Dear cecil,
Since chinese people believe in the harmony and balance and prevention of disease by herbs, Does that mean chinese food is free of preservatives and hormones? Or these deadly things have invaded the chinese agricultural and poultry industry. Thanks.

Dear Anon,
Chinese food can be classified under Yin or Yang. This can even be further classified into one of the five elements based on taste.
Generally, Yin foods are `softer' such as through boiling, steaming etc...
Yang foods are fried etc...
Chinese food especially in the rural areas are often preserved. For example, lettuce or cabbage is preserved for winter time.
As food cannot be kept for too long without spoilage. Thus Chinese do have lots of preserved food such as Chinese susage, pork etc....
But this is not much a choice as food is scarce especially in the country side. This does not mean that they eat `preserved' food all the time. Only during the cold seasons where food cannot be grown.
Those who stay in cities differ from the above as food is plentiful.
The best way to understand Chinese food is to go to a local Chinese food outlet or supermarket if there is one in your country. You can browse thru the canned food and usually, some of these were `canned' while such food were plentiful.
Warmest Regards,
Cecil

Quote

On 4/4/00 1:22:00 AM, Anonymous wrote:
Dear cecil,
Since chinese people believe
in the harmony and balance and
prevention of disease by
herbs, Does that mean chinese
food is free of preservatives
and hormones? Or these deadly
things have invaded the
chinese agricultural and
poultry industry. Thanks.