Rice affected by the weather or turned (a man) must not eat, nor fish that is not sound, nor meat that is high. He must not eat anything discolored or that smells bad. He must not eat what has been crookedly cut, nor any dish that lacks its proper seasoning. The meat that he eats must at the very most not be enough to make his breath smell of meat rather than of rice. As regards wine, no limit is laid down; but he must not be disorderly.
- The Analects of Confucius

Food and eating are taken quite seriously in Asia. In fact, Chir-fan le may-yo, a standard greeting in Chinese, means "Have you eaten?" The idea is that if you have eaten, you must be feeling fine. Foods in Asia are fragrant and attractively arranged, and offer many tasty contrasts-crisp to smooth, spicy to sweet. The most distinctive aspect of Asian cuisines is the attention given to how the food is cut before it is cooked or assembled. Cutting takes on paramount importance to ensure that the presentation and taste are at their best. The aesthetic placement of food on a dish is more important than the size of the serving. Most table settings simply use white china or local pottery.

As a businesswoman traveling to Asia, you will be invited to or will host many dinners. Each of the Four Tiger countries has slightly different menus and dining customs, although Chinese etiquette can generally be followed at Chinese meals and banquets in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. Korean food and eating habits merit a separate discussion. We offer the following information to help increase your awareness and enjoyment of Asia's culinary delights. The accompanying notes on etiquette apply especially to more formal settings, such as banquets or dinners meant to mark an important business agreement.

HONG KONG AND TAIWAN
There are many styles of Chinese food that originated in different regions of China. The four basic regional types are: Southeastern (Cantonese and Chaozhou), Northern (Peking and Shandong), Eastern or Coastal (Shanghai), and Southwestern (Szechuan and Hunan). After these four come Hokkien and Hakka cooking styles from southern China. Areas near the shorelines, such as Shanghai, feature more fish in their dishes, while inland regions such as Szechwan use more spices, which help preserve food. If you plan to host a business dinner in Hong Kong or Taiwan, it is helpful to know that Cantonese cuisine is preferred in Hong Kong and Shanghai cuisine in Taiwan. Taiwan also has a style all its own. Chinese food offers abundant choices for vegetarians.

You may want to ask your Chinese guests to help you by suggesting a balanced menu and an appropriate number of dishes to serve. The balancing of opposing factors such as sun and moon, light and dark, male and female, called yin (feminine energy) and yang (masculine energy), is a very important Chinese practice. Applied to all areas of one's life, including food, it is thought to bring about and preserve the harmony of body and mind. In his book Taiwan,1 Daniel Reid says that "During the Tang Dynasty (618-907), it was the Chinese herbal pharmacologists (not the cooks or gourmets) who determined what should and should not be eaten. They decided what quantities and combinations of food should be prepared and when it should be consumed." Reid describes how an elaborate system of food pharmacology was developed based on the cosmic theories of yin and yang, and the five elements of earth, air, fire, water, and metal. Yang foods are hot foods that stimulate the body and deplete it of its energies. Yin foods are cool foods that calm and nourish the system. Neutral foods are a balance of the yin and the yang. For example, whole barley is a neutral food-the yang side heats up the body while the yin side cools the brain. Because a perfect meal contains elements of each and some foods should never be served together, you should always ask your host about the best combinations of foods to order.

Cantonese- and Chaozhou-style food is light, refined, and delicate. Many of the dishes are steamed, boiled, or stir fried. Popular dishes familiar to Western palates include stir-fries, crisp vegetables, steamed fish, and egg rolls. Exotic dishes include ingredients such as snake, birds' nests, sharks' fins, frogs' legs, and turtle.

Ordering dim sum, Chinese dumplings, is a good way to sample Cantonese food at brunch or lunch. Carts filled with a variety of steamed and fried dumplings filled with vegetables, shellfish, meat, and sweets are rolled to diners at their tables. You can select whatever dishes look appealing. Five different types of dumplings for lunch would be a satisfying sampling. Delicious dessert dumplings filled with egg custard and sweet beans make a perfect finish for your meal.

Peking and Shandong cuisine is a blend of Mongolian and Manchurian cooking styles that uses generous amounts of wine, garlic, and scallions. Popular Western choices include noodles, pancakes, meat-filled turnovers, and mixed vegetables and meats in sweet and sour sauces. Peking duck, a particular favorite, is roasted duck cut into squares and served in its crisp skin with scallions and a special plum sauce. Tender beggar's chicken got its name from a beggar who supposedly stole a chicken from the emperor and hid it by burying it in the ground to cook it. The chicken is stuffed with herbs, onions, and Chinese cabbage, wrapped in lotus leaves, sealed in clay, and baked all day.

Shanghai cuisine features vegetables and noodles over rice flavored with soy sauce, fresh fish and seafood, especially shellfish, smoked fish, and drunken chicken (chicken cooked in wine). This is the style of Chinese food that many Americans say is on the oily side and too heavy for American palates.

Szechwan and Hunan style dishes are heavily spiced with chili peppers and garlic. Popular Western Szechwan choices are fragrant eggplant, frogs' legs, hot-and-sour soup, and twice-cooked pork. Hunan cuisine includes a variety of seafood, duck, and chicken dishes.

Dishes such as a rice porridge and oysters, mussels, and pork stewed in a rich sauce are native to Taiwan. Other local specialties include oyster omelets, squid balls, fried dried fish, and simmered cuttlefish.

Hokkien or Hakka cuisine, which includes dishes such as steamed chicken and Hokkien fried mee (thick egg noodles cooked with pork, seafood, and vegetables in a rich sauce), and Teochew dishes such as char kway teow (noodles, clams, and eggs fried in chili and black bean sauce) are very popular in Singapore.

Chinese tables are most often round, with a rotating server (like a lazy Susan) set in the center. Food is shared. Each diner, who is provided with a small plate or plates, takes food from the dishes on the server and then rotates it to the next person. There can be up to sixteen courses for formal dinners (usually served one dish at a time), and as few as four courses for a simple lunch, generally served at the same time.

The Chinese use chopsticks and a porcelain spoon for the liquid part of the soup. If no special serving utensil is provided for shared dishes, turn your chopsticks around and use the shanks to pick up food to transfer to your plate.

Instead of a napkin, you may be given a damp cloth to clean your hands before and after your meal. Do not use it to wipe your face. Since few restaurants provide napkins, it is wise to carry a handkerchief, tissues, or towelettes.

• If you are the highest in rank or the focal point of the meeting, you will be invited to sit next to the host during the dinner.
• Allow your host to select the menu for the table. Because food is shared, do not order one dish just for yourself.
• If you are the person ordering the meal, ask your host or waiters to help you. Have them tell you which items are fresh for that day and advise you on what to order. You may get a menu designed for visiting Westerners rather than the local Chinese menu. Order one dish per person in the group, including an appetizer, soup, and a dessert (usually fruit). Keep the yin and yang principles in mind when you make your choices.
• There will be some communal dishes and some individual dishes.

• Your host, who is obliged to take care of you, may try to continually refill your plate and rice bowl. Politely refuse when you have had enough. You may have to refuse a few times before your refusal is finally accepted.
• Don't rummage through the serving dishes with your chopsticks to get the best morsels, but select the piece closest to you from the dish closest to you.
• Do not reach across the table.
• When you take food from a serving plate, don't put it straight into your mouth. Transfer it to your own plate first.
• Hold your rice bowl fairly close to your mouth when eating rice with chopsticks. Do not, however, hold your bowl near your mouth and use your chopsticks to shovel in the food. While this is okay in casual situations, it is considered unrefined in formal settings.
• To eat large pieces of food, raise the piece to your mouth with your chopsticks, bite off a small piece, and return it to your plate. You may, however, prefer to use your chopsticks to break the large piece into smaller pieces first.
• If there are bones or shells in your food, put them on a small side plate. If there is no side plate, put them on the table.
• Noodles are usually preferred to rice. Rice may or may not be served.
• When you serve yourself, don't take the last piece on the dish as it will signal that you have not had enough.

• The serving of the soup signals the end of the meal.
• When you've finished eating, lay your chopsticks neatly on the table.
• As is traditional in Asia, your host may seem to apologize for a humble meal. In response, thank him or her for the wonderful food.
• At the end of the dinner, the guest of honor rises to graciously thank the host on everyone's behalf.
• Typically, the Chinese go home after the meal. The Chinese like to talk during dinner, but do not linger around the table over small talk.
• Don't let the meal last over two hours, whether it is served in a restaurant or at home.
• Before you leave the country, be sure to invite your hosts out to reciprocate for the dinners or banquets they held for you. Don't provide a more expensive dinner than your hosts did, since this would embarrass them.

• Banquets are celebration feasts that last about two hours and are larger and more formal than business dinners.
• If you are invited to a formal banquet, it is very important to arrive at the restaurant precisely on time.
• If you are the guest of honor at a formal banquet, you will sit to the left of the host.
• Cocktails are not served before dinners or banquets, but tea is often poured before the guests are seated.
• The host usually selects the foods to be served to the guests and gives them their first servings.
• When everyone is seated, the host will offer the guests a welcoming toast.
• The host might also make a speech and toast your mutual cooperation. Have some complimentary remarks prepared so that you can respond appropriately.
• There is a lot of toasting at Chinese banquets and meals. (See "Chopsticks, Toasting, and Tea," below, for general information.)
• At banquets, you will be toasted as the guest of honor. To accept a toast, smile, raise your glass, make eye contact, and down your drink in one swallow. Toasts may be conducted sitting or standing. Follow your host's lead.
• Prepare a toast for your hosts. As the guest of honor, you should return a toast. Each member of your group may want to have a toast prepared to say when it is his or her turn.
• If someone stands up and toasts another person's health, stand, take your glass in both hands, and say a few kind words.
• Warm rice wine called mao-tai is often served in small cups. Drink it only when making or receiving toasts.
• Women are often excused from participating in the heavy drinking. You can fill your glass with water to participate in the many toasts.
• If you are the guest of honor, you are expected to be the first to sample any dish that is served. If you see people waiting, start eating.
• Chicken brains are a delicacy, so if you are the guest of honor you may be given the head of any chicken served with the meal.
• Soups will be served throughout the course of a formal banquet.
• Finish all the rice in your bowl. Feel free to ask for a refill. Leave a little food on each serving dish and on your plate, however, or the host will feel obliged to provide more food.
• Additional servings of rice, noodles, or tea brought to the table often signal that the banquet is over.
• You may be served a very strong tea in a small cup at the end of a banquet. First take a sip. The tea is then poured onto the serving tray to symbolize the bond between you and the other participants.
• After the meal, the honored guest should be the first to leave.

SINGAPORE
Restaurant-hopping, eating, and talking about food are passionate pursuits in Singapore. The small nation's diverse cultural mix of Chinese, Malaysian, Indonesian, and Indian peoples provides a wide variety of culinary choices. Adding to the mix are restaurants specializing in European cuisine and American fast food. At open-air markets called "hawker" centers you can select prepared foods from stalls and have them brought to your table. Popular hawker centers are Newton Circus, the Satay Club, and Cuppage Centre.

Singapore also has many popular indoor restaurants. Chinese food, mainly Cantonese, is very popular. Hokkien and Hakka cooking styles are also well-liked. Since Singapore is surrounded by the ocean, seafood is naturally fresh and abundant. Singaporean seafood centers are quite casual and offer the opportunity for some intriguing dining. At the UDMC Seafood Center, for example, you are given a shopping cart or basket when you enter the restaurant. Then you shop around just as if you were in a grocery store, collecting your desired dinner ingredients from the fish or vegetable sections. At the checkout stand you pay and receive a table number. Within twenty minutes or so the food you picked out yourself is cooked and served to you.

Popular Dishes
One of the most popular Indonesian dishes among Westerners is satay, skewers of beef, chicken, or lamb grilled over charcoal and served with spicy peanut sauce. Others include mee rebus, thick noodles in a spicy sauce; nasi goreng, fried rice topped with meat, prawns, and egg; and tahu goreng, deep-fried bean curd with bean sprouts. Javanese cuisine is a combination of foods from the islands of Java, Sumatra, and Madura. Special dishes include pepesan, fish or prawns in coconut cream and spices on a banana leaf, and soto ayam, clear broth with shredded chicken, sprouts, and transparent noodles.

Malaysian dishes include satay, fiery curry prawns, and spiced curried beef in a coconut marinade. Nonya is a mix of Malaysian and Chinese cuisine combining Malaysian spices with Chinese noodles. A variety of local ingredients are used, including coconut and chilies. Indian cuisine includes a medley of curries, tandoori chicken, kebabs, and vegetarian South Indian specialties like masala dosa, crisp sourdough lentil pancakes filled with potatoes and onions and served with coconut chutney.

KOREA
Korean cuisine is notably different from that of other Asian countries. It features small portions of fish or grilled meat with a variety of tofu and vegetable dishes that are rich in vitamins and low in calories. The food is generally quite hot and spicy. Seasonings include garlic, chili pepper, scallions, soy sauce, fermented bean paste, red pepper paste sauce, ginger, and sesame oil.

When you are invited to dine in a traditional Korean restaurant, it can be quite a feast. You will most likely be seated on the floor on cushions under a low table. The seating protocol is to kneel on your cushions. Kneeling, with your feet tucked under, is a sign of respect to the elders at the table. In the past, each person sat at their own low table and ate in silence. Today, you will find that most Koreans prefer to eat with others and engage in conversation. A Korean dinner will, however, usually be quieter than a Chinese dinner.

A traditional Korean meal includes foods from five categories. There are (1) two types of soup: kuk (with a long "u" sound), which is served individually, and tchigae, a kind of communal stew. Kuk is usually lighter in taste than tchigae. Then there are (2) a fish or meat dish, (3) rice, (4) several side vegetable dishes, and (5) kimch'i (usually spelled kimchee in the West), the renowned Korean fermented Chinese cabbage, garlic, and red pepper "pickles." All dishes are placed on the table at the same time rather than served in courses. There will be some communal dishes and some individual dishes. There is no set order in which to eat the food, so you can just select what you want. Some of the food will be served in brass or stainless steel dishes to retain the heat. The utensils used are chopsticks and a large spoon.

• Pulgogi is strips of beefsteak marinated in soy and sesame sauces, garlic, onions, sugar, and pepper and grilled over charcoal, usually on a grill placed on or set into your table. It is the most popular choice among Westerners, since it is similar in taste to our barbecued spareribs.
• Pulgalbi is beef or pork spareribs marinated in soy sauce and grilled like pulgogi.
• Chapchae is a stir-fried dish of mixed vegetables and shredded beef with soybean noodles.
• Kalbitchim is a stew of short ribs, turnips, chestnuts, and mushrooms.
• Naengmyon is buckwheat noodles in a cold beef broth of vinegar and mustard.
• Pindaettok is a bean pancake snack containing green onions and strips of pork.
• Kalbit'ang is spareribs served in a mild soup.
• Kuksu-chon-gol is a dish of noodles, meat, and vegetables boiled together at your table in a large metal pan.
• Sollongt'ang is a savory stew of meat and vegetables in a beef broth soup.
• Yukkae-jang is a spicy soup with chopped beef and vegetables.
• Chon-gol is meat, noodles, and vegetables cooked together at the table.
• Pibimpap is a popular dish of meat, egg, and vegetables over rice served with a spicy chili paste.
• Rosu kui is thin slices of beef cooked in water and then dipped into soy and sesame-oil sauces.
• Kalbi kui is beef ribs cooked over charcoal.
• Sogum kui is generally a lot like our roast beef. It is seasoned with salt, broiled, and then dipped in sesame oil.

• Kimch'i is the fermented vegetable pickles that are included with every Korean meal. Kimch'i dates back to the seventeenth century, when Koreans discovered that salt and red pepper could be used to pickle vegetables to store for consumption over the long, cold winters. Today there are over a hundred types of kimch'i, with variations based on the vegetable used and the fermentation process. Following are some of the more popular varieties:
• Kimch'i (that is, whole cabbage kimch'i) is the most common type of kimch'i. Chinese cabbages are cut lengthwise into several pieces, soaked in brine, drained, seasoned between layers of leaves, and left to ferment.
• Possam kimch'i (wrapped kimch'i) is a Chinese cabbage kimch'i packaged into neat bundles. Usually a seafood such as shrimp, anchovies, or squid is seasoned and wrapped into these bundles, which are left to ferment.
• Paek kimch'i (white cabbage kimch'i) is from the southern part of Korea. It is less watery and contains more pickled fish and red pepper than northern-style kimch'i.
• Oisobaegi (stuffed cucumber kimch'i) features cucumbers that are sliced down the middle, stuffed with a mixture of regional seasonings, and left to ferment.
• Kkaktugi (hot radish kimch'i) uses long, white Korean radishes cut into cubes, seasoned, and fermented.
• Ch'onggak kimch'i (whole radish kimch'i) is made with Korean radishes that are salted, sprinkled with anchovies and seasonings, and pickled.
• Tongch'imi (radish water kimch'i) is white radishes rolled in salt. After three days, the salt water is poured into a crock and radish leaves are layered over the top and weighed down. The resulting dish looks like white disks in a bowl of clear liquid.
• Nabak kimch'i (water kimch'i) contains small pieces of white radish or cabbage pickled in seasoned brine and is usually served chilled. There will be some green or red peppers in the dish for taste.

• Tubu (tofu): a soft, white bean-curd dish.
• Shigumchi: a vegetable similar to spinach that is served garnished with sesame seeds.
• Kim: strips of seaweed fried in sesame oil.
• Kongnamul: a bean-sprout dish.
• Kong: a bean dish.
• Toraji: a Chinese bellflower root dish.
• Yonppuri: lotus root served in a sweet sauce.
• Myolchi: anchovies served in a sweet sauce. Korean Dining Etiquette Korean dinners are generally much quieter than Chinese dinners or even dinners in Japan. There is less small talk and usually only one toast is made. The person who initiates the meal is assumed to be the host. At traditional meals, you may sit on the floor at a low rectangular table on a cushion. Do not step on the cushion. Women kneel on their knees or sit with their knees tucked under to one side; they do not usually sit cross-legged.
• Chopsticks are used and can be bamboo or metal. In local eateries, they will often be the throw-away type. A ceramic spoon is used for soups. Western silverware is used for Western meals.
• You will usually be given a hot or cold damp towel with which to wipe your hands before and after meals. Napkins are generally not used.
• Before entering a Korean home or a dining room in a Korean restaurant, remove your shoes.

• Unlike Chinese dinners, the Korean meal is generally served all at once. Except for the soup,which is often communal and ladled into small bowls, Korean food is served with a number of individual dishes provided to each person.

• Pour soy sauce into your neighbor's small sauce dish. Your neighbor will do the same for you. In the same way, serve your neighbor tea.
• Take the top off your rice bowl and put it on the floor under your place at the table.
• Koreans do not lift the rice bowl or any other food bowl off the table when they eat, unlike the Chinese and Japanese. Keep the dishes on the table and bend toward them.
• Do not use your hands to pick up any food; instead, invert your chopsticks. Use toothpicks to pick up pieces of fruit.
• Pass food with your right hand, with your left hand supporting your right forearm.
• People never pour their own drinks. Diners pour each other's drinks and pour refills when their neighbor's glass is empty. Koreans advise that it is not correct for women to pour for other women.
• When you pour a drink for someone else, hold the bottle with one hand and support your forearm with your free hand. Usually the left hand is the support hand.
• When someone fills your glass, hold it up with your right hand and place your left hand lightly under it.
• When you're served tea or coffee, the spoon will be on your side of the cup. After you use the spoon, put it on the side of the cup that is away from you.

• Do not finish everything served at the dinner. This indicates that you are still hungry, which will imply that your host did not provide enough food.
• When you finish eating, lay your chopsticks neatly on the table.
• If you are to pay, you may prefer to take care of the bill in advance or at a break, not at the table. In a male-dominated society, it may be difficult for a woman to pay for the business meal, though this is becoming less of an issue in business settings.

Chopsticks are used in all Four Tiger countries; however, they differ slightly from culture to culture. Chinese and Korean chopsticks are usually longer than Japanese chopsticks, and blunt-ended rather than pointed. When you are dining in Asia, you may not be offered any Western utensils, so be sure to practice using chopsticks before you go.

HOW TO HOLD CHOPSTICKS

• The chopsticks rest in the curvature between your thumb and index finger and are steadied against the ring figure of the same hand. Hold the sticks about two-thirds of the way up. Keep the tips pointed downward toward the table.
• The upper stick is held by your thumb, index and middle fingers. The lower stick is held stationary while the upper stick moves to create a pinching effect.
• If you lose your grip on your chopsticks by holding them too tightly or too far down, gently tap them on the table to realign your grip.
• When you put your chopsticks down, rest them either on the chopstick rest (a small wooden or porcelain piece near your plate) or on the side of your plate.

• Use serving chopsticks if they are provided. If not and you are selecting something to eat from a platter, turn your chopsticks around and use the shanks to pick up the food.
• Never set your chopsticks down parallel on a rice bowl-it's thought to bring bad luck or death to someone at the table.
• Do not stand your chopsticks in a vertical position in your bowl- this looks like sticks of incense in a bowl of ashes such as would be seen at a funeral.
• Do not spear food with your chopsticks or gesture or point with them.
• Do not lick your chopsticks.
• Do not cross paths with your neighbor's chopsticks when you reach for food.
• Do not take food from another person's chopsticks.