Chinese menus

Chinese menus offer a wide variety of food. 

It’s possible to write thousands of words and endless blogs relating to traditional food in China so we’ll keep this one short and snappy. 

Eating Chinese food at a typical authentic Chinese restaurant is generally very social. People sit around the table to share a selection of different dishes that are placed in the center of the table instead of each having their own. This can make eating Chinese food rather fun.

It is customary in China to select one dish for each person at the table. This means that if you have a group of 5 people, you might select 2 meat dishes and 3 vegetable dishes, but it's up to you. Appetizers, entrees, or desserts are optional as is the choice of beverages.

Chinese menus are often helpfully separated into sections such as "rice dishes", "noodle dishes", "vegetables", and "beverages" and they are not usually separated into sections such as "lunch" and "dinner" as in Western menus.

What you need to do is choose the dishes you'd want from the array on the menu that you think will make for a good meal. So, choose from the various meat, vegetable, rice, noodle, etc. dishes, and order extra sides, beverages, and dessert to complete your meal.

Chinese food and the way it is prepared is influenced by the two major philosophies - Confucianism and Taoism. 

One of the standards set by Confucius was that food must be cut into small bite- size pieces before being served. Those who follow Taoism focus more on food that promote health and longevity and those that have healing powers.