Chinese cuisine, evolving!

I have always been fascinated about food, in general, and about Chinese food, in particular. People's Republic of China has about 5,000 years of unrecorded and recorded history and during this period, it is said that about 50,000 dishes developed. Many of these dishes were discovered because of access to new ingredients, foreign trade and subjugation, religion, new cooking techniques, extreme living conditions due to natural disasters, social unrest, surges in population and the emerging class of the rich and powerful who demand the finer things in life.

One of my favorite movies, The Good Earth, featured the life of a farming family in China and how they manage to survive during a devastating famine and drought in Northern China. At one point in the movie, the starving neighbors raided the kitchen of Wang Lung (the main character) who was cooking something and they were surprised that the Lung family was cooking earth just to stave off the hunger pains.

China has 1.3 billion people to feed and if each citizen eats an additional 10 grams of pork every day, it has to slaughter an additional 130,000 pigs (at 100 kilos of meat per pig) every single day. That is the equivalent of Cebu's entire pig population just to satisfy an increase consumption of a mere 10 grams a day.

Opportunities for a better life led to a migration of Chinese citizens to various countries in the world, including the Philippines and their cuisine had evolved to accommodate local ingredients and indigenized to suit local taste. There is also the stratospheric increase in disposable income of the Filipino-Chinese community and an emerging class of adventurous talents in the kitchen that fuel this phenomenon.

Your favorite food columnist had the opportunity to taste some of the Chinese dishes that resulted in this evolution, at the Marco Polo Plaza Cebu. In the series of Culinary Journeys, Culinary Impressions of China was interpreted by Guest Celebrity Chefs Gene and Gino Gonzalez.

Appetizers during this fabulous feast were the Lechon with Chive Cake, Minced Duck in Lettuce Wrap (my two favorites) and the Chilled Tofu with Century Egg. The dim sum section featured two new selections: the Red Curry Dumpling and the Pork & Lemon Grass Dumpling. As usual, I always ask how to best eat this dish since there were various condiments that were on display and Chef Gino instructed that each of the two dishes had an accompanying sauce. When in doubt, I always ask for proper guidance on how to best appreciate a dish.

Main dishes were the following: Wok Fried Beef with Wolf Berries, Boat People Noodle, Fish and Chinese Ham with Mushroom in Superior Stock, Fragrant Lemon Chicken and Tigers Eye Rice, served with Green Seafood Soup.

The fish dish belongs to the realm of traditional Chinese cuisine with real Chinese ham instead of a slice of Spam, excuse me, that pretends to be Chinese ham. Its saltiness permeated the slices of fish and the sauce, making the dish very pleasant to the taste.

Many diners avoided the beef with wolfberries because the latter has the appearance of kulikot (bird eye chilies) but in reality imparts a sweet taste and often used in herbal tonics. I have never heard nor tasted the Tiger's Eye Rice or the Boat People Noodle and it was a pleasant surprise that the noodle dish which appeared to be so plain and simple could really be so delicious. [email protected]