Chinese food tales Three-Fine Bean Curd is cooked using the cabbage, bean curd and the spring water of Tai Mountain. There is an old saying that Taian has three main claims to fame---fine cabbage, bean curd and spring water. Taian's cabbage are big with no stems, the bean curd is clean and tender and the mountain spring water is sweet and fresh. The specialty of the restaurants there is Taian Three-Fine Bean Curd and because it is so popular it is eaten all year round. In antiquity the emperors used to go to Tai Mountain for sacrifice, and now a lot of temples have sprung up throughout the region. Since the people here only eat vegetarian food, Bean curd then became the major vegetarian dish. Before the Yuan Dynasty, bean curd dishes like Three-Fine Bean Curd have become the most famous dish in Tai Mountain and Taian area.

Beggar's Chicken Sometime during the Qing dynasty, a beggar caught a chicken at the foot of Yusan Mountain near Changshu. He killed the chicken, plucked it and gutted it, but he had no wok or cooking pot, so he wrapped the chicken in lotus leaves. Then he sealed the chicken and lotus leaves with mud, and through it in the fire and baked it. After the fire died down he kicked the mud ball out of the fire and opened it, and a fragrant aroma filled the air. A lot of people stopped walking, just to smell the fragrant and delicious smell. Over time this cooking method spread around China and became known as Begger's Chicken.

Chinese Banquet A Chinese Banquet Banquets are held to celebrate the New Year, the Moon Festival, weddings, and other special occasions. Each event is associated with particular treats -- filled moon cakes for the Moon Festival or New Year's pudding, for example -- but there are also many common characteristics and ceremonies involved. A banquet acquires much of its festive character through 2 elements: the release from some everyday eating customs (usually those that impose restraints) and the exaggeration of others.