Chinese spoon | |||||||
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Chinese name | |||||||
Traditional Chinese | 調羹 | ||||||
Simplified Chinese | 调羹 | ||||||
Literal meaning | for adjusting seasoning of geng | ||||||
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Alternative Chinese name | |||||||
Traditional Chinese | 湯匙 | ||||||
Simplified Chinese | 汤匙 | ||||||
Literal meaning | soup spoon | ||||||
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Second alternative Chinese name | |||||||
Chinese | 勺子 | ||||||
Literal meaning | ladle | ||||||
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Japanese name | |||||||
Kanji | 散蓮華 | ||||||
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The Chinese spoon or Chinese soup spoon is a type of spoon with a short,thick handle extending directly from a deep,flat bowl. [1] It is a regular utensil in Chinese cuisine used for liquids,especially soups,or loose solid food. Most are made from ceramics. [1] Although normally used as an eating utensil,larger versions of the Chinese spoon are also used as serving spoons or ladles. It can be stacked on top of one another for storage.
Spoons were used as early as the Shang dynasty of the 2nd millennium B.C.,both as a cooking tool and in eating,and were more common than chopsticks until perhaps the 10th century A.D.
Chinese spoons typically have higher sides and can hold more than the western soup spoon. [1] These spoons are used throughout Asia.
The spoon (匕,bǐ) was known as early as the Shang dynasty. The earliest found were made of bone,but bronze specimens are also found that have sharp points,suggesting they were used for cutting. These could be more than a foot long. During the Spring and Autumn period a rounder form appeared,and lacquer spoons are also found,becoming popular in the Han dynasty. [2]
In ancient China the spoon was more common than chopsticks,which were used in cooking. The spoon was more useful for eating because the most common food grain in North China was millet,which was made into a congee,or gruel. The spoon was better fitted for eating its soupy texture in an elegant way. [3]
The spoon was gradually undermined as the most common eating utensil starting in the Han,roughly the 1st century A.D.,when wheat began to be more widely grown. Milling technology became sophisticated enough to produce flour for noodles and dumplings. Since these were more easily lifted with chopsticks,the spoon lost its prominence by about the Song dynasty,or 10th century. Early-ripening rice,which was introduced from Vietnam at this time,was even easier to eat with chopsticks,since it cooked into clumps. [3]
The first compasses were created in China in the Han or soon after the Han by using a spoon shaped lodestone which rotated on a bronze plate.(see image below) [4]
In the system of classification used in the Kangxi Dictionary,compiled in the 18th century,Radical 21 (classifier #21) is "spoon."
Chinese cuisine comprise cuisines originating from China. Because of the Chinese diaspora and historical power of the country, Chinese cuisine has profoundly influenced many other cuisines in Asia and beyond, with modifications made to cater to local palates. Chinese food staples such as rice, soy sauce, noodles, tea, chili oil, and tofu, and utensils such as chopsticks and the wok, can now be found worldwide.
A spoon is a utensil consisting of a shallow bowl, oval or round, at the end of a handle. A type of cutlery, especially as part of a place setting, it is used primarily for transferring food to the mouth. Spoons are also used in food preparation to measure, mix, stir and toss ingredients and for serving food. Present day spoons are made from metal, wood, porcelain or plastic. There are a wide variety of spoons that are made of a variety of materials and by different cultures for many different uses and foods.
In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods either to hold them to cut with a knife or to lift them to the mouth.
Various customary etiquette practices exist regarding the placement and use of eating utensils in social settings. These practices vary from culture to culture. Fork etiquette, for example, differs in Europe, the United States, and Southeast Asia, and continues to change. In East Asian cultures, a variety of etiquette practices govern the use of chopsticks.
Tableware is any dish or dishware used for setting a table, serving food, and dining. It includes cutlery, glassware, serving dishes, and other items for practical as well as decorative purposes. The quality, nature, variety and number of objects varies according to culture, religion, number of diners, cuisine and occasion. For example, Middle Eastern, Indian or Polynesian food culture and cuisine sometimes limits tableware to serving dishes, using bread or leaves as individual plates, and not infrequently without use of cutlery. Special occasions are usually reflected in higher quality tableware.
The Four Great Inventions are inventions from ancient China that are celebrated in Chinese culture for their historical significance and as symbols of ancient China's advanced science and technology. They are the compass, gunpowder, papermaking and printing.
Sujeo (수저) is the Korean word for the set of eating utensils commonly used to eat Korean cuisine. The word is a portmanteau of the words sutgarak and jeotgarak. The sujeo set includes a pair of oval-shaped or rounded-rectangular metal chopsticks, and a long handled shallow spoon of the same material. One may use both at the same time, but this is a recent way to eat quicker. It is not considered good etiquette to hold the spoon and the chopstick together in one hand especially while eating with elders. More often food is eaten with chopsticks alone. Sometimes the spoon apart from chopsticks is referred to as sujeo.
Table manners are the rules of etiquette used while eating, which may also include the use of utensils. Different cultures observe different rules for table manners. Each family or group sets its own standards for how strictly these rules are to be followed.
The history of Chinese cuisine is marked by both variety and change. The archaeologist and scholar Kwang-chih Chang says "Chinese people are especially preoccupied with food" and "food is at the center of, or at least it accompanies or symbolizes, many social interactions". Over the course of history, he says, "continuity vastly outweighs change." He explains basic organizing principles which go back to earliest times and give a continuity to the food tradition, principally that a normal meal is made up of grains and other starches and vegetable or meat dishes.
Ancient Chinese scientists and engineers made significant scientific innovations, findings and technological advances across various scientific disciplines including the natural sciences, engineering, medicine, military technology, mathematics, geology and astronomy.
The Song dynasty invented some technological advances in Chinese history, many of which came from talented statesmen drafted by the government through imperial examinations.
The Wujing Zongyao, sometimes rendered in English as the Complete Essentials for the Military Classics, is a Chinese military compendium written from around 1040 to 1044.
Chopsticks are shaped pairs of equal-length sticks that have been used as kitchen and eating utensils in most of East and Southeast Asia for over three millennia. They are held in the dominant hand, secured by fingers, and wielded as extensions of the hand, to pick up food.
This article traces the history of cuisine of Japan. Foods and food preparation by the early Japanese Neolithic settlements can be pieced together from archaeological studies, and reveals paramount importance of rice and seafood since early times.
The Shiben or Book of Origins was an early Chinese encyclopedia which recorded imperial genealogies from the mythical Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors down to the late Spring and Autumn period, explanations of the origin of clan names, and records of legendary and historical Chinese inventors. It was written during the 2nd century BC at the time of the Han dynasty.
The compass is a magnetometer used for navigation and orientation that shows direction in regards to the geographic cardinal points. The structure of a compass consists of the compass rose, which displays the four main directions on it: East (E), South (S), West (W) and North (N). The angle increases in the clockwise position. North corresponds to 0°, so east is 90°, south is 180° and west is 270°.
Japanese dining etiquette is a set of traditional perceptions governing specific expectations which outlines general standards of how one should behave and respond in various dining situations.