Food and Culture

Variations of Asian Food Preparations Around the World

Variations of Asian Food Preparations Around the World

The term “Asian” is usually used to refer to a geographic area comprising Asia, sometimes including a few parts of North and South America as well. Asian cuisine consists of many major regional cuisines: Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Middle Eastern, and Vietnamese. Each cuisine has its own unique style of preparing food, usually influenced by a particular region. Although there is no national standard of culinary excellence in the Asian cultures, some culinary styles stand out from the rest. Here are some of the most popular Asian foods and their descriptions.

Chinese Food The most common variety of Chinese cuisine is Szechuan-style hot pot, a pot in which soup is cooked on top of hot stones. It is the most popular variety of Chinese food in the world, and it can be prepared in many different ways. Most of the ingredients are steamed in special pans using sauces flavored with chili peppers or scallions. Besides the basic components, Szechuan-style cuisines also include vegetables (especially onions and radishes), meat (particularly chicken and beef), noodles (such as long-grain rice), and dairy products (such as milk and cheese). In the United States, chop suey is now often seen as an alternative to the traditional fried chicken.

Japanese Cooking The most familiar variety of Japanese cooking is sushi, which is very similar to Chinese cooking, except that it uses all kinds of rice instead of just rice. Sushi is eaten either raw or cooked, and it may contain other ingredients such as vegetables, fish, or chips. Unlike Chinese cooking, which relies mainly on sauces to give its dishes color, Japanese food preparations often use fresh ingredients and a lot of raw fish. Japanese food preparations are very tasty, and the flavors can vary from sweet, sour, salty, and spicy to mild and sweet.