Typical chinese food at home?!
Typical chinese food at home?
To dear chinese friends
What is the staple for chinese?. Do you prepare food like it is made in chinese restuarants?
Answers:
It depends on the region. Overall, a lot of stirfry over rice, but there is an entire variety of different Chinese foods.
Cantonese is most common in restaurants, flavors are lighter, more nuanced. At home, there is heavy use of oyster sauce (I usually marinate chicken with corn starch, oyster sauce, sugar and pepper---can't go wrong), black bean sauce, soy sauce. Stirfry and steaming most common. We usually don't make dim sum at home, though--not enough scale to make it work unless you purchase pre-made frozen products.
Sichuan is also common in restaurants, much more spicy, heavy use of dried chili peppers, star anise and sichuan peppercorn (numbing flavor). Not sure what people do at home for this, though you could probably purchase seasonings from Chinatown.
Northern Chinese food is more noodles (and dumplings) based than rice. Hand made noodles have got to be the best food in the world. I will often buy some fresh noodles from Chinatown and throw some soup and dumplings on top...usually tastes slightly different from restaurants, but it's really up to individual preferences.