It is obvious that for Chinese people the pleasure and delight of dining together is afforded not merely by the taste and flavor of the food and the drink. What must be included in addition to the sensuous excitement is the joy of human relationship which is specific to the dining table. The various kinds of Chinese cooked food gives embodiment to the group consciousness and cultural spirit consisting in unity, harmony and complete blending. For example, dishes of Chinese food, whether prepared by frying in shallow oil, stir-frying, steaming, boiling, stewing, roasting, or deep-frying, almost always have the principal element mixed with the seasoning and cooked together with it. Such a dish is to be served as one entity. Historically, there has never been an occasion when meat or fish and salt or pepper are brought to the table in this country as separate units.
Some famous big dishes styled as "The Whole Family's Fortune", "The Buddha Making a Trespass over the Wall", "The Hegemonic King Bidding Farewell to His Beloved Consort (before their tragic ending)", etc. are representative of the harmonious blending of several principal foodstuffs, or elements, all the more so because their respective tastes are blended far beyond distinguishment. What is more, according to the views expressed by China's experts in the fields of culinary art, nutriology and dietotherapy, such harmonious blending conduces to compatibility and mutual enhancement of tastes of two foodstuffs which are opposite in certain respects. This is a highly scientific method for producing excellent cuisine.
Of course, the best to strive for is, first of all, that the foodstuffs to be used as the raw material should be superb in taste and the feeling of enjoyment of the human relationship at the dinning table should be intense and strong. For achieving this twofold aim the most effective instrument perhaps would be the chafing dish.
What is the core of Chinese culture, cultural personality, Cultural phenomena? What is the Chinese cultural behavior and cultural psychology? That is to say, only when a Westerner has mastered the ideological core of Chinese culture can he/she look at a Chinese with understanding, with penetration, and with precision.