Easy Chinese With Sarah

Chinese Staple Food

There are five kinds of Chinese staple foods: rice, dumpling, noodle, steamed buns, and steam stuffed bun.

Rice 米 (mǐ)

Rice is one of the most popular staple foods in China. There are several types of rice dishes like steamed rice, fried rice and porridge by steaming, stir-frying and boiling.

Dumpling 饺子 (jiǎo zi)

Dumpling is famous staple food in the north part of China. Dumplings are usually made from wheat flour dough sheet used to wrap different kinds of delicious fillings, like mixture of vegetables, mincemeat and sea foods.
Dumplings are traditionally eaten on festivals and celebrations, especially on Chinese new year because the pronunciation and appearance of the dumpling has very good meanings of propitious blessing and good fortune. The shape of the dumpling looks like silver ingot (money used in ancient China), and the pronunciation of dumpling (jiǎo zi) sounds the same as 'change of the year' which connect the new year and the past old year together. Now days, dumplings are becoming more widely consumed regularly. The three main ways of cooking dumplings are boiling, steaming and frying.

Noodle 面条 (miàn tiáo)

Chinese noodle has more than 4,000 years of history. According to the region, shape, cook approach and gravy, there are many kinds of noodles, such as Sichuan dandan noodle, Beijing noodle, and Wuhan hot noodle etc. Chinese people also eat longevity noodles on the birthdays to wish people a long, happy and healthy life.

Steamed Bun and Steamed Stuffed Bun
馒头 (mán tou) 包子 (bāo zi)

Steamed bun and steamed stuff bun are also two kinds of very popular Chinese staple food. Steamed buns are made of flour, but without stuffings. Steamed stuffed buns are the buns with various stuffings like mincemeat, vegetables and red bean paste.

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