‘Chopstick’ through central China

The visitor to China had better come equipped with a good appetite. The use of food as a tool of diplomacy and communication, not to mention sheer hedonistic pleasure, has nowhere else been so highly refined.

Not for nothing has Chinese cuisine been described as amongst the finest on the planet.

Cantonese and Sichuan cuisines, together with Beijing specialities such as Peking Duck, have given China a prime location on the world culinary map. But in fact, the essence of Chinese cooking developed much earlier, in Henan province of central China.

A culinary journey through Henan and Shanxi provinces is an exploration of the sheer subtlety and richness of these cuisines.

Around 1,600 BC, the slave Ah Yeng, from the town of Yuzhou in Henan province, developed a highly refined system of cooking that rocketed him to stardom. Later known as the chef Yi Yin, he combined flavours in a manner designed to benefit all the organs of the body.

Thus, for example, bitter flavours were included to stimulate the heart and mind, a sour taste to regulate the liver, chilli-hot ingredients for the lungs, and so forth.

Yi Yin cooked his way into Emperor Tang’s heart. The emperor became convinced of Yi Yin’s diplomatic skills, and later appointed him Prime Minister. In so doing, Emperor Tang was acknowledging the central place that food occupies in Chinese culture.

In the words of writer Valerie Sartor: “To be a Chinese cook, one must be a diplomat, an artist, a philosopher and a chemist, blending flavours, nutritional potential and beauty into a series of elegant dishes that delight and nourish the guests.”

Accordingly, it is with some sense of gravitas that I join a group travelling through Henan and Shanxi. The refined and varied cuisines of these provinces are to form for us a kind of table-piece for the whole trip, with meals becoming a central event that will define and refine subsequent perceptions.

However, one “hurdle” is the extraordinary ubiquity of baijiu, a fiery sorghum-derived liquor. Given the tactful advice of China experts that “it’s rude to turn down an offering (of liquor), so one must be prepared to deal with this hospitality”, it has to be said that learning to deal gracefully with this gracious drink takes just a little time. But it’s a learning experience well worth undertaking.

This trip starts in the ancient city of Kaifeng, which had a population of around 1.5 million about 5,000 years ago. Today, the population is around 780,000 and fast climbing once again, as new housing developments set around a scenic lake are complemented by restoration of historic city infrastructure, including the 1,000 year-old Rainbow Bridge.

The bizarrely-named “Zero O’Clock Supermarket” seems to define the constantly unexpected character of Kaifeng.

Kaifeng is also the home of the famous Yu cuisine, which developed during the Song Dynasty around 1,000 AD, building on Yi Yin’s pioneering work. To Yi Yin’s five flavours (bitter, sour, chilli-hot, sweet and salty), Yu cuisine added the “five factors” of colour, fragrance, taste, design and tableware.

So popular did the cuisine become that restaurants specialising in the Yu genre soon opened in major cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Xi’an, Harbin, Tianjin and Kunming.

Yu Cuisine has over 50 cooking techniques in total, including stewing, frying, quick-frying, stir-frying and par-boiling. Stewing is the most distinctive of these, making for a tastily glutinous sauce without the need to add cooking starch.

A major ingredient in Yu cuisine is river carp, a fish known as a pest in some countries but a delicacy here in central China. At a banquet highlighting Yu food, the signature dish of carp cooked in a rich gravy of soy sauce, shallots and millet wine comes as a taste sensation, accenting the subtle flavour of the fish.

Since the opening up of the Henan economy in the 1980s, the provincial capital Zhengzhou has developed rapidly, with a significant population increase made up largely of migrants from western China. Hence, restaurants serving mutton and lamb dishes have experienced a high level of demand.

Mutton soup and Yang Rou Hui Mian (braised noodles with mutton) are popular breakfast and lunch items, with fried dumplings and radish cakes also being popular.

But the summit of Henan cuisine is highlighted in the city’s distinctive restaurants. One extraordinary meal includes such delicacies as Double-boiled Turtle Soup with Ginseng, Baked Goose with Preserved Vegetables, and Wok-fried Lamb with Green Garlic.

The northwest of Henan province has its own distinctive set of flavours, as earthy and stony as the craggy terrain that defines the landscape. In the Yuntai Mountain region near the town of Jiaozuo, the earthy flavours of the soil — including dishes such as wild braised rabbit with chilli, thousand year-old eggs and smoked scorpions — feature on restaurant menus.

The old Chinese adage that anything movable is edible never seems more apt.

Other western Henan flavours are a little more subtle. Mountain roots and vegetables are widely used, together with a rare species of white mushroom that is said to give a life-span of 120 years (I’ll let you know in due course if it works or not). Braised lamb and sheep’s kidneys are additional ingredients in the diet.

Southwest of Jiaozuo, the city of Luoyang (home to the famous kungfu monks of the Shaolin Monastery) is renowned for its extraordinary “water banquet”. Right in the heart of Luoyang, the ornate Zhen Bu Tong (“Real Difference”) Restaurant has been serving this banquet for over 100 years.

Eight cold dishes of shredded fish, fungus, chilli, celery and so forth are followed by 18 hot soup-styled dishes, all served so as to resemble the water in a fast-flowing river — hence the name “water banquet”.

Peony flowers with Noodles and Lemon Juice, Luoyang Pork, and Sweet and Sour Kidneys are just a few of the delicacies. I get up from the table resolved never to eat another meal, but this resolution lasts only until dinner-time.

Further north in Shanxi province, the landscape becomes more arid. Rice cultivation gives way to the growing of wheat, buckwheat and millet. In northern Shanxi, an American import — corn — is the dietary staple. Sorghum is also grown, and used to make an especially fiery version of baojiu.

A Shanxi taste-sampler starting in the provincial capital Taiyuan is especially appropriate. It is here that Shanxi’s 200 varieties of flour and 280 different varieties of noodles are best highlighted — and many of these are included in a banquet served at Taiyuan’s Grand Hotel.

Fish noodles, vegetables wrapped inside noodles and noodles stuffed with beans are just three of the offerings. Other styles include dalamian (hand-pulled noodles) and zhuanpan tijian, flattened noodles served with gravy, accompanied by Shanxi lamb. And surprisingly, the food is accompanied not by baojiu but by red wine — an excellent Cabernet-Merlot from Grace Vineyard, in Taigu County, 40km south of Shanxi.

The founders of the vineyard say that it builds on a winemaking tradition in Shanxi dating back to the 7th century.

In the north of Shanxi, the landscape becomes still more barren and arid. Buckwheat replaces wheat as the grain of choice in making noodles. A gastronomic extravaganza in Yingxian, home to the world’s tallest wooden structure, features country specialties that might have some difficulty in finding their way onto metropolitan menus.

These include Country-style Ham Knuckles; Braised Rabbit; Buckwheat Noodles in Vinegar; Corn Cakes; and Dog-meat Hotpot, all washed down with another regional specialty — hot Coca-Cola!

Corn is a staple of northern Shanxi. You can even buy cones of popcorn from street vendors. As for the vinegar with most dishes, that is definitely an acquired taste. However, there is no doubting Shanxi’s expertise in making vinegar, which has been produced here for over 3,000 years.

The province produces more than 50 kinds of vinegar including Chencu, or matured vinegar, which is said to have valuable health-giving properties.

Our culinary taste-tour ends in the northern city of Datong, where pigs’ cheeks and local wild mushrooms share a table with corn cobs, buckwheat cakes and — you guessed it — shot-glasses of vinegar. I’m not yet accustomed to drinking vinegar in such quantities, but am reminded of Yi Yin’s discovery that sour tastes are beneficial for the liver.

So, after all the baojiu and wine imbibed over the last few days, maybe vinegar really does deserve a place on the menu. Just as Yi Yin catapulted Henan onto the Chinese culinary map, so does Shanxi cooking serve as a model for arid-zone cuisine.

A trip through these two provinces should be high on the agenda of any lover of Chinese food.