COOKIE CRUMBLES I don't remember a Chinese word for "meat". I think I did see it not too long ago on a fortune cookie vocabulary listing. It's something short - "mo" or "ho", as I remember, but it reminds me of how short Chinese meals are on the meat portions served.
I see this as a good thing in many ways. First, it is economical, not only for the Chinese cooks but for us as well, to cut down on our large servings of meat as the main portion of our meals. The smaller intake of meats show at the waistlines, as well - or, better still, do not show at the waste line.
The Chinese cook tends to use meat as a condiment and not as a main en tree. I think that would be good for our general health, as well, because I have long felt we overdo the eating of meats at mealtime. Notice how fragmented the meat portion in so much Chinese cookery. Everything used, it appears, is diced up into bite-size pieces and added to other foods - pastas, fruits and vegetables - to tone it up a bit with a beef, pork or chicken flavor.
Americanized Chinese cookery may, of course, vary from the way it is in real-life China but when you visit a Chinese restaurant here - be it Peking, Schwartz's. Hunan or Cantonese "style" the printed menus always read pretty much the same. They are, it seems, modified somewhat to include a meat term so the American can feel he is ordering a substantial meal. There are Chicken, Beef, Pork and Sea a generous slab of beef on his plate in Western Style is going to be disappointed when he is served a steaming platter of noodles or rice in which cubes or shreads of beef appear like raisins in raisin bread or dry cereal dishes. The sauces are beefy as well, so the end result is that you can enjoy such a meal and feel satisfied if you accept the Chinese standard and do not expect a chunk of meat with a bit of rice or noodles nearby.
It is easy to see why it is an economic thing, too. Check the prices of meats in Japanese and Chinese markets and there is ample evidence to show that the Chinese diet cannot include large quantities of meats and continue to operate either at home or commercially. The natural westerner's assumption, at this point is that the Chinese must, then, consume large quantities of vegetables and fruits. Not so. Consult the menu at your nearby Chinese restaurant and you will find a limited number of vegetables in use. Seldom do you find they go beyond - broccoli, snow peas, black beans, bean curd, rice, garlic and chillies - yes, and tomatoes, if you class that as a vegetable in spite of it being a fruit in a technical sense. I suppose we could list bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, and even pasta, with vegetables as well ...but is still falls far short of the westernized diner's idea of what a vegetable meal might be.
One looks in vain for "desserts" as well. The Fortune Cookie - free or four for one dollar, and up - is the common touch of sweetness at the end of a meal.
I like it.
A.L.M. June 21, 2005 [c559wds]
