History of Chinese cuisine

The history of Chinese cuisine is marked by both variety and change. The archaeologist and scholar Kwang-chih Chang says "Chinese people are especially preoccupied with food" and "food is at the center of, or at least it accompanies or symbolizes, many social interactions". Over the course of history, he says, "continuity vastly outweighs change." He explains basic organizing principles which go back to earliest times and give a continuity to the food tradition, principally that a normal meal is made up of a plant based products consisting of grains, starch (traditional Chinese: 飯; simplified Chinese: 饭; pinyin: fàn) vegetables and/or (鱼; yú) fish based dishes with very little (菜; cài) red meat consumption.^[1][2]