Chinese recipes and ways of cooking are characterized by a notable flexibility and adaptability.

Since a dish is made of a mixture of ingredients, its distinctive appearance, taste, and flavor do not depend on the exact number of ingredients, nor, in most cases, on any single item. The same is true for a meal, made up of a combination of dishes. In times of affluence, a few more expensive items may be added, but if the times are hard they may be omitted without doing irreparable damage. If the season is not quite right, substitutes may be used. With the basic principles, a Chinese cook can prepare "Chinese" dishes and Chinese recipes for the poor as well as the rich, in times of scarcity as well as abundance, and even in a foreign country without many familiar ingredients. The Chinese way of cooking must have helped the Chinese people through some hard times throughout their history. And, of course, one may also say that the Chinese cook the way they do because of their need and desire for adaptability.

In the Chinese culture, the whole process of preparing food from raw ingredients to morsels ready for the mouth involves a complex of interrelated variables that is highly distinctive when compared with other food traditions of major magnitude. At the base of this complex and Chinese recipes is the division between fan, grains and other starch foods, and ts'ai, vegetable and meat dishes.

What are the Chinese soups? Chinese soups have been part of Chinese meals for a long time. There are many different types of Chinese soups. Sweet corn and hot/sour soups are the most popular soups to westerners. Chinese make their soups with chicken, meat or vegetable stock. Chinese soups are very tasteful and can be light in both texture and flavor. Yet some of the soups are filling enough to be a meal by themselves.

Seafood, from crabs to prawns, fresh water fish to deep ocean fish, shark fin to squid, when given the Chinese touch, is delicious and tasteful. With the exception of coastal markets, seafood is considered a high end product that does not figure prominently in the Chinese diet compared with other meats. Pork and chicken products are the dominant sources of protein for China's population.

Sweet and Sour Pork is one of the most known dishes to the westerners. Chinese actually have many very tasteful dishes with pork. Barbecue pork is another one. Chinese cooking will do away many fat and retain the taste of the pork. Thus the dish with pork is still very healthy and delicious.

Authentic Chinese dishes do not always find the chicken dishes with gravy. Many of them are dry, or then tossed with different ingredients in an almost dry consistency. Corn flour is used but sparingly, and the main aim is in trying to enhance the flavor of the chicken itself rather than masking it in a myriad of conflicting flavors.

Beef in Chinese recipes is generally cut into very fine slices. Put them into freezer for 30 minutes to make slicing easier. Chinese style steak is tender and very tasted. 
Chinese cuisine is one of the greatest methods of cooking. Many elements that have influenced its development. The Chinese people enjoy eating good food at all levels of society so cooking has developed into a very sophisticated art.