Gong Xi Fa Cai: a happy and successful Year of the Tiger to you all! At bartlett mitchell we use any excuse to celebrate food, and this is one of the best ways to make our cafes and restaurants more exciting. At bartlett mitchell, we like to pass on our knowledge to our customers, so here's our take on Chinese New Year...
Did you have a good New Year's celebration yesterday? If not, then it's not too late, as celebrations run for a week. You can still have some noodles for "long life" for your evening meal, and throw in some sliced red peppers and carrots to represent red and gold and thus make sure the dragon Nien is blessing your plans. We particularly love Ching He Huang's Chinese Food Made Easy for how accessible it's made Chinese food to the great unwashed (and our manager's get some great tips too!)
in Chinese culture, noodles symbolize longevity. By eating noodles, it was believed that a long life would be achieved. It is still common for noodles to be served at birthday parties instead of birthday cake, although I know what I'd prefer! Wheat noodles appeared in Northern China where they were established by AD 100, probably using technology imported from the Middle East. Noodle shops were all the rage by the Sung dynasty. Chinese rulers were the first to enjoy them, but, as wheat based noodles are nutritious, store well, and are easy to prepare, they were quickly adopted by other people. Their popularity has yet to diminish. From China, noodles found their way into cuisines of most Asian countries: Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore.
In the noodle vein, Italy is also known for its extensive variety of pasta. To them, it is not just a food, but an art form. Some say Marco Polo learned the art of pasta on his expeditions to China in the 13th century and brought it back to Venice. Others believe otherwise. However it wasn’t until the 18th century that it became a big business due to the mass production machines brought about by the entrepreneurs of Naples, Italy.
Even these isles are not without their part in pasta history. I recently read an Elizabethan court cookery book which had a dish of Macaroni in it. Reading through it, however it didn’t seem to resemble anything we might recognise as Macaroni.
On another note, did you see the extraordinary coverage of the new Umami paste last week? Umami's been with us for hundreds of years, and yet Laura Santini launches a "fifth taste paste" and suddenly there's an attractive twist to it ... when will we ever get to the bottom of how these trends appear and how to make them happen - I guess I'd be a very rich man if I knew how it all worked!
That's all for now...
David
