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OVER the past five years, catering circles within Chinese metropolises have devised new dishes with the specific aim of capturing the most discerning clientele. The media, meanwhile, devotes as much space to analyzing and predicting the latest culinary trends it does those of haute couture.

Toothsome Trends

Spicy dishes are currently the hot gastronomic item everywhere in China. Chili peppers indigenous to Chinas humid inland regions redden dishes served in its most temperate localities. Signs in restaurants across the country exhort diners to try hot, spicy lobster, deep fried fish (fish slices submerged in hot oil on whose surface float red peppers and other spicy relishes), roast fish (fish and spicy relish barbeque), and the many varieties of hotpot. Although these dishes originate in Sichuan, they are actually mixtures of various culinary styles, ingredients, and condiments, some of which come from the other side of the Pacific Ocean. “Few diners can identify precisely the gastronomic school or country to which a new dish belongs. This may be the characteristic of the ‘post-gastronomy era, that most challenges Chinas culinary conventions,” says Bian Jiang, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Cuisine Association.

Gastronomic globalization is most obvious in Chinese metropolises, where there is a large turnover of inbound foreigners and outbound local citizens. Many restaurants integrate the diverse ingredients and techniques of national and international culinary schools into their private global-oriented market strategies. This has had the paradoxical effect of an overall classification within current Chinese gastronomy into two main schools of conventional and modern, or authentic and avant-garde dishes.

Chinas catering market is at a level that transcends geographical divisions and cooking conventions. Although the eight famous Chinese “jewels of cuisine” still constitute the mainstream of the countrys culinary art and market, novelty dishes and restaurants occupy an increasing share of the catering market. Younger clientele are lured by exotic dishes associated with obscure peoples, or the traditional specialties enjoyed by famed dynastic families.

Compelling Ambience

Catering establishments these days pay as much attention to atmosphere as they do to refining their dishes. The décor of the Commune Dining Hall restaurant in Guangzhou, for instance, constitutes a 1960-70s time warp. The young woman on the door, her hair in plaits, clad in a loose army uniform and a red armband inscribed “Serve the people,” greets diners with a cheerful, “Welcome comrades!”

On the wall opposite the door hang portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao Zedong. Revolutionary posters of workers, peasants and soldiers, omnipresent during the 1960s-70s, grace the other walls and supporting pillars. The cross beam overhead bears 16 characters in uneven shades of red that read: “Rely on yourselves and work hard; use your own hands to clothe and feed yourselves” – quotations of Mao Zedong frequently heard and seen during the 1950s-1970s period. The Dining Hall, as may be expected, serves the rural-style dishes prevalent during the “cultural revolution” (1966-1976), which diners enjoy to the accompaniment of revolutionary music.

Wu Hao, 32, is manager and so-called “Party Secretary of the Commune.” He believes that the “cultural revolution” theme of his establishment is its strongest selling point. Wu believes, “Our gimmic is successful because it enables older generations to re-experience a bygone period and younger diners to get an idea of what it was like.”

Restaurants whose ambience is borrowed from particular periods of Chinas history are across the country. Walk through a heavy wooden doorway flanked by red lanterns deep in a Beijing hutong, and the chances are you will find yourself in a restaurant staffed with waitresses dressed as housemaids, amid an ambience that is pure imperial Beijing.

Martial arts exponent Wang Zongchao opened his first Fengbo Inn restaurant in Xiamen, Fujian Province. Its style is that of the eponymous inn described in one of the works of best-selling martial arts novelist Jin Yong. Waiters dressed as martial arts heroes use martial arts honorifics to address diners, and each dining room is named after a different school. After eating at the Fengbo Inn, one netizen under the name “Germ Carrier” posted the following remark: “Its a wonderful dining experience. Drinking wine from a bowl and eating big chunks of meat made me feel just like a character from a Jin Yong novel. Its cool! When we left, all the xiaoer [the form of address for waiters in Jin Yongs novel] chanted the novels famous line, ‘Green mountains wont change their color, and running rivers wont stop flowing. See you I will one day; here I hold my step and bid my farewell. Each of us instinctively cupped our hands before us as we chanted in reply, ‘Be seeing you.”

Today the Fengbo Inn is a restaurant chain with scores of branches around China. There is nothing to distinguish the dishes it serves from those of any run-of-the-mill restaurant. Yet diners flow in, attracted by its ambient magical martial arts setting.

The Appeal of Traditional Cuisines

The main criticisms leveled against avant-garde gastronomy by mainstream diners are that it is whimsical, arbitrary and relies heavily on hype. Cheng Zhenfang, regarded as number one chef in Quanzhou, Fujian, insists that a good chef thoroughly comprehends the qualities of every ingredient and condiment used in each dish he cooks. Salt, for example, is dried by various methods, which means that the taste of each type is especially suited to specific dishes. The same is true of vinegar. Shanxi vinegar goes well with Minced Beef Soup, while Yongchun vinegar best complements the taste of Pickled Pig Feet.

“Now that feeding the stomach is no longer the ultimate aim, the issue at hand is ‘eating well. Authenticity should be the main criterion in this respect,” is the view of Wang Bin, traditionalist and head chef of the Shanghai Moon chain restaurant. The Shanghai Moon freights fish to Beijing from the Zhoushan Islands in the East China Sea, in order to ensure its dishes are 100 percent authentic. It also has an annual standing order for three tons of freshwater crabs from Yangcheng Lake near Shanghai. The Shanghai Moon is consequently a big favorite with Beijing residents of Shanghai origin.

Beijing acts as a showcase for the authentic cuisine of various regions. Local governments around the country began building representative offices in the capital city in the 1950s. Affiliated restaurants serving local cuisine are generally attached torepresentative provincial, regional, municipal and county government offices in the capital. They employ the best local chefs and ship in supplies from home. These restaurants act as guildhalls to Beijing-based natives of other provinces where they can hear their mother dialect and taste genuine home cooking.

Improved living standards have widened the scope of gastronomic activities from that of a luxury consumption and festive event to one that is more day-to-day.Ordinary citizens, who have prospered along with the Chinese economy, now eat their favorite dishes on ordinary days. “I occasionally shop for and cook a table of delicious dishes as a treat for my family and myself. But Im at my happiest dining out with friends,” says Wu Yan, a Beijing office worker. Chinas catering industry reported retail sales of RMB 1.22 trillion in 2007. China, meanwhile, continues more than ever to merit its reputation as a gastronomic country.