Download 11.2 Factors contributing to the development of a food culture in

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Family and LifeStyle
DRAFT
December 2009
Contents
Page
11 Food Culture
11.1 Food heritage
3
11.1.1 Role of food in family and social contexts
3
11.1.2 Regional/national food ingredients and
dishes reflecting specific cultures
5
11.1.3 Festive foods
9
11.1.4 Religious foods
15
11.1.5 Nutraceuticals
18
11.2 Factors contributing to the development of a 21
food culture in local and global contexts
11.2.1 Geographical factors
21
11.2.2 Historical and cultural development
22
11.2.3 Food availability
25
11.2.4 Social influences
26
11.2.5 Economic factors
28
11.2.6 Scientific and technological developments
29
Food Culture
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Contents
11.3 Relation of food culture and health
Page
30
11.3.1 Health issues
30
11.3.2 Cancer
31
11.3.3 Heart Disease
32
11.3.4 Weight Control
32
11.3.5 Government policies
32
11.3.6 The effect of health issues on conventional food 32
11.4 Implications of future market trend
33
11.4.1 Globalization of food trade
33
11.4.2 Changes of socio-economic conditions
34
11.4.3 Change of lifestyles and health concerns
34
11.4.4 Relationships between development of new 35
food products and adaptation of food habits
2
Food Culture
11.4.5 Advancement of food technology
35
11.4.6 Marketing strategies
36
DRAFT
December 2009
11 Food Culture
The term food culture, or food habits (it is developed through a long history and is
adapted by a group of people), describes the ways in which humans use food including
selecting, obtaining, preparing, serving and eating the food. This process is complex
and it depends on many aspects including environmental and geographical facts,
history, economic factors, cultural development, religious factors, etc. The regional
and national differences of eating habits are the result of the inter-relationship of these
factors.
11.1 Food heritage
11.1.1 Role of food in family and social contexts
In the past, the only reason for eating was survival. Food culture was once very simple
when women gathered fruits and berries while men were responsible for hunting and
fishing. However, as time goes by, human culture has developed into a more complex
level.
(A) Individual
Food becomes the focus of our lives and our daily habits and routines revolve around
food. Food plays many different roles in our lives. It provides elements of survival for
our body and satisfies our needs for hunger. However, when we eat, we are dealing
with many complex issues other than our basic nutritional needs.
(B) Family
People may have most meals with their family members in their whole lives. A family
meal can be a social event. In between meals, family members may share news that
happen on the day, as well as their hopes, views and opinions.
Family members may show their care for each other by sharing food. Food is the first
thing we accept when we first come into the world. When we were a baby, our parents
might give food to us whether we were hungry or not. As a result, we learned that
giving and receiving food was an important family connection. This would build up the
relationship of trust between the parents and the baby through food.
Another role of food in a family is that it can be either an award or a punishment. Parents
may use food as a tool for disciplining their children. Parents may give messages to
their children implying that they might not have a delicious meal if they were naughty.
Candies could be an award for children to behave themselves.
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Food Culture
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(C) Society
Food is an important part of any celebration in all nations of the world, regardless of
culture or religion. Food carries messages in social customs. It can unite and strengthen
community bonds and helps to maintain a common identity among a group of people.
Different countries use food in different ways to help celebrate occasions like birthdays,
weddings, and other social gatherings. For example, red bean purée with lotus seed
and white lily is commonly served in chinese wedding banquet, peach-shaped buns (
壽包) are traditionally served in chinese birthday parties which symbolise long-life.
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December 2009
11.1.2 Regional/national food ingredients and dishes
reflecting specific cultures
(A) Different staple foods
In the past, the food supply was only limited to self-production with addition of some
local trade. Therefore, the ingredients were constrained by the farming and livestock
breeding practices which were influenced by various physical conditions including
climate, soil, topography and the availability of irrigating water. Although such an
agricultural mode is diminishing nowadays, the eating habits of today’s world population
are still dominated by locally produced staples and dietary traditions.
Staple foods vary in different cultures. For example, in western India, wheat is usually
ground to flour and used to make bread or nann as their staple food. Naan is a large
flat round shape bread, which comes in a large variety of flavours and is typically eaten
with curry dishes. In central and northwestern India, wheat flour is baked into chapatti,
which is an unleavened flat bread eaten with vegetables or curries. The staple food of
southern China is mainly rice which is cooked as whole grain and that of northern China
is mainly wheat which is usually presented as bread, bun or noodles. In Mongolia, they
have no local agricultural products but only livestock. Therefore, their main staple food
is meat and milk from their livestock. Figure11.1 shows the world dietary patterns by
major food groups.
Figure 11.1
Staple foods in different areas of the world
(B) Different sauces and seasonings
Sauces and seasonings used in different groups of people may be different. Italian
food uses various herbs in cooking. Basil, fennel seeds, parsley and rosemary are
some common herbs used in Italian food. Spicy seasonings are usually used in Indian
and Thai food. Curry, which contains many different spicy seasonings, is a specific
Food Culture
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December 2009
sauce in Indian food. Different formula of curry may be used to match different kinds
of meat. Soy sauce, oyster sauce, shrimp sauce, rice wines, sesame oil etc. are some
common seasonings used in Chinese cuisines.
Table 11.2
Different sauces and seasonings used in different regions
Race or nation
Asia
Chinese
Indian
Europe
Italian
Sauces and seasonings
Soy sauce, oyster sauce, shrimp sauce, rice wines, sesame oil
Curry
Basil, fennel seeds, parsley, rosemary
(C) Representative food items in different regions
There are some unique dishes representing a race or a nation. e.g. kimchi in Korea,
sushi and sashimi in Japan, la mian and Peking duck in Beijing, baguette in France,
curries in India, etc.. Although the preparation methods of these dishes may be different
nowadays, people may still match the particular dishes to their original places.
Table 11.3
Representative dishes in different regional culture
Race or nation
Asia
Korean
Japanese
Chinese
Indian
Europe
French
Italian
Dishes
Kimchi, ginseng stewing with chicken
Sushi, sashimi, Kobe beef
La mian, Peking duck, dim sum
Curry
Baguette, red wine
Spaghetti, gelato
(D) Chinese cuisines
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Chinese cuisines can be generally divided by compass points: Eastern, Southern,
Northern and Western. There are similarities and differences among the cuisines in the
regions. People can identify the origin of each other by what they eat daily. Chinese
cuisines in different regions are united by geography and ethnicity while they are
divided by climate, agriculture and tradition. General speaking, the southern dishes
stress on the freshness and tenderness while the northern dishes are relatively oily
due to the cold weather. In addition, some strong tasting sauces and ingredients such
as vinegar and garlic are also quite popular in northern dishes. Table 11.4 shows some
characteristics and specific dishes in these four regions.
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Table 11.4
December 2009
Specific dishes in Southern, Northern, Western and Eastern of China
Regions Representative
region
Characteristics
Specific dishes
Southern Guangzhou 1. Stress attention to
freshness of ingredients,
lightness, crispness in
cooking, texture, taste of
each ingredient, and
eating foods in season.
2. There is a wide variety of
foods with roasted meat
a regional specialty
Dim Sum, Roast Suckling
Pig, Roast Duck / Goose,
Steamed Fish.
Northern Beijing
Shandong
1. Pork, duck and mutton
are three popular meats.
2. Cereal grains like
sorghum and millet are
the main carbohydrate
source of the northern
people
Peking Duck, Mutton Hot
Pot, Steamed Dumplings.
Western Sichuan
Yunnan
1. Most dishes are piquant.
2. Uses chili pepper, Sichuan
peppercorn, spices, herbs
and other flavourings in the
food.
3. Foods in the southwest
are sour and salty. Cured
meat and pickled
vegetables are popular
in southwest areas.
4. Black tea is popular well
accompanied with spiced
and oily food. A regional
special tea called pestle
is also popular in this area.
Braised Bean Curd, Strange
flavoured Chicken, Sichuan
Noodles, Sichuan Spicy
Water Boiled Fish, Yunnan
Steam Pot Chicken.
Eastern
1. Foods are cooked in soy
sauce.
2. Use a special black vinegar
called Qinjiang vinegar.
3. Use Zhejiang ham.
4. Stresses sweet, sour, salty
and spicy tastes in every
dish.
White Cut Pork with Garlic
Sauce, Ham with Honey
Syrup, Pancakes with Date
purée, Sweet and Sour
Spareribs, Stir-fired Eel with
Yellow Chives, Hairy Crabs,
Steamed Pork Dumplings.
Shanghai
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Along with the history of China after the Tang and Song Dynasties, there are eight
popular and different styles of Chinese cuisines appeared. They come from the
provinces Shandong (Lu Cuisine) (魯), Guangdong (Yue Cuisine) (粵), Sichuan (Chuan
Cuisine) (川), Hunan (Xiang Cuisine) (湘), Fujian (Min Cuisine) (閩), Zhejiang (Zhe
Cuisine) (浙), Jiangsu (Su Cuisine) (蘇) and Anhui (Hui Cuisine) (徽) (Table 11.5).
Table 11.5
Cuisine
Popular Chinese Cuisine from Eight Provinces
Brief introduction
Typical dishes
Shandong
Local flavour of Jinan City and Jiaodong
(Lu Cuisine) peninsula derived from the use of
shallots and garlic. Special in using
seafood, soups, meat and offal. This
kind of recipe was once serving the
emperor.
Braised Sea Cucumber,
Grilled Prawns
Guangdong It is specific in using fine and rare
(Yue
ingredients cooking with polished skills
Cuisine)
and in a delicate and delicious style. It
emphasises a flavour which is clear but
not light, refreshing but not common,
tender but not crude. It always requires
delicate cutting and carving skills for
presenting the sautéed dishes.
Roast Suckling Pig, Dim
Sum, Won Ton with Noodle
in Soup, Salt Baked
Chicken
Sichuan
(Chuan
Cuisine)
This kind of cuisine combines the
cuisines from Chengdu and Chongqing.
It is characterised by pungent
seasonings which were famed as “three
peppers” (Sichuan pepper, pepper and
chilli), “three aroma” (shallot, ginger
and garlic), “seven tastes” (sweet, sour,
tingling, spicy, bitter, piquant and salty)
and “eight flavours” (fish-flavoured,
sour with spice, pepper-tingling, odd
flavour, tingling with spices, red spicy
oil, ginger sauce and home cooking)
Braised Bean Curd Mapo
Tofu, Kung Pao Chicken,
Braised Egg Plant with Fish
Flavoured Sauce, Fried
Pork and Vegetables with
Hot and Spicy Sauce
Hunan
(Xiang
Cuisine)
The cuisine is oily and greasy.
Techniques are stressed in producing
crispness, softness and tenderness
as well as the savoury flavours and
spices.
Deep Fried Chicken with
Chilli, Lotus Seeds with
Rock Sugar, Hunan Style
Pickled Pork
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December 2009
Brief introduction
Typical dishes
Fujian
(Min
Cuisine)
It has four distinctive features-fine
cutting techniques, alternative soups,
unique seasonings and exquisite
cooking. Chef experts in Fujian cuisine
can always cut the thin jellyfish into
three pieces and into very thin threads.
The soup is fresh and keeps its own
savour easily by making use of the
abundant source of marine products.
The seasonings add sweet and sour
flavours into the dishes.
Jumping Buddha Soup, Red
Vinasse Chicken
Zhejiang
(Zhe
Cuisine)
It consists of hundreds of small
delicacies from its main cities. It takes in
Hangzhou’s fineness and diversification,
Ningbo’s softness and originality and
Shaoxing’s pastoral interests. The main
cooking techniques are frying, quick-fry,
stir-fry, braising and steaming.
Fried Shrimps with Longjing Tea Leaves, Steamed
Fish in Vinegar Sauce, Ning
Po Glutinous Rice Ball,
Braised Dongpo Pork
Jiangsu
(Su
Cuisine)
It comprises the local recipes of
Yangzhou, Suzhou and Nanjing. The
dishes are mainly cooked by braising
and stewing. It consists of, salty and
sweet taste which will soothe people’s
stomach. The Jiangsu cuisine has
several branches including Shanghai
cuisine.
Wuxi Style Spareribs,
Steamed Pork Dumplings,
Sweet and Sour Yellow
Croaker
Anhui (Hui
Cuisine)
It is composed of local flavours of
Huizhou and other areas along the
Yangtze River and the Huai River. There
are not many fried or quick-fried dishes
among the recipes of this cuisine. Ham
and rock sugar are used to enrich the
freshness.
Fuliji Roast Chicken, Cream
Fatty King Fish
Cuisine
11.1.3 Festive foods
(A) Chinese New Year
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Chinese New Year is the most important festival for Chinese people. All family members
will get together in Chinese New Year and share food.
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December 2009
It falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month. It originated from the phenomena that
people offered sacrifice to gods and ancestors at the end of an old year and the
beginning of a new one in Shang Dynasty (about 1600 BC-1100 BC). Relatives will get
together to enjoy a luxurious meal at Chinese New Year Eve. Dishes such as chicken,
fish and bean curd are almost designated for the festival. In Chinese, these three
dishes pronounced as “ji”, “yu”, and “doufu” respectively which mean auspiciousness,
abundance and richness.
Traditionally, family members will stay together to welcome the New Year. During New
Year, people in northern China will eat dumplings or “jiaozi” which means “bidding
farewell to the old and ushering in the new”. In addition, the shape of a dumpling is like
an ancient gold ingot. Therefore, people take them for wishes of money and treasure.
Southern Chinese take Rice Pudding (a pudding made of glutinous rice flour) in Chinese
New Year. Rice Pudding in Chinese has a homophone meaning “getting higher and
higher every year”.
Table 11.6
Special Food for Chinese New Year in different countries
Country
Special foods
China
✧ Chinese New Year Pudding (年糕), which is made of glutinous rice.
Chinese New Year Pudding in Cantonese style is sweetened with
brown sugar, which expresses people's hopes for perpetual
good harvests.
✧ Fishball and lettuce soup symbolise harmony and prosperity (和氣
生財)
Korea
✧ dumpling soup
Vietnam
✧ meat-filled rice cakes and shark’s fin soup
(B) The Lantern Festival
In Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), an emperor heard that Buddhist monks would
watch sarira, or the remains from the cremation of Buddha’s body, and light lanterns
to worship Buddha on the1st or 15th of each lunar month. In order to show his respect
to Buddha, he then ordered to light lanterns in the imperial palace and temples on this
day. Therefore lighting lanterns is an important activity during Lantern Festival.
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Another activity during Lantern Festival is “guessing lantern riddles”. Lanterns owners
may write riddles on a piece of paper and post them on the lanterns. Visitors who are
interested in the guessing and have a solution to the riddles may pull the paper out
and check their answers with the lantern owners. This activity emerged in the Song
Dynasty (AD 960-1279) as riddle guessing is interesting and full of wisdom and so it
was so attractive to people.
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On this day, people will eat yuanxiao, or sweet rice dumplings. It is small dumpling
balls with glutinous rice paste skins. The fillings of the rice dumplings may be rose
petals, sesame, bean paste, date purée paste, walnut meat, dried fruit, sugar and oil.
The sweet rice dumplings can be made by boiling, frying or steaming. They taste sweet
and delicious.
Another name for sweet rice dumplings is tangyuan with a similar pronunciation with
“tuanyuan” in Chinese which means reunion. Therefore, getting union is a main social
meaning on this day.
(C) Dragon Boat Festival
The most popular legend about the dragon boat festival is to memorise Qu Yuan (340278 BC). Qu Yuan was the minister of the State of Chu. Qu Yuen advocated to enrich
the country and strengthen its military forces to fight against the Qin. However, he
was opposed and defamed by aristocrats and later deposed and exiled by King Huai.
Although he was exiled, he still cared very much for his country. After he heard the
news that Chu’s capital was conquered by Qin troops, he was very distressed resulting
in plunging himself into the Miluo River on the 5th of the 5th Lunar month.
Qu Yuan was a good man and was loved by the common people of Chu. Many people
of Chu crowed along the river to pay their respects to him. The fishermen sailed their
boats up and down the river to look for his corpse. In order to divert possible fish
or other marine life attacking his body, people threw rice dumplings in the shape of
pyramid wrapping in reed or bamboo leaves, into the river. In addition, an old doctor
poured a jug of realgar wine, which was a kind of Chinese liquor seasoned with realgar,
into the river to try to drunk the aquatic beasts.
To follow the tradition, people nowadays have customs of dragon boat racing, eating
rice dumplings and drinking realgar on that day. In the earliest days, rice dumplings
was only glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in reed or other plant leaves and tied with
coloured thread.
However, the fillings are now more diversified including date purée, bean paste, fresh
meat, ham and egg yolk as well as abalone, shark’s fin, sea cucumber etc. People may
prepare rice dumplings themselves or buy from a shop in every dragon see cucumber
boat festival.
(D) Mid-Autumn Festival
The Mid-Autumn Festival is on 15th of the 8th Lunar month.
In the past, farmers celebrated the abundance of the summer’s harvest on this day. People
worshiped the moon on Mid-Autumn Festival in the past. This custom can be traced back
to the ancient Xia Dynasty and Shang Dynasty of China (20th century BC -1060s BC).
Moon cakes were started to be made as gifts for relatives to express their best wishes of
family reunion.
Nowadays, family members and friends will get together at night to appreciate the full
moon in addition to eating mooncakes and pomelos.
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The folklore of the origin of Mid-Autumn Festival is so varied and legendary. Here is
one of the popular legends about Mid-Autumn Festival.
It was said that there was a popular hero called Hou Yi whose wife called Chang E
in ancient time. One day Hou Yi got a parcel of elixir which was claimed to be able to
ascend anyone taking it to heaven immediately and become a celestial. Hou Yi gave
the parcel of elixir to his wife to treasure it. A person called Peng Meng saw Chang E
treasuring the elixir and forced her to give the elixir to him. In order to prevent Peng
Meng having the elixir, Chang E then swallowed the elixir and her body floated off the
ground, dashed out of the window and flew towards heaven. When Hou Yi returned
home and knew what happened, he was so sad. He looked up at the round bright
moon and surprisingly to find that there was a swaying shadow in the moon that was
exactly like his wife. He tried to chase after the moon but failed. He missed Chang E
so much and constructed an incense table arranged in the back garden that Chang E
loved. He also put sweetmeats and fresh fruits Chang E liked most on the table.
(i) Traditional Mooncake
❖ The origin of Mooncake was the round cakes in Tang Dynasty when people
enjoyed and worship at the full moon. However, the cake was not called
Mooncake at that period. The name of Mooncake originated in Southern Song
Dynasty when people sent round moon cakes to their relatives as gifts i n
expression of their best wishes of family reunion. Mooncake is round in shape
which implies reunion. The habit of eating Mooncake in Mid-Autumn Festival is
being kept even now.
❖ There is folklore about eating moon cakes in Mid-Autumn Festival. Group
gatherings were banned in Yuan Dynasty (1280-1368) and so it was impossible
to discuss plans for a rebellion. Since Mongols did not eat mooncakes, Liu
Bowen advised the Chinese rebel leader, Zu Yuanzhang, to time the rebellion
on Mid-Autumn Festival. He sought the permission to deliver thousands of
moon cakes to the Chinese residents using an excuse of blessing the longevity
of the Mongol emperor. In each of the moon cakes, there was a paper with
the message “Kill the Tatars on the 15th day of the Eighth Moon” inserted. The
rebel was successful and Ming Dynasty was established. Henceforth, moon
cakes become a celebrating serving during Mid-Autumn Festival.
(ii) Snowy Mooncake
❖ Snowy Mooncake is a type of modern mooncake which was firstly introduced by
Tai Pan of Hong Kong in 1989. As the traditional moon cakes give oily and
unhealthy feeling to people so Tai Pan has invented Snowy Mooncake which is
fresh in taste.
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❖ Traditional mooncakes have limited flavours. Compare to traditional mooncakes,
Snowy Mookcake is diversified in taste thus it is popular in Hong Kong and leads
to dramatically change in the market. Manufacturers promote new flavours for
Snowy Mooncakes every year in order to meet changes in consumer tastes and
the pursuit of innovation. Fillings of Snowy Mooncakes develop from the first
generation of white lotus seed paste and the second generation of the mung
bean-paste to the present third generation using cheese-based fillings.
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December 2009
(E) Winter Solstice Festival
Winter Solstice Festival was started during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) and
became more popular in the Tang and Song dynasties (618-1279).
People of the Han Dynasty regarded this as a “Winter Festival”. At this day, there
were official celebrating activities. All people would have a rest and gathered to have
delicious food. In the Tang and Song dynasties, it was a day to offer sacrifices to
Heaven and ancestors. It was even regarded as formal as the Chinese New Year in
the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) showing the importance of this day.
People in some parts of Northern China eat dumpling in soup on this day while some
other places eat dumplings. They think that eating dumpling soup or dumpling can keep
them from frost in the winter. In parts of Southern China, the whole family altogether has
a meal containing red-bean and glutinous rice for the reason of driving away ghosts and
other evil things. In other places, people also eat tangyuan in Winter Solstice Festival.
The Taiwan people keep the custom of making nine-layer cake in shape of chicken,
duck, tortoise, pig, cow or sheep with glutinous rice flour for ancestors worshipping.
(F) Christmas
Christmas is a day for celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. It is on 25th December in
every year for members of Roman Catholic Church and followers of Protestantism.
Mince pies, Christmas cakes, Christmas puddings and turkey are foods that are
traditionally eaten in Christmas.
(i)
Turkey
Meat is always centered at the table of a Christmas feasts in different countries.
Roasted turkey is a common food serving for this need. It is believed that the act
of serving a large roasted joint of meat at Christmas is originated from religious
belief of ancient sacrificial rites to appease the gods and a blessing for a good
harvest in the coming year. Apart from turkey, common meat served could be
beef, mutton, pork, peacocks and swans.
(ii) Mince pies (Mincemeat pies)
Mince pies are traditional British sweet pastries which are usually consumed in
Christmas or New Year celebrations. Each mince pie is about 2-3 inches in diameter
being made using either sweet shortcrust pastry or puff pastry. The archetype of
mince pie is a medieval pastry called chewette which was either fried or baked.
The most original “chewette” contained liver or chopped meat mixed with boiled
eggs and ginger as well as dried fruit and sweet ingredients. It was considered to
be a Christmas specialty by the 16th century. Nowadays, most mince pies do not
contain meat products any more. Suet is used to replace the liver and chopped
meat. Folklore states that mince pies are a favourite food of Father Christmas.
People may leave one or two mince pies at the botton of the chimney so as to
thanks for stockings well-filled. There are some traditions concerning the mince
pies:
❖ The content of mince pies should only be stirred in clockwise direction
for bringing good luck for the coming year in English tradition.
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December 2009
❖ One should make a wish in one’s first mince pie of the festive season.
❖ Mince pie should always be eaten without making noise.
❖ There should be a star on the top of a mince pie representing the Christmas
Star that led the Magi to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem.
(iii) Christmas pudding
Christmas pudding is originated from plum pottage serving during festivities in the
medieval period. Plum pottage was a meat broth thickening with breadcrumbs and
dried fruits seasoned with wine and spices. Meat was later removed becoming the
form known to us nowadays. Christmas pudding became a Christmas specialty
after it was introduced to the Royal Christmas dinner table by Prince Albert in 18th
century.
(iv) Christmas cake
A Christmaas Cake is a rich fruit cake with marzipan and icing on a rich fruit cake
specify a Christmas cake. In the earliest time, there were no toppings on the
Christmas cakes but it was introduced as a custom by the Victorians. Decoration
using marzipan is believed to be linked to the Tudor Marchpane, which is made by
powdered almonds, pounded sugar (icing sugar) and rose water (water flavoured
with rose petals), acting as the table centerpiece during banquets and festive
occasions.
Table 11.7
Special Foods for Christmas in different countries
Country
Special foods
Britain,
Australia,
New Zealand,
South Africa
✧ mince pie
✧ fruit cake
France
✧ black and white pudding, which is sausage containing blood.
French Canada ✧ desserts include doughnuts and sugar pie.
Germany
✧ gingerbread biscuits and liqueur chocolates
Nicaragua
✧ chicken with a stuffing made from a range of fruits and
vegetables including tomato, onion and papaya.
Russia
✧ a feast of 12 different dishes, representing Christ’s disciples.
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December 2009
(G) Easter
Easter is originated from a Spring early harvest festival (effectively the Jewish
Passover). It was set at Nicaea that Easter Day should be a Sunday. Easter day
should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon. By this
calculation, Easter day falls between March 21 and April 26.
In related to Easter, Lent is the preceding period of forty days in preparation for Easter.
In the early days, farmers did not eat eggs during Spring and Lent in order to keep
enough hatch for chickens, ducks, etc. Eggs then became available for eating purpose
in Easter. Therefore, eggs have become a specialty in Easter.
Table 11.8
Foods eaten during different festivals
Festival
Festival food
Chinese New Year
Chicken, fish, bean curd
The Lantern Festival
Sweet rice dumplings
Dragon Boat Festival
Glutinous rice dumpling
Mid-Autumn Festival
Moon cakes, cooked taro, water caltrope
Winter Solstice Festival
Sweet dumplings
Christmas
Buche de Noel, candy canes, Christmas swans,
Christmas geese, Christmas turkeys, Christmas
cookies, fruitcake, gingerbread, mincemeat pies,
oranges, Christmas pudding, stollen, sugarplums,
twelfth night cakes, wassail and eggnog, Yorkshire
stand pie
Easter
Easter egg, chocolate Easter egg, Easter bread
(Russian kulich), hot cross buns
11.1.4 Religious foods
Different religions have their rationales for particular eating practices and restrictions.
Some practices and restrictions can be traced back to early concerns for health and
safety in consuming food or liquids. In the past, there were not many preservation
methods available. Therefore, religious leaders developed rules about the consumption
of foods and drinks, religious practices, restrictions, and laws. Table 11.11 shows some
brief notes of eating practices and restrictions of some religions.
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Table 11.9
Type of
religion
December 2009
Eating practices and restrictions of some religions
Practice or restriction
Rationale
Buddhism
✧ Buddhists believe that Buddha
cycled through various animal
forms before he took on the
form of a human b e i n g s o
refrain from meat, vegetarian
diet is desirable
✧ Moderation in all foods
✧ Fasting is required for monks
✧ Natural foods are considered
most pure
✧ Monks avoid all solid food
after noon
Eastern
Orthodox
Christianity
✧ Restrictions on meat and fish
✧ Fast selectively
✧ Observation of Holy Days
includes fasting and
restrictions to enhance
spiritual development
Hinduism
✧ Beef prohibited
✧ All other meat and fish restricted
or avoided
✧ Alcohol avoided
✧ Numerous fasting days
✧ Cow is sacred and can’t
be eaten, but products of
the “sacred” cow are pure
and desirable
✧ Fasting promotes spiritual
growth
Islam
✧ Regulations surrounding food ✧ Eating is for good health
are called ‘halal’. Prohibited ✧ Failure to eat correctly
foods are called ‘haram’
minimises spiritual
✧ Pork and certain birds prohibited
awareness
✧ Alcohol prohibited
✧ Fasting has a cleansing
✧ Coffee/tea/stimulants avoided
effect of evil elements
✧ Foods that contain emulsifiers
(as emulsifiers may be made
from animal fats), canned
vegetables
that
include
emulsifiers, frozen vegetables
with
sauce,
particularly
margarines, and bread or
bakery that contain dried
yeast
✧ Fasting from all food and drink
during specific periods
16
Food Culture
DRAFT
December 2009
Type of
religion
Practice or restriction
Rationale
Judaism
✧ ‘Kashrut’ refers to the laws ✧ Land animals that do not
pertaining to food in the
have cloven hooves and
Jewish religion
that do not chew their cud
✧ ‘Kosher’ means that a food is
are forbidden and regarded
permitted or ‘clean’
as unclean (e.g. hare, pig,
✧ Pork and shellfish prohibited
camel)
✧ Meat and dairy at same meal ✧ Kosher process is based
prohibited
upon the Torah
✧ Leavened food restricted
✧ Fasting practiced
Mormonism
and
beverages ✧ Caffeine is addictive and
✧ Alcohol
containing caffeine prohibited
leads to poor physical and
✧ Moderation in all foods
emotional health
✧ Fasting practiced
✧ Fasting is the discipline of
self-control and honouring to
God
Protestants
✧ Few restrictions of food or ✧ God made all animals
fasting observations
and natural products for
✧ Moderation in eating, drinking,
human’s enjoyment
and exercise is promoted
✧ Gluttony and drunkenness
are sins to be controlled
Rastafarianism ✧ Meat and fish restricted
✧ Pigs and shellfish are
✧ Vegetarian diets only, with
scavengers and are
salts,
preservatives,
and
unclean
condiments prohibited
✧ Foods grown with
drinks
permitted;
✧ Herbal
chemicals are
alcohol, coffee, and soft drinks
unnatural and prohibited
prohibited
✧ Biblical texts support
✧ Marijuana used extensively
use of herbs (marijuana
for religious and medicinal
and other herbs)
purpose
17
Food Culture
DRAFT
Type of
religion
December 2009
Practice or restriction
Rationale
Roman
Catholicism
✧ Va r i a t i o n s o f f a s t i n g o r
abstinence are o b s e r v e d
by some Roman Catholics on
such occasions as Lent or
Good Friday. Meat restricted
on certain days
✧ Fasting practiced
✧ Restrictions are consistent
with specified days of the
church year
Seventh-day
Adventist
✧ Pork prohibited and meat and
fish avoided
✧ Vegetarian diet is encouraged
✧ Alcohol, coffee, and tea
prohibited
✧ Diet satisfies practices to
“honour and glorify God”
Table 11.10 Hong Kong holidays (including public holidays and school holidays)
related to religion
Religion
Festivals
Date
Buddhism
Buddha Birthday
The 8th day of the fourth Lunar month
Confucianism
Confucius Birthday
The 27th day of the eight Lunar month
Christianity
and Protestant
Community
Christmas
Easter
25th December
In between 21st March and 25th April
11.1.5 Nutraceuticals
The term nutraceutical was created from the terms “nutrition” and “pharmaceutical” in
1989 by Stephen DeFelice, MD, founder and chairman of the Foundation for Innovation
in Medicine.
18
Nutraceutical refers to the foods that are claimed to provide medical or health benefits
as well as to prevent or treat a disease. Nutraceuticals range from isolated nutrients,
dietary supplements and specific diets to genetically engineered designed foods,
herbals foods and processed food such as cereals, soup and beverages.
People are more and more interested in nutraceuticals and functional foods which are
driven by progressive researches to identify potential nutraceutical substances and
Food Culture
DRAFT
December 2009
their applications in response to increasing public interest and consumer demands.
The reason of the growing nutraceutical market is that people pay more concerns on
health. More and more books and magazine articles report the relationship between
diet and health as well as the concept of nutraceuticals. The blooming of information
through internet makes the delivery of the message of preventing / treatment of disease
through functional food much easier than before.
(A) Examples of nutraceuticals
(i)
Nutraceutical grouping by food sources can be divided into plant, animal and
microbial. For example, one of the plant sources of nutraceutical is oat or oat
meal. Federal Drug Adminstration (FDA) has allowed label on oat or oat meal
products to claim that diet high in these cereal products with low saturated fat
and cholesterol contents may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.
(ii) Nutraceutical can also come from non-food sources, for examples bacteria and
algae. Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), which is claimed to have anti-inflammatory,
anti-thrombotic, immunomodulatory and triglyceride-lowering activities, can be
obtained from bacteria and algae. Salmon fed with EPA producing algae may
also have high level of EPA. Nowadays, nutraceuticals are going to be
produced through molecular biotechnology which incorporates the genes
associated with EPA production into non-EPA producing organisms. This lowers
the production cost and optimizes production. However, debate also arises
concerning the regulation and public acceptance.
Apart from the oat and EPA, there are many other nutraceuticals that are claimed
to be beneficial to human health, for example, beta-carotene, lycopene, flavonoids,
gramma-linolenic acid, anthocyanins etc.
(B) Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Health
According to the concept of traditional Chinese medicine, food and disease cannot
be separated. Many kinds of food can be a drug and a drug can be a kind of healthy
food.
The most important theory in Chinese medicine is balance, i.e. balance between “Yin”
and “Yang” or “Hot” and “Cold” in common. Diseases are caused by the imbalance of
“Hot” and “Cold” in the body. In the food system of TCM, there are a total of five types
of food: cold, cool, mild, warm and hot. The body can be tuned to a balanced state
by consuming the right type of food. This can then keep the body healthy. There is a
golden rule for practicing TCM diet: “Heat up the cold body, cool down the hot body,
nourish those who are deficient, dissipate the excess within”. Understanding the theory
of balance, keeping an eye on the imbalances in our body and continuing to practice
of the golden rule is the three keys to maintain good health according to the theory of
TCM diet. Table 11.11 shows some examples on the five types of food.
19
Food Culture
DRAFT
Table 11.11
Characteristics
Cold, cool, mild, warm and hot foods
Cold
Cool
Mild
Warm
Hot
Sago,
glass
noodles,
aloe vera,
beancurd
sheets
Straw
mushroom,
mint, chrysanthemum, Luo
Han Kuo,
bird’s nest,
wheat, barley,
vermicelli
Steam white
rice, small red
bean, peas,
soybean,
red rice,
deep-fried
bean curd,
almonds
Peanut,
nuts, instant
noodles,
toast,
baked bread,
glutinous rice,
chestnut, milk
chocolate
Black
and white
pepper,
dark
chocolate,
curry,
Korean
ginseng
Winter
melon,
cabbage,
water
chestnut,
eggplant,
golden
mushroom
Loofah,
watercress,
white turnip,
green turnip,
lettuce,
lily bud,
salt-sour
cabbage,
preserved
salty pickle,
lily bulb
Steamed
food, choi
sum, sweet
potato, corn,
white long
beans, green
long beans,
potato,
broccoli
Pumpkin,
preserved
Szechuan
pickle,
onion,
mustard,
lemongrass
Garlic,
ginger,
chili,
Watermelon,
pear,
banana,
lemon tea,
prune
Star fruit,
green grape,
pineapple,
green tea,
olives,
raw tomato,
refined sugar,
dragon fruit,
candied winter
melon,
ice-cream,
soy milk
Apple,
strawberry,
red grape,
fermented
red beancurd,
black grape,
blueberry,
coconut, tea,
jam, lotus
seed paste,
custard,
braised food
Peach, stirfried food,
sweet-tasting
food,
dried fruit,
donuts,
coconut
milk, longan,
cookie, pan
fried food,
red wine
Deep-fried
foods,
barbecued
foods, hot
pot foods,
mango,
coffee,
lychee,
durian,
spicytasting
foods,
strong
alchohol
Hokkaido
Meats, Dairy crab, hairy
products
crab,
echinus,
mud crab,
jelly fish,
clam,
goose
Salted fish,
frog,
pig’s blood,
pig’s lung,
salted duck
egg, egg
white, fresh
milk, abalone,
duck
Duck’s leg,
duck’s tongue,
sweetened
condensed
milk, pork,
pig’s heart,
squid, fish
liver oil,
salmon, egg
yolk
Goose liver,
chicken,
bacon,
dried meat,
preserved
Chinese meat,
cheese, pig’s
liver, garoupa
Ox tongue,
lamb, beef,
ox tail,
snake, eel,
lobster,
pawn, dried
shrimps,
mutton
Crops,
beans and
herbs
Vegetables
Fruits, wine,
beverages,
snacks,
sauces,
taste,
desserts
20
December 2009
Food Culture
DRAFT
December 2009
11.2 Factors contributing to the development of a
food culture in local and global contexts
Food culture of a place usually arises from people’s origin no matter they still live there
or not. Basically, food culture is moulded by a series of factors including geographical
factors, historical and cultural development, food availability, social influences, economic
factors, scientific and technological development, etc. The following are some brief
introduction of these factors.
11.2.1 Geographical factors
The eating habit and food availability can be affected by the geographical differences
in different areas. Different climate and soil conditions determine what can be grown
in the area. These differences include sunlight, water availability, temperature, etc.
As seen in Figure 11.3, the staples of different places consumed are different due to
the fact that different crops can be successful grown in different places under various
climatic conditions.
(A) Temperature
The climatic differences are mainly based on the differences in temperature.
(i)
Temperate and subtropical areas, where the agricultural growing seasons may
be up to six months, may have relatively high precipitation and marked
seasonal temperature difference.
(ii)
Drier temperate continental areas such as prairies and steppes (grassland with
very few trees) have much seasonal rainfall with cold winters. The productivity
of relatively dry, temperate zones can be increased by the practice of irrigation.
(iii) Mediterranean areas including California, Chile and parts of the Near East have
cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers which are suitable for the growth of
many of the major cereal crops of the world. Maize or corn in Middle America,
wheat and barley in the Near East, rice in Asia, and sorghum in Africa are some
of the cereal crops grown in the Mediterranean areas.
(iv) Tropical areas are warm throughout the year with frequent seasonal rainfall.
Today the agricultural practices in these areas include a form of shifting,
swidden, or slash-and-burn cultivation.
(B) Soil
Soil is a living and dynamic ecosystem. It determines what can be grown in the area.
“Ideal” soil for agriculture is made up of 45% minerals, 5% organic matter, and 50%
space filling half with water and half with air.
Food Culture
21
DRAFT
However, soil in each site or location has unique properties that form different soil
formation and ultimately determine what is suitable to be grown in the site. The pH,
drainage condition and texture of soil can affect the crop performance and suitability.
For example, alfalfa grows best in soils having a pH of 6.2 to 7.8, while soybean grows
best in soils with a pH between 6.0 and 7.0. Peanuts grow best in soils that have a pH
of 5.3 to 6.6. Many other crops and vegetables are also relying so much on soil for the
best nutrient absorption. There are some locations which are special and extremely
fertile. For examples, in prairies, the soil is basically black in colour which is called
chernozem. This soil is extremely fertile which is very suitable for crop cultivation.
Soil erosion is a serious problem for a long time. This is mainly caused by growing
a single crop in a field for a long period and by the use of chemical fertilizers. Crop
rotation and organic farming are being introduced for relieving the stress of losing
cultivable lands. In crop rotation, different crops are being grown in an area sequentially
in different periods depends on the requirement of the crops. There will be a period
of “rest” which no crops are being grown on the land but animals such as sheep and
cows are being fed on it. Their droppings will fertilize the land again for another cycle
of cultivation. Organic farming is a hot topic in recent years. Environmental-protection
advocates promote the use of organic fertilizers and organic methods for farming.
Nowadays, more people are aware of the benefits of organic farming and become
supporters on this issue. This changes the food choice of some groups of people that
they may choose vegetables and crop from organic farms.
(C) Other geographical factors
Other geographical factors including rainfalls, wind, sunshine, etc. are also affecting
food production in different areas. For examples, the average rainfall in Southern Asia
is always higher than that in Northern Asia. Therefore, rice which needs more water
for growth is cultivated in Southern Asia while wheat which can grow under water
limitation is cultivated in Northern Asia.
11.2.2 Historical and cultural development
(A) Ethnic groups
History of a country or an ethnic group greatly affects food culture.
(i)
22
Italy
“Italian food” was called “Roman food” in the past and changed to “Italian food” at
some point. “Roman food” was characterized by the use of lovage, rue, and other
herbs which were absent from later Italian cooking. In addition, a fermented fish
sauce called garum was used in ancient “Italian food”. Early Roman had no pasta.
In modern Italian cooking, rosemary and oregano are used instead of lovage
and rue and the garum sauce is evolved into modern anchovy preparations. The
fall of the Roman Empire and the invasion of the Arabs led to the changes in
Italian food. The Arabs introduced many new kinds of food including rice, sugar,
oranges and the sharbats which was later developed into ice-cream. The Arabs
also changed the spicing pattern. However, the Arab dishes in Italy were lost
during the Renaissance. Nowadays what we think of “Italian food” is bread, olives,
Food Culture
December 2009
DRAFT
December 2009
wine and tomato sauces. Actually, tomato became popular in the late 18th century
and truly prevalent in the 19th century. The origin of tomato sauce was simply
a Mexican salsa recipe and so there was a phenomenon that some Mexicans
inspired modern Italian cuisine. From the above example, we can see that wars,
the sovereignty, culture invasions, introduction of new food ingredients, etc. can
all affect the development of the food culture in a country or an ethnic group of
people.
(ii)
China
Chinese cuisine is changing along with the history. The changes in the food
ingredients play an important role in the development of Chinese cuisine. Chinese
cuisine accepts foreign ingredients such as wheat and barley. The building of 11
canals which began as early as in 403-221 B.C. had helped the transportation of
foods from one area to another. In 139 B.C., there was an emperor bringing back
pomegranate, sesame, coriander, clover, alfalfa, grapes, etc. from Turkestan.
Many of these were integrated in Chinese cuisines. Chinese believes that food and
medicine are one and food can provide both nutrition and health. Many cuisines
are developed based on this concept. The third reason that drives the change is
the interest and desire of Chinese people. This results in the development of a
wide range of foods appearing in Chinese cuisine. The last reason for the change
of Chinese cuisine is related to the long history of Chinese culture. Cooking
methods and food ingredients change with time. A dish varies from period to
period because the cooking method and food ingredients used may be different
in different periods.
(iii) Hong Kong
Due to Hong Kong's past as a British colony and long history of being an
international city of commerce, many cultures and tastes are represented in Hong
Kong's world of dining. e.g. Chinese cuisine including Cantonese, Chiu Chow,
Peking, Shanghainese, Szechuan & Hunan etc, Western cuisine including French,
Italian, Greek, Mexican etc, and other Asian cuisines including Japanese, Korean,
Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian etc.
Following are some classic examples of Hong Kong cuisine / restaurants that
reflect the food culture in Hong Kong:
❖ Cha chaan teng
✐ a type of Chinese tea restaurant originated in Hong Kong, known for its
eclectic and affordable menus which include many dishes from Hong Kong
cuisine and Hong Kong-style Western cuisine.
✐ it serves a wide range of food, from steak to wonton noodles to curry to
sandwiches. Some of the popular foods commonly found in a cha chaan
teng include Hong Kong-style milk tea, Yuanyang (a mixture of coffee and
Hong Kong-style milk tea), iced coffee with lemon, Ribena with lemon, egg
tarts, pineapple bun, HK-style french toast, butter and jam on toast, instant
noodles in soup with egg and luncheon meat, sweet sauce chicken wings,
stir-fried instant noodles, etc.
Food Culture
23
DRAFT
❖ Private kitchen
✐ They are places with no registered company name and are located in
residential buildings; there are no walk-in customers, and reservations
need to be made, sometimes more than one month in advance.
✐ No menus from which to choose items; food is determined by the owners.
No service charge, no credit cards are accepted. Some private kitchens
advertise their price, menu and location through their o w n i n t e r n e t
homepages.
✐ Prices for a meal range from HK$200 to $500, which is not considered
inexpensive compared with other restaurants serving similar food.
✐ With such underground and seemingly exclusive operations, and with
culinary techniques always promoted as home-styled cooking, food offered
in such private kitchens carries an image of comfort and home.
❖ Yum Cha
✐ In Hong Kong, yumcha is a tradition on weekend mornings when families
meet, chat, eat dim sum and drink Chinese tea together
✐ yum cha is also a morning ritual for the elderly to spend a good part of the
morning after early morning exercise of tai chi or a walk
✐ dim sum dishes are usually served in a small steamer basket or on a small
plate. Some traditional dim sum dishes include roast pork buns, shrimp
dumplings, and steamed rice rolls, chicken feet, spring rolls, Malay steamed
sponge cake, egg tart etc.
❖Dai Pai Dong
✐ a type of open-air sidewalk Chinese-style food stall that has Hong Kong
flavour, was once very popular in Hong Kong.
✐ it is characterised by the big wok, big electric fans with no air conditioning,
messy environment, as well as a variety of low priced dishes of good quality
✐ foods commonly served in dai pai dongs are distinctly Cantonese, with fried
rice and fried noodles, as well as a lot of meat, seafood and vegetables
dishes which are mostly strongly flavoured. The selling point of these foods
is their crispiness, tastiness and full of 'wok hei' (the good smell and taste
created by frying foods with a ‘big wok’).
✐ the traditional dai pai dong is a good place for social gatherings where
customers are free to talk very loudly
(B) Religious beliefs
Along with a long history of a country, the power of religious beliefs accounting for the
development of food culture can be great.
24
The changes of religions alter the foodways of a place. Some religions order sharing
sacrifices for eating. Others ban meat consumption at least for holy devotees. The
ones who do not eat meat believe in “nonviolence” because meat involves the killing
of animal. Food is a basic and universal human concern. It is an important thing in
Food Culture
December 2009
DRAFT
December 2009
religions as a symbol, subject of prayers, a marker of sharing and unsharing, and for
communion purposes. Here is an example of how religious power changes the food
culture and even the food availability of an area.
(i)
The spread of Islam throughout the southeastern part of Asia, especially
Indonesia, led to a progressive disappearance of pigs.
(ii) The food law of Judaism is called the laws of kashurt. Modern Jews still follow
the law in our present society. According to the law, pork, which is considered as
an unclean animal, seafood without fins and scales and blood are prohibited.
Animals are ritually slaughtered to ensure that most blood is drained away. Meat
and milk cannot be consumed together based on the injunction against cooking
a kid in its mother’s milk. Hygienic concern may be a factor of establishing the
law. However, the most important factor is to lend a spiritual dimension o n
eating habits. The idea is that Jews should not eat anything that involves
spiritually negative things such as pain, sickness, uncleanness, or cruelty to
animals.
11.2.3 Food availability
What kind of food is available in an area is determined by various factors. Almost
all foods are of plant or animal origin. Geographical and historical factors discussed
above are the main causes of the development of the staple and indigenous foods.
The climate and soil conditions of different areas directly affect and determine the
main kind of food available on the land. New food sources might be introduced into
an area by immigrants, rulers, travelers, etc. The main purpose of food was to provide
calories for survival in early days. Therefore, the staples are usually some starchy food
including rice, wheat, root tubers etc. which provided the main energy sources. This
basically determines what are eaten in different areas. Noodles, bread, cakes can be
found from areas growing wheat. Steamed rice can be found from areas growing white
rice.
Over 2,000 plant species are consumed as food. The parts of plants for consumption
are most probably the energy reserving part of the plant. Seeds of a plant are often
packed with high energy for the germination of a new plant. Therefore, many foods
consumed by humans are seeds including cereals (maize, wheat, rice), legumes
(beans, peas, lentils) and nuts. Many oils extracted from plants are mostly from seeds
of plants such as peanut, sunflower, rape seed and sesame.
Different animals are available in different areas. Camels can be found in northern China
and so people living there, especially in Mongolia, use camel’s milk to produce yoghurt.
Dairy cattle are available in most European countries and Australia and therefore cow’s
milk from these areas is very popular. Fish is the main food for fishermen and people
living in coastal areas. People in inland areas seldom eat fish or seafood since keeping
the freshness of fish and seafood throughout the transportation can be very difficult.
Accompanying by the advances in transportation technology, there is no boundary for
the availability of food nowadays. Food from different countries can be moved around
all over the world. The globalization of food sources transforms the traditional dishes
Food Culture
25
DRAFT
December 2009
into a new enjoyment. Creativities are based on crossing over different cultures in a
single dish. This makes food choice no longer limited to the food available around local
regions but can be extended to all over the world.
Table 11.12
Examples of sources of food from different countries
Food
Source (countries)
Rice
Southern Asia (China, Thailand, Taiwan, India etc.),
Australia, America, Japan
Wheat
Northern Asia, Northern America, Europe, Australia
Milk
Northern America, Europe, Australia, Mongolia
Maize
Southern America, Southern Africa, Korea
Roots and tubers
Central Africa
Camel and goat
Mongolia
Fish
Coastal areas
11.2.4 Social influences
Food conveys social messages in a society group. Apart from the basic need of energy
from food, eating is a matter of social event, especially in a feast. Different customs,
traditions, eating habits and lifestyles decide what is eaten in a feast. In a Chinese
formal feast, there is a general order for which dish is to be served first and which is to
be the last. Figure 11.15 gives two examples of Chinese feast menus. As seen in the
menus, some dishes are in common and the order is similar. Shark’s fins, fish, chicken,
noodles, rice, dessert are some components commonly found in a Chinese feast menu.
Everyone going for a formal feast may expect they would have these foods in the meal.
It is accepted through common practices and becomes a custom. In Chinese, food is
a tool for showing respect to others. Host would like to serve other with luxurious food
like lobsters, shark’s fins, abalone, etc. rather than common food if possible.
26
Food Culture
December 2009
DRAFT
Roasted suckling pig with jelly fish
Sautéed scallop with sliced squid
Deep-fried shrimp ball
Braised vegetables with ham
Braised shark’s fin with shredded chicken and bamboo
(半隻)
half pig
Braised hairy cucumber with conpoy and sea moss
Steamed double sea garoupa
Deep-fried crispy chicken with garlic
Fried rice with shredded chicken in twin sauces
Soft-fried noodles
Sweetened red bean paste with lotus seeds and lily bulbs
Assort sweets
Fresh fruit platter
Roasted suckling pig with assorted roasted meat
Sautéed Shelled Shrimp with vegetables
Sautéed sliced squid with vegetables
Braised shark’s fin with seafood and bamboo fungus
Braised four kinds of vegetable in Portuguese sauce
Steamed abalone with tangerine
Steamed garoupa
Deep-fried crispy pigeon
Fried rice in lotus leaf
Noodles in soup with pickled vegetables and shredded pork
Assorted sweets
Fresh fruit platter
Food Culture
27
(兩打
twelve
pieces)
富
貴
帶
子
花
姿
蜜
奶
香
酥
蝦
丸
金
華
雙
翡
翠
乳
豬
大
拼
盤
竹 熱葷 hot pot
笙
彩
翠
龍
虹
鳳
皇
鮮
花
燴
蝦
枝
生
仁
片
翅
葡
汁
焗
四
寶
蔬
陳
皮
蒸
鮮
鮑
魚
清
蒸
大
海
班
脆
皮
燒
乳
鴿
畔
塘
荷
葉
飯
搾
菜
肉
絲
麵
線
窩
美
點
或
蟠
桃
合
時
鮮
果
盤
鴻
運
乳
豬
伴
海
蜇
熱葷 hot pot
紅
燒
竹
笙
雞
絲
翅
發
財
玉
環
瑤
柱
甫
清
蒸
雙
海
斑
蒜
花
脆
皮
燒
雞
太
極
雞
絲
飯
吉
祥
伊
麵
百
年
行
好
運
美
點
或
蟠
桃
環
球
生
果
盤
Two typical examples of a formal Chinese feast / banquet menu
Figure 11.13
喜慶全包宴 Feast menu
鴻運全包宴 Feast menu
DRAFT
Food in a society has a function of “solidarity”. In most situations, eating together
means sharing and participation. People like having communication throughout a meal
sometimes accompanied with beer or wine. There is a natural link between sharing
food and being personally closer together. In personal meetings, most people like to
meet in venues serving with drinks or food such as cafés, coffee shops, bars, western
restaurants, etc. Notably, communications sometimes involve a stimulant such as
caffeinated or alcoholic drinks, for so called “better communication”. These stimulants
sometimes may remove the invisible barrier between people, however, sometimes
may become the source of violence triggered by small conflicts.
“Seperation” is the other function of food. This separates different groups of people
according to their social classes, ethnicities, families, networks, friendship groups,
religions, nationalities, etc. People of similar background would like to gather for a
meal. Lower class people may not easily have meal with higher class people. They may
feel embarrassed in such situation. Types of food consuming in higher class society is
totally different from those in lower class society. This is the same in other groups of
people. People of different religions are difficult to join each other having a formal feast
since they may have different preference for food under different religious rules. In a
society, people can identify each other by the type of food they consume.
The differences in customs and traditions also affect the utensils used in a meal.
Chinese and some other Asians use chopsticks or fingers. Europeans and Americans
use folks, spoons, and knives. In a formal set meal in Western countries, a series of
utensils are being used. The right utensil must be chosen for each dish while using
the wrong one may be regarded as impolite. This is regarded as table manner which
concerns food-related etiquette.
11.2.5 Economic factors
Economy is a main shaper of the foodways for most people over the history. Agriculture
in areas under poverty is only a matter of producing food that people can afford. This
means that they produce their staple as cheap as possible. They have no choice on
what they eat. In a prosperous country, economic determines which plants or animals
can be produced cheaply as well as sold at the best price. Traditionally, the food
product on a land also involves the factors of land and labour. Crops such as rice which
takes the least land will be favoured in countries with abundant labour. Labour is not
a problem in China where the labour cost is low. Therefore, rice dominates the South
China because it produces many grains per acre through weeks of works per acre.
Crop like wheat that needs less labour is available in areas where labour is scarce and
land is abundant. For this reason, wheat dominates the north plains of North America
as well as many plains in the Near East.
28
Economic status, especially the product prices, changes the eating habit of people.
Nowadays, some formerly expensive foods like white bread and white sugar are very
cheap due to the advancement in industrial processing techniques. On the other hand,
formerly very cheap foods like vegetables are now becoming expensive because
of environmental devastation. Brown rice was cheaper than white rice in the past
because it required less processing. However, the longer storage time of white rice
has lower its price compared to brown rice nowadays. Nowadays, organic foods are
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more expensive than the conventional ones. However, people pay more attention on
the value of organic foods. It may become a trend and the price may be lower in the
future due to the keen competition into the market.
The health expenditure of people increases with the increase of Gross Domestic
Product (GDP). Figure 11.16 shows the relationship between health expenditure and
GDP in Hong Kong from 1989-2005. People are willing to pay more for health and
health food when their income increases. This makes people try to eat healthier. The
introduction of a new technology into its industry may suddenly make a particular food
cheap and then the consumption level goes up. This may change the staple food of
the people.
Per capita health expenditure and GDP (current price), 1989/90 –
2004/05 (Adapted from Food and Health Bureau, Hong Kong SAR)
12,000
10,000
200,000
8,000
150,000
6,000
100,000
4,000
50,000
9/
9
19 0
90
/9
1
19
91
/9
2
19
92
/9
3
19
93
/9
4
19
94
/9
5
19
95
/9
6
19
96
/9
7
19
97
/9
8
19
98
/9
9
19
99
/0
0
20
00
/0
20 1
01
/0
20 2
02
/0
3
20
03
/0
4
20
04
/0
5
2,000
Per capita GDP (HK$)
250,000
19
8
Per capita health expenditure (HK$)
Figure 11.14
Fiscal Year
Per Capita Total Domestic Health Expenditure (HK$)
Per capita GDP (HK$)
11.2.6 Scientific and technological developments
Food technology affects how and what people eat from the far ancient up to present.
Primitive people were hunters and gatherers. They invented tools and techniques for
maintaining a livelihood in the wilderness. This was the basic eating culture for survival
in the wild in the past. Later, agriculture and stock-breeding appeared in different
parts of the world. Farmers and stock-breeders developed techniques for sedentary
crop growing and dairying as well as ways of preserving their food surpluses. The
industrialization of food production started in the 19th century in several European
countries and similar societies such as the USA and Australia. The rapid development
of scientific knowledge changed the lifestyle including the ways of food consumption
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in the 19th century. During the industrialization, food was produced in large scale. After
1800, food-related knowledge in chemistry, biology and physiology including nutrition
and microbiology boosted up quickly and integrated together to be very specific.
The changes in technologies in production, processing and packaging of food mean
the changes of food consumption practices of people. Using advanced food production
and processing technologies changes the traditional practices of people of consuming
foods. Spray-dried milk powder, coffee powder, fruit juice powder as well as tea bags are
some of the examples. These can also increase the shelf-life of foods. Advancements
in storage and packaging technologies such as deep-freezing, vacuum packaging and
freeze-drying, enhance the storage period of food. These storage technologies are
being incorporated with advanced transportation methods such as aeroplanes, huge
ships with deep freezers, refrigerated lorries etc. Foods then are not limited at locally
but worldwide. Companies try to explore more markets to sell their products for higher
profit. This increases the varieties of food available for people. Hong Kong people
can get salmons from Norway, abalone from Australia, foie gras from France with
comparable freshness as those in the country of origin as original. New technology on
microwave food is emerging in recent years. It changes the lifestyle of many people by
cooking less at home. People pay more and more attention to what they are eating and
food safety. The trend of organic farming has emerged under this situation.
Apart from technological development, many scientific data appear to support the
functional properties of some food components. For example, scientific research has
shown that high fibre diet can prevent colon cancer. Many people pay more attention
to their diet by eating more fruits and vegetables. More and more food products are
produced with health claims according to scientific studies. High fibre, high calcium, low
fat, low calories food products are appearing in the market due to the strong demand of
consumers. Food choice of people changes along with the new findings in food science
research. Recently, there is a 4-year research regarding the antioxidant content in
organic vegetables conducted by Food Standards Agency in United Kingdom (U.K.). It
is found that the milk of cows fed with organic feeds contained 90% more antioxidants
than that feeding with conventional feed (Available: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/
news/uk/health/article2753446.ece). This large project has concluded that organic
vegetables and fruits may contain more antioxidants which are regarded as wholesome
components against various diseases. This finding may further encourage people to
eat more organic vegetables and fruits rather than the conventional ones.
11.3 Relation of food culture and health
Health issues affect the food consumption pattern of a community. Nowadays,
consumers pay more attention to what they are eating than before. Food which is “less
healthy” becomes less attractive to them.
11.3.1 Health issues
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In 2007, the first three leading causes of death in Hong Kong were malignant neoplasm,
or so called cancer in common, heart disease and pneumonia (Table 11.17). More and
more people are being alert in the prevention of these diseases, especially cancer and
heart disease, by changing their own daily life style and eating habits.
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Table 11.15
Number of Deaths by Leading Causes of Death in 2007
Order
Cause of death
Number of Death
1
Malignant neoplasm
12316
2
Heart Disease
6372
3
Pneumonia
4978
(Data from Centre for Health Protection, HKSAR)
11.3.2 Cancer
Some kinds of cancers, especially colon, rectum and anal cancers which are the second
large cancer group in Hong Kong in 2006 (Table 11.18), are related to our diets. There
are some kinds of food, such as deep-fried foods (French fries), salted fish, pickled
foods (pickled vegetables), barbecuing food, etc., that are believed to increase the
risk of cancer. They may contain a certain type of carcinogens, such as acrylamide,
which are the substances that may increase the risk of cancer by altering or damaging
the cellular DNA and leading to abnormal and uncontrollable proliferation of cells.
Carcinogens can be produced by processed food (deep-frying, pickling, barbecuing
etc.). Consumption of these foods frequently may increase the risk of gastrointestinal
cancers. Fat may also increase the chances of cancer. Many researches have showed
that animals fed with high-fat diet developed tumors more readily in their mammary
gland, intestine, skin and pancreas. Therefore, avoiding eating processed food and
high-fat food may lower the chance of cancer development.
Table 11.16
Number of cases of three most common cancers in 2006
Order
Cancer site
Number of new cases
1
Lung
4233
2
Colorectum
3918
3
Breast
2595
(Data from Hong Kong Cancer Registry, Hospital Authority, HKSAR)
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11.3.3 Heart Disease
Heart disease can be caused by high blood cholesterol level. Oxidized cholesterol can
be accumulated in the foam cells which are involved in the formation of pathogenic
plaque. The development of plaque may cause the blocking of coronary blood vessels
and thus leads to heart disease. Many kinds of food, such as egg yolk, squid, shrimp,
etc., contain high content of cholesterol.
Many people now pay more attention to this and try to avoid eating too much food
containing high cholesterol content. Many food products that claim to have low or even
no cholesterol have appeared in the market. It is believed that food high in dietary fibre,
especially those containing high content of β-glucan from oat, can lower the blood
cholesterol level. The viscous β-glucan is proposed to be effective in interfering with
the reabsorption of bile acids and hence resulting in a negative sterol (cholesterol)
balance. Therefore some products containing high dietary fibre content are claimed to
be able to lower blood cholesterol level.
11.3.4 Weight control
Many people are yelling for losing weight or slim figure. Beauty companies are then set
up for this purpose. Recently, many advertisements are focusing on how to lose weight
or keep a slim figure. People try to reach this target by various ways such as dancing,
changing their eating habit to low calorie diets, medication, etc. This also promotes the
needs of low-calorie food and low-fat food.
11.3.5 Government policies
Government policies play an important role in community health issues. In order to
promote a healthy life in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Government established a “two
plus three everyday” programme in 2005 to encourage people to eat 2 servings of
fruits and 3 servings of vegetables daily. This educates Hong Kong people to pay more
attention to their health in daily life.
11.3.6 The effect of health issues on conventional food
Merchants notice the trend of consumers’ food choice. Many Chinese traditional foods,
which are high in fat, cholesterol and energy content, are concerned as “unhealthy”. In
addition, many people are yelling for weight control in recent times. Many advertisements
focus on helping people to loss weight by various methods. People tend to eat food
with lower calories. Food industries are trying to transform conventional food to be a
“healthier” one.
(A) Snowy Mooncake
32
Snowy Mooncake is one of the most classic examples of how conventional food
modified to go along with the health concerns of consumers. Tai Pan is the first inventor
of Snowy Mooncake. In the past, people bought mooncake as a gift for others. Not
too many people prefer eating mooncakes because of its “unhealthy” oily texture. In
addition, traditional mooncakes contain egg yolk and sweet lotus seed paste which
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are high in calories and cholesterol. Therefore Tai Pan looked into this market and
promoted Snowy Mooncake that is without egg yolk and lotus seed paste to the market.
Nowadays, many different types of Snowy Mooncakes appear on the market.
(B) Rice dumpling
Another traditional food, rice dumpling, also keeps changing along with the trends
of health issues. Traditionally, pork and salted egg yolks, which are high in fat and
cholesterol, are the main ingredients in salty rice dumplings. For sweet rice dumplings,
bean paste and lixivium are used in the traditional processing. Nowadays, there are
so many rice dumplings with health claim appeared in the market. Vegetarian rice
dumpling is one of the examples. These rice dumplings contain neither meat nor salted
egg yolk, but in some cases contain brown rice which contains high content of vitamins,
minerals and dietary fibre.
(C) Cakes
Traditional cakes are made of whole eggs and use much cream for decoration. As
people are concerning more on healthy eating, the ingredients used in making cakes
change from time to time. The most obvious evolution of cakes is that less cream is
used for decoration, and other ingredients such as colourful fresh fruits are used to
decorate the cakes. Angel cakes which are claimed to have no egg yolk also appear
in the market recently. Apart from using less cream and egg yolks, whole wheat flour
is used for the production of cakes. Some cakes may have a crispy bottom made of
whole wheat flour and this crispy bottom may even increase different mouthfeel of the
cake.
11.4 Implications of future market trend
11.4.1 Globalization of food trade
Globalization fosters the interaction of various geographical groups. As a result, habits
of food consumption are influenced.
Air transportation shortens the time in product delivery. Many agricultural and processed
foods are highly perishable. The short delivery time enables more people to know and
enjoy these easily perishable foods, which are previously unknown to them. Together
with improved preservation technologies of fruits and vegetables, perishable foods can
now have much longer shelf-life. We now can enjoy much more varieties of food than
our parents.
The general expansion of our knowledge makes us more curious on new things, and
increases our desire to taste foods from other areas of the world. Thus, there are many
new innovations in foods introduced to the market. One of them is fusion food. Fusion
food is food made by a style of cooking that uses ingredients and cooking techniques
from around the world, especially combining the eastern and western styles. Since food
trade is very glorious in Hong Kong, world food ingredients can easily be found in Hong
Kong. People like adding new elements into traditional ones. There are now some
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restaurants combine Japanese and Western food ingredients and cooking techniques.
For example, stir-fried Italy rice with mushrooms, butter, spices and chicken soup is
filled into a roasted squid which usually appears in a Japanese recipe.
11.4.2 Changes of socio-economic conditions
The upgrading of living quality has impact on the foods that consumers purchase. More
and more people prefer “organic” foods rather than inorganic, because they believe
organic vegetables and fruits are much more healthy foods. In addition, people are
more concern about genetically modified (GM) foods. They will question whether the
crops are grown from genetic modified seeds.
More affluent society cares for food packaging. The biodegradable materials are
preferred as materials, as common plastics damage the environment which is definitely
not friendly to our next generation.
“Fair trade” is one of the activities initiated by “Oxfam”. It requests consumers to refuse
buying food items that are made with crops purchased from third world country farmers
with “suppressed” (unfair) prices. For example, the expensive coffee sold in Starbucks
was made from coffee beans bought from Brazil at extremely low price. The issue
of fair trade urged Starbucks to pay the coffee bean farmers fairly and eventually
Starbucks surrendered. Nowadays, Oxfam continues to deal with other international
food producers and such movement is gaining more popular attention.
11.4.3 Change of lifestyles and health concerns
Knowledge and education will eventually “mature” our community. More and more people
get to know their own bodies better, and try to control their own health condition.
As excess sugar and fat are the main causes of metabolic diseases, many people will
switch to foods with sugar and/or fat replaced by other ingredients. There are functional
foods that are incorporated with nutritional ingredients as main components for health
function. Nutraceuticals are natural plant or animal extracts for specific health function.
Both functional foods and nutraceuticals are expected to have huge growth in coming
years. Furthermore, some of them may modify their functional ingredients, so that
they can prevent or treat certain specific diseases, acting as the potential alternative
medicine.
(A) Hong Kong traditional Chinese restaurants
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In Hong Kong, there were many Chinese restaurants serving Chinese tea and dim
sum before World War II. The first Chinese restaurant was established in 1846 in Sai
Wan. The number of Chinese restaurants increased to over 30 in 1900. Drinking tea
and eating dim sum early in the morning became an indispensable activity in Hong
Kong people’s life since early 1920’s. In 1980’s, night activities of Hong Kong people
became more prevalent. Therefore, some Chinese restaurants started to provide meal
services to customers late at night. Traditional Chinese food contains much oil and
salt. In recent years, caring more about health, food claimed to be low oil and salt
content appears in Chinese restaurants.
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(B) Fast food restaurants
In the past the attractiveness of fast food to Hong Kong people was “fast”. They can
give you what you want almost as soon as you have made the order although the food
may not be very delicious. This caters for the rush cadence of Hong Kong people.
However, this was no longer the case in late 20th to 21st centuries when people become
wealthy and paying more attention to their health. Fast food restaurants change their
style to provide more delicious and healthy food for customers. “Fast food” is not that
“fast” anymore.
(C) Trendy food culture
Hong Kong people have a high degree of adaptability to new things. Many foreign
foods such as bubble tea, sorbet, Pastel de nata, Japanese pizza and cheese cake
etc. were introduced to Hong Kong in 1990’s. These all became trendy foods and
many chain stores of the specific food products were opened in 1990’s.
11.4.4 Relationships between development of new food
products and adaptation of food habits
The pace of life and work of city dwellers is fast and all is about efficiency. They
even demand high speed in food preparation or cooking. As a result, more and more
“convenience” or even “instant” foods appear on the market.
For example, instant drinks and soups are available already. There are two types of
instant drinks, one is prepared by adding water to cordials (concentrated fruit juices),
and the other is just powder. Instant soup is prepared in the same way by adding
boiling water to concentrated canned soup, or soup powder. It is expected that such
trend will continue.
Cooking Chinese dishes require a variety of food materials including sauces. In the
market and shops, pre-packed cut and cleaned food components are available. At
home, people just place everything in the cooking pan and the dish will be served in
minutes. It is expected that varieties of such ready-to-cook foods will increase to cater
for other non-Chinese dishes.
In Europe and America, the so-called TV dinner is available in the supermarkets.
These are the deep-frozen but cooked dishes packed in microwavable containers.
The consumer only needs to open the package and reheat the dish in the microwave
oven for minutes before dinner is served. Such similar type of food is gradually getting
popular in Hong Kong.
11.4.5 Advancement of food technology
New technology gives birth to developing new food products, or conventional foods but
presented in a more sanitary condition. Following are some examples:
(A) HPP stands for high pressure processing and it is also known as cold pasteurisation.
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It is a modern technology with extra high pressure that kills bacteria and micro-organisms
in the food without heating. In this case, we can enjoy many types of seafood like fresh
oyster by using HPP. Moreover, vegetables and meat can be sterilised in ozone water,
thus producing “cleaned” salad and sashimi that can be consumed safely.
(B) Critical carbon dioxide extraction technology will be commonly employed in
extracting functional phytochemicals from herbs or traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)
without degradation. These natural chemicals are precious components used in the
manufacturing of a variety of functional foods, nutraceuticals, or therapeutic foods.
(C) Encapsulation of nutrients and other food ingredients is another valuable invention.
For example, if fragile “probiotics” are protected in the micro-enteric coatings which
are incorporated into various food systems, people can consume non-yoghurt type
probiotic foods for improving our digestive tract health.
11.4.6 Marketing strategies
Food providers apply various strategies to promote their company image and products.
During the course of action, consumers’ eating culture is influenced.
Firstly, restaurant people will locate their business in two different styles. Business
with similar nature will form some type of “theme” market. For example, there are the
fresh seafood villages at Saigon, Lai Yue Mun, Lamma Island etc. that customers have
selection among restaurants for dinning but only limited to mainly seafood. On the
other hand, there are food courts in large plaza or shopping mall which attract street
customers and visitors. A variety of fast foods are served in food courts to increase the
convenience for people during shopping.
Then, individual or chain restaurants promote their image so as to identify their specific
customer groups. For example, Ah Yat Abalone diners target at high income class, who
appreciate the delicacy of abalone cooking. McDonald’s has successfully identified the
children’s segment of the market by offering birthday party programmes for children.
De Coral advertises high value dishes with bargain prices on television, thus creating
the middle class culture. Similarly, both the international restaurant chain Pizza Hut
and the domestic chain restaurant Satay King have special marketing strategies that
engage young people.
Food manufacturers are using television commercials of their products as a marketing
strategy to build up a food culture in their targeted groups. Yakult tries to educate
school children that fermented milk drink is a daily must. Vitasoy promotes its products
to young people with body gesture and words commonly used in their daily lives.
These products definitely contribute in shaping our food culture.
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Not for Sale
The copyright of the materials in this booklet belongs to the Education Bureau. The
materials can be used by schools only for educational purpose. Written prior permission
of the Education Bureau must be sought for other commercial uses.
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Family and LifeStyle