Asian Cuisine – China – Hunan Orange Beef

Asian cuisine styles can be broken down into several regional styles that have roots in the peoples and cultures of those regions. The major types can be roughly defined as

East Asian- Imperial China, Japan and Korea
Southeast Asian – Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Viet Nam, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines
South Asia- Burma, India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan as well as several other countries in this region of the continent;

In the United States it usually refers to East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) and Southeast Asian cuisine. Also termed “Chinese Food”.

The reality is that there is no “Chinese Food” in China, Just as there really is no “American Food” in America. Quoting from the CIA fact book …

The culinary map of China can be divided into four main regions, based loosely on geographical area:

Northern or Beijing Cuisine – includes Beijing, and the provinces of Hunan, Shantung, Hopei, Honon, Shansi, Shensi and Inner Mongolia.
Eastern or Shanghai Cuisine – includes the provinces of Kiangsu, Chekiang, Anhwei and Fukien.
Western or Szechuan Cuisine – includes the provinces of Szechuan, and Yunnan.
Southern or Cantonese cuisine – includes the provinces of Guangdong (Canton) and Jangxi.

Of the four regions three have made inroads into the American Culture, Cantonese the Asian equivalent of the Cajun “Anything that walks, swims, crawls or flies with its back to heaven must be edible.”, the spicy Szechuan, and the uber-spicy Hunan.

As I am known to be a good bit of a hot-head, I’ll target the Hunan province and dig into a dish from there. Looking at my larder I suppose I should use some of the citrus there, and I have some steak that is not enough to feed everyone, but is too much for a single serving. Maybe I can stretch the beef with some veggies, in a citrus based stir fry.. Sounds like Orange Beef.

Hunan cuisine and in fact most asian cuisine is hall marked by thorough preparation, and intense cooking. This recipe breaks down into three sections, the meat (in this case beef, but could be chicken), the sauce, and the veggies.

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