In China, every profession has its own god. So does the chef. Among the most commonly recognised gods with the culinary profession, Yi Yin (伊尹) is the most famous and legendary one. He lived 3700 years ago at the beginning of Shang Dynasty and his story was recorded in a history book “The Lu’s Annals” ( 吕氏春秋) which was written by Lu Buwei and his followers 2500 years ago.

According to the book, a woman from a tribe called Youxin was picking mulberry leaves and found a baby in a withered tree. She dedicated the baby to the chief of Youxin. The chief asked his chef to raise the baby and ordered him to find out what had happened. The chief was then told that the mother of the baby lived upstream of the River Yi. One day when she was pregnant, she dreamed of the god telling her: “If you see water out of the stone mortar, you must run east and don’t look back.” The next day she saw the water came out of the mortar. She told her neighbours and ran east for 10 kilometres, then she looked back and saw her village was flooded. Her body, as a result, was transformed into a shrivelled mulberry tree. Therefore, the baby was given the name Yi Yin by the chief.

He grew up known as a wise man. The chief of another tribe Tang, who was the founder of the Shang dynasty, heard of it and sent an envoy to Youxin inviting him to his court. But the chief of Youxin rejected. Yi Yin also wanted to join Tang as he had an ambitious plan. So Tang asked to marry the daughter of the Youxin chief. The latter was delighted and let Yi Yin to escort his daughter to Tang’s tribe. According to the history book, Yi Yin assisted Tang winning the war with Xia and establishing the Shang Dynasty. To pay his respect, Tang made him the prime minister.

Then, how was Yi Yin called the culinary god? Well, let’s continue the story.

After Tang had Yi Yin, he held a ceremony and received him formally. Yi Yin started his talk with the technique and process of cooking and seasoning, then described all kinds of delicious foods from different places in China. Tang asked Yi Yin whether they could be made now. Yi Yin said no because his state is too small to have all these foods. Only when Tang became the emperor - the Son of Heaven, he was able to enjoy them. To become the Son of Heaven, he must know Tao (the ultimate principle of the universe).

“The Lu’s Annals” recorded the following talk of Yi Yin about food and cooking, which established his position as a culinary god:

“For the fundamental of the savour water comes first. Five flavours (sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty) and three materials (water, fire and wood) are boiled nine times and transformed nine times. Mastering fire is the key, sometimes with high heat and sometimes with gentle heat to dispel fishy, foul and muttony odours. The smelly food will turn out to be delicious only when the fire can be skillfully handled. For seasoning the five flavours must be used, but the usage of sequence and quantity, and their combination has a tricky effect on savour. The change in the cauldron is subtle and can only be sensed but not explained, like shooting arrows on a running horse, transforming between yin and yang, and the alternation of the four seasons. The highest level of cooking is that the food will be still firm even cooked long time, done but not mushy, sweet but not overly, sour but not too strong, salty but not heavy, piquant but not overpowering, delicate but still full of flavour, and fatty but not greasy.”

It was said also that Yi Yin had written the first cook book in China but unfortunately it was lost. Nevertheless his cooking theory was widely spread and has influenced the Chinese cooking ever since.

The Winter Solstice Festival or Dōngzhì (冬至) Festival is one of the most important festivals celebrated by the Chinese and other East Asians. It is one of the 24 seasonal division points in Chinese calendar which falls between December 21 or 22. In 2014 it is on Monday, December 22. The Northern hemisphere on this day experiences the shortest daytime and longest nighttime.

The Winter Solstice Festival has its origins in the Chinese concept of yin and yang, which represents balance and harmony in life. It’s believed that the yin qualities of darkness and cold are at their most powerful on the shortest day of the year, but also at their turning point to give way to the light and warmth of yang. Along with the longer daylight everyday, Yang energy increases day by day until it reaches its climax on summer solstice.

Traditionally on this day the Northern Chinese would eat dumplings (jiaozi 饺子) or won tons (huntun 馄饨), and the Southern Chinese eat glutinous rice balls (tangyuan 汤圆). Though they use different ingredients, have different shapes and tastes, they all use a sort of dough to wrap the fillings.

Starting from the winter solstice day, the weather is getting colder. The ancient Chinese begins to count days by every 9 days as one length of time. After 9 times in total 81 days, it is believed the warm weather should come. During this period it is a tradition to take foods more warm and yang by nature, for example, lamb, beef, chicken, black sesame, red date, walnut, etc. 

Sometime ago a Dutch friend and I organized a Chinese dinner for 15 Dutch people. One of the dishes I cooked was a clear soup using fish and lamb. The combination may sound a bit odd to Europeans as I’ve never had any dishes or seen any recipes similar to this in Europe. Having said that, the soup was a success. Our guests really loved the taste and flavour.

The recipe was not my invention. According a legend, about 4000 years ago in China lived a man who was supposedly lived over 800 years¹ and was respectfully called Peng Zu, meaning the ancestor of the Peng clan. He had two sons. His youngest son liked swimming in the river and he was furious about it as he worried about his son’s safety. One day Peng Zu was out. His son went to swim in a river and caught a big fish. He took it home and asked his mother to cook it. Just then Peng Zu was back. To hide the fish, the mother threw it into the cauldron in which she was cooking the lamb. When the dish was ready, the mother brought the lamb to the table. When Peng Zu tasted the lamb meat and soup, he immediately noticed the difference in flavor and it was extremely delicious. He asked his wife why the taste of the lamb was so different then before and how was it cooked. His wife told him that the lamb was cooked together with a fish.

So here the fish and sheep meet. The marriage of the two not only created a spectacular dish but also formed a special Chinese word XIAN (鮮). Look at the seal script of top left: fish on the left and sheep on the right. A perfect combination! Xian is one of the most beautiful words in the Chinese culinary language and defies all direct translation into English. 

Over thousands of years, xian has been of paramount importance in Chinese cuisine. Professional chefs, home cooks and housewives, all have kept pursuing it through their cookings and with various ingredients. But what is xian?

Many English writings on Chinese food translate xian as “fresh” or “savoury” . These are partly true. Modern western food science now added “umami” to the taste list and make it the fifth taste. But for Chinese “xian” is more than that. The English food writer Fuchsia Dunlop in her book “Sichuan Cookery” wrote: “It expresses the indefinable, delicious taste of fresh meat, poultry and seafood, the scrumptious flavour of a pure chicken soup, the subtle magic of freshly-redered lard. Xian describes the most exalted flavours of nature; it is the Chinese cook’s muse, the essence of flavour itself."

Unlike the fundamental taste of sour, sweet, bitter and salty, xian is very personal and subjective.Many years ago I cooked prawns for my partner’’s family. They live in a village in Northern China where people are used to food cooked with lots of soy sauce and salt. It was no surprise that the family of my partner did not like the prawns I cooked. They thought it tasteless and a bit of “fishy”. On the contrary, the same dish won a high appraisal from my family who thought it very tasty and “xian”.

In some parts of Eastern China, there is a very popular dish - the smelly fish. The dish smells a little bit of unpleasant odour. For people loving it the dish tastes absolutely delicious. They believe it has a special scent and “xian” which fresh fishes do not have. However, many people from other parts of China just cannot bear the smell.

To me, “xian” is a flavour which exits in all kinds of food. The question is how it can be released through cooking. “Xian” is a sense of taste which comes from the memories of one’s eating history and preference. “Xian” is all about taste but is beyond 5 fundamental tastes (4 in Western culinary terms) which fills your taste buds with an indescribable flavour. My mother always uses “xian” or not “xian” to judge whether a dish is good or not. When she really likes a dish, she would say: “It’s very ‘xian’!"

Many friends of mine are interested in Chinese food culture. One topic is Chinese eating etiquette. Here I share one article about Chinese table manners.
http://kaleidoscope.cultural-china.com/en/8Kaleidoscope12910.html

Today is the fifteenth day of Chinese lunar calendar - a special festival day called Yuan-xiao Jie (Lantern Festival). It marks the last day of Spring Festival. There are various versions about the origin of the festival. If you want to know more, the website http://www.lantern-festival.com can tell you everything.

In Chinese tradition, people celebrate the day by lighting lanterns; playing guessing games such as answering conundrums, solving puzzles; and eating Yuan-xiao (also called Tang-yuan), referred to in English as glutinous rice ball because its main ingredient is flour made from “glutinous” or “sticky” rice. The fillings can vary. The very traditional one is stuffed with sweet black sesame paste.

When I was small, my mother used to make Yuan-xiao herself. She always made balls with several different fillings. There were balls with minced pork meat, or sweet peanut paste, or black and white sesame paste, or vegetables. What I like most was ones without filling.

This morning I made a special breakfast for the day: Yuan-xiao in egg and sweet fermented rice wine soup seasoned with dehydrated osmanthus flowers. A nostalgia taste!

Saturday, 2nd February of this year, marks the beginning of spring - the first phase of the 24 solar terms of China, which was invented by ancient Chinese. The 24 solar terms was based on the movement of the sun. Each phase lasts approximately 15 days. They reflect the changes of weather, climate and natural phenomena. In long Chinese history, they played a vital role in agricultural production, annual schedule and people's daily life, including clothing, food, housing and transportation etc.. 

The start of spring indicates that a new circle of the four seasons begins and the earth comes to life after a long winter's rest and preservation. There is an old Chinese saying: the most important time of a day is morning, the most crucial season of a year is spring (一日之计在于晨，一年之计在于春). Spring is the time of sowing and seeding. For an agricultural country, a good spring is a vital factor for the result of harvest.

On the starting day of spring, it's a tradition to eat Spring Pancake in northern China, which is known as "biting spring". People eat spring pancakes together with various stir-fried vegetables, omelette, and pork meat cooked with soy sauce. The typical way is using the pancake to wrap the cooked stuffs. There are free choices of ingredients, but for real traditional version, three vegetables cannot be missing: Chinese chives, bean sprouts, and Chinese spinach. 

"A bite of China is a series of food documentary produced by China Central Television. Total of 7 episodes. It tells the histories and stories behind Chinese cuisine: the meaning and the symbol each represents; the connection between the nature and the people; the creation of unique foods and traditional recipes; the food culture that every Chinese is proud of. Get to know Chinese life philosophy and the respect they have for the nature and food. This is the video you can't miss."