seed resources are tightly held in Chinese hands.    ——President Xi Jinpin - During an inspection tour of Hainan province, April 10, 2022. 

2. 【种源要做到自主可控，种业科技就要自立自强。】The country's seed sources must be independent and controllable and technologies related to the seed industry must be self-reliant.    ——President Xi Jinping - During an inspection tour of Hainan province, April 10, 2022.
   

3. 【农业现代化，种子是基础。】The seed industry is the foundation of agricultural modernization. ——President Xi Jinping -When presiding over a meeting of the central committee for deepening overall reform, July 9, 2021.

4. 【要坚持农业科技自立自强，从培育好种子做起，加强良种技术攻关】Self-dependence on agricultural technologies should start from breeding good seeds and making technological breakthroughs on certified seeds.     ——President Xi Jinping - During and inspection tour of Hainan province, May 13, 2021.

5. A seed can change a world and a technology can create a miracle.    ——President Xi Jinping - Speech at the Central Rural Work Conference in December 2013.