Chinese cuisine: eight cuisines, chopsticks, toasts

China is often said to have "eight great cuisines" (八大菜系, bā dà càixì). Yet the list is recent. According to Chinese Wikipedia, the word 菜系 itself, "system of dishes", is a modern coinage; under the Republic people spoke instead of "bang" (帮), a word that survives in the name of Hangzhou cuisine, 杭帮菜. Under the Qing, the most praised were four great traditions, those of Sichuan (川), Shandong (鲁), Guangdong (粤) and Huaiyang (淮扬), a style of Jiangsu: they stood for the west, north, south and east.

The list of eight appeared after the reforms began. The earliest known text is an article by the journalist Wang Shaoquan (汪绍铨), "The eight great cuisines of our country", published in the People's Daily on 20 June 1980. Each cuisine has a one-character name followed by 菜 (cài, "dish, cuisine"): 鲁菜 for Shandong, 川菜 for Sichuan, 粤菜 for Guangdong, 苏菜 for Jiangsu, 闽菜 for Fujian, 浙菜 for Zhejiang, 湘菜 for Hunan and 徽菜 for Anhui. French Wikipedia notes that they are sometimes grouped into four families, and quotes a saying: "the south is sweet, the north is salty, the east is sour and the west is spicy".

The list is not universally accepted: since the 1980s there have been endless disputes over the ranking, and Guizhou cuisine and Mongolian cuisine have each been presented as the "ninth great cuisine".

The first great divide in Chinese cooking, French Wikipedia points out, is between grains: wheat, and earlier millet, in the north; rice in the south.

• In the north, the dry, temperate climate suits wheat and millet. In wheat-growing areas people live on flour: noodles (面), flatbreads and breads (饼), dumplings (饺子) and steamed buns (馒头).

• In the south, rice, domesticated in the Yangtze basin about 9,000 years ago, is the staple of the rice-growing areas. It is mostly eaten steamed (米饭), and often as congee (粥) for breakfast.

According to Wikipedia, people can sometimes guess whether someone comes from the north or the south by whether they prefer rice or wheat. Some foods carry a meaning too: dumplings go with the Spring Festival, mooncakes with the Mid-Autumn Festival, and noodles, because they are long, wish you a long life.

Chilli, on the other hand, is a newcomer. Native to Mexico, it was one of the New World plants that Spanish and Portuguese traders brought into China through the ports of Canton and Macau. In Hunan, local gazetteers first mention it in 1684; in Sichuan it took hold at the same period, under the Kangxi Emperor. According to Chinese Wikipedia, chilli only became a major seasoning in the mid-Qing.

Chopsticks are 筷子 (kuàizi), but the old word was 箸 (zhù). Under the Ming, the scholar Lu Rong (陆容) noted in his Miscellaneous Notes (菽园杂记) that people in the Wu region avoided ill-omened words: on boats they avoided 住 (zhù, "to stop") and 翻 ("to capsize"), so they called 箸 "quick ones" (快儿). The name stuck: the character 筷 combines 快 (kuài, "quick"), which gives the sound, with the bamboo radical, which gives the meaning.

At the table, a few rules come up in both the English and Chinese Wikipedias:

• never stand your chopsticks upright in your rice. It recalls offerings to the dead, where chopsticks are set upright in a bowl of rice, and the incense burnt to "feed" the departed. To take a break, lay them flat across your bowl;

• do not tap your bowl with them: that is what beggars do to attract attention;

• do not point at people with your chopsticks or wave them in the air;

• do not rummage through a dish to pick your piece;

• wait until the host or your elders have started eating.

On the other hand, it is normal to lift your rice bowl to your mouth and push the rice in with your chopsticks. Hold the bowl, but not from underneath: according to Wikipedia, that would look like a beggar's gesture.

A Chinese meal is shared. According to French Wikipedia, dishes are placed in the middle of a table that is often round, sometimes with a turntable, and there are no knives at the table: everything is cut up in the kitchen. Everyone helps themselves from the shared dishes with their chopsticks. For hygiene, "serving chopsticks" (公筷, gōngkuài) are increasingly added for taking food; Chinese Wikipedia notes that in 2020, during the Covid-19 epidemic, mainland China officially encouraged their use.

Elders come first. According to Chinese Wikipedia, the seat facing the door belongs to the host, the guests of honour sit on his left and right, and it is best to wait for the host to show you your seat. Putting a choice piece of food in an elder's bowl is a sign of respect; and when an elder serves you, you thank them.

To make a toast, you say 干杯 (gānbēi), literally "empty the glass", the equivalent of "bottoms up". According to Wikipedia, the dated English toast "chin-chin" (and French "tchin-tchin") comes from Chinese 请请 (qǐng qǐng, "please, please"), what a host says when inviting guests to drink. Beer (啤酒) and white spirit (白酒, báijiǔ), usually made from rice or sorghum, are drinks for special occasions. The most widely drunk beverage is tea, and at an ordinary meal at home, French Wikipedia notes, there is often no drink at all: soup or rice porridge quenches the thirst.

A handful of words will get you through a meal at a restaurant (饭馆, fànguǎn):

• 服务员 (fúwùyuán), waiter or waitress;

• 菜单 (càidān), the menu;

• 好吃 (hǎochī), "tasty, delicious";

• 辣 (là), "spicy", and 不要辣 (bú yào là), "not spicy, please"; Sichuan cooking is known for its 麻辣 (málà), "numbing and spicy", from Sichuan pepper;

• 买单 (mǎidān), "the bill, please!".

That last word has a story. According to Chinese Wikipedia, it started as Cantonese 埋单, a Hong Kong restaurant term in which 埋 means "to add up, to gather": the receipts are gathered to make up the bill. The word spread to overseas Chinese communities and then, after mainland China opened up, into Mandarin. Because Cantonese 埋 sounds almost like Mandarin 买 (mǎi, "to buy"), and Mandarin does not use 埋 in that sense, Mandarin speakers wrote it 买单, literally "buy the bill". You can also say 结账 (jiézhàng), "settle the account".

好吃, 菜单 and 服务 ("to serve, service") are in the first levels of the HSK vocabulary; 辣 comes at HSK 4.