Are you ready with your chopsticks ? Oh no ! don't shirk away..using chopsticks is'nt that tough. Eating Chinese food with chopsticks is the best way to enjoy it, as it allows just the right amount of sauce on each morsel of food. Once adept, you would want to extend your skills by cooking Chinese food with chopsticks, using them as beaters, cooking forks, mixing spoons. Gold, silver, ivory, wooden, bamboo and plastic chopsticks are available; but bamboo and wooden chopsticks are used in the kitchen as they can withstand high temperatures and do not alter the taste of the food.

The general method of cooking Chinese food is called Stir-Frying, which means to cook food over very high heat, continuously stirring it using quick strokes. Heat a wok over high heat, add the oil, swirl the oil around the wok and when it is bubbling, add the seasonings. Stir-fry, till the food is cooked.

Here are a few tips for Chinese cooking :

• Keep all the ingredients ready before starting to cook. Stir-frying is such a quick process, that you will not have any time to chop during cooking.
• Meat is usually shredded and vegetables are usually finely diced, unless your recipe states otherwise.
• When the oil is hot, ginger, garlic and shallots are usually the first seasonings to be added. They are fried until light brown and this step will make the oil aromatic.
• Stir-frying should always be done very quickly and at very high heat.
• The vegetables which take longer to be cooked, should be added first.For example, add the carrots first, stir-fry and then add the cabbage or bean-sprouts.
• Slightly undercook the vegetables to retain their crispness and color.
• While all the chopping can be done ahead of time, stir-frying has to be done just before serving.
• Cook noodles according to the packet instructions. Like pasta, they should be cooked a la dente.