Now That’s a Knife- The Heart of the Chinese Restaurant

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

(Newswire.net—March 4, 2013) Wesley Chapel; FL–  Chinese food requires a level of cutting and chopping that is unique unto restaurant and other cuisine types.   Actually; the very first class of professional Chinese cooking begins with a cutting board and a cleaver.  The cleaver looks very much like a large metallic rectangle about the size of a business envelope attached to a handle.  It is this apparatus that is the center of the kitchen in any Chinese restaurant or even home where food is prepared. 

 

The cleaver is an incredible tool that is used to slice and dice the tiniest of ginger and garlic to chopping pork or beef bones into large or tiny pieces.  It is a perfectly balanced and weighted knife that allows the application of cutting to be neatly applied for each and every task at hand.  With every stroke of the cleaver comes a perfectly balanced section of whatever is being cut.   

 

Maintenance of this cleaver is paramount as the sharper it is; the easier it is to use and safer as well.  When a knife is efficient and cuts easily; there is considerably less opportunity to slip; slide; or need to recut a bone or meat or vegetable that is intended for it’s target. 

 

The Chinese restaurants always seemed to have this cleaver from the days of the early fifties until today.  Before there were food processors and electronic kitchen items that do all of the mincing and dicing; these cleavers served every purpose of the cutting; mincing; chopping; and flattening.  The back of the cleaver is solid steel that can crack a bone without severing it which is often used when softening a chicken bone but leaving it intact to be wrapped.  The flatness of the blade serves as a paddle sometimes which enables the user to flatten a piece of meat such as a skirt steak or pork loin that is marinated and cooked quickly under a hot fire. 

 

Dicing and cutting are a true art with Chinese food since different vegetables and roots are cut in ways to increase the surface area of the item for maximum cooking and seepage for sauce blending.  The different shapes and sizes of the cut affect not only the flavor of the food; but also the way in which it feels in the mouth when it is being chewed and blended with other foods.  The true Chinese chefs understand the tactile sensation of food as it wanders into the human mouth and explodes with all different sensations. 

 

For an excellent view of the cutting process with Chinese food; visit Ho Wok Chinese Restaurant at 1223 Bruce B Downs   Wesley Chapel; FL 33543  or call for take-out at (813) 973-2330.  Also visit http://www.chinesefoodwesleychapel.com .

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