Free Why the Chinese Don't Count Calories by Lorraine Clissold

place it on the palm of one hand to form a small ball. Flatten it slightly so that you have a little round cushion and use the other to pull the outside edges into the centre. Then turn it over and flatten it on a level surface to make a flat roundish piece. Roll this into a rough sausage shape, then pick it up and roll it between your palms. Then, using this new ball, repeat the process a few times to work the dough. Finish each piece by rolling it between your palms so you have a small ball. Place each ball on a piece of greaseproof paper, flattening the base slightly and move on to the next piece of dough.
    When all the mantou are ready place them in a steaming basket and leave in a very warm place for half an hour to allow the dough to rise again.
    Finally, steam for 12–15 minutes and eat as soon as possible.

four
Eat until you are full

    ‘While travelling don’t reckon the distance; while eating don’t reckon the quantity. ’
OLD CHINESE PROVERB
    The Chinese eat until they are full – and then they stop. A phrase that is uttered almost as often as ‘Have you eaten yet?’ is ‘ Wo chi bao le ’ (‘I’ve eaten until I’m full’). The statement is not questioned because it doesn’t need to be. ‘Full’ doesn’t mean ‘Oh, I would love some more but I won’t because I am watching my weight. ’ It means full.
    Sounds great, doesn’t it? Filling up on Western food is not difficult either, especially now that our diet has become so international. Breakfast could be eggs, bacon, sausage, tomato, mushrooms and fried bread, or croissants and pastries. If we were not counting our calories we might well enjoy a pizza at lunch-time, followed by our favourite ice-cream, and stop for tea or coffee with cakes or biscuits in the middle of the afternoon. And for those with the time to cook or the opportunity to eat out, a gourmet meal might include a deep-fried starter, a main fish or meat course with a rich, creamy sauce and chips on the side, followed by a gooey pudding and cheese. But eating like this doesn’t always result in a sensation of satisfaction – more often in an uncomfortable, bloated feeling, a surreptitious undoing of the waistband and a wash of guilt as we reach for a chocolate to eat with our coffee. Whether or not we count calories we know that we can’t eat this way every day without risking weight gain, or worse. This is why we now have the ‘healthy options’: muesli and yoghurt in place of the fry-up, a caesar or niçoise salad lunch (with low-fat dressing). Sadly though, low-fat, low-calorie meals tend to be distinctly uninteresting: scour a restaurant menu and you might find a slice of melon, a house salad, grilled chicken breast or salmon steak and a range of fruit sorbets. Faced with these rather bland and dry options, many people prefer a pattern of indulgence and denial.
    I was once asked by a major retailer to put together an itinerary for a group of food technicians to help them deepen their understanding of authentic northern Chinese food. I took them to the countryside where we feasted on freshly picked soya beans boiled until tender with Sichuan peppercorns and star anise, smashed cucumber with garlic and chilli and little cornmeal cakes topped with lightly scrambled egg and bright green Chinese chives. But they didn’t really pay attention until I demonstrated a lamb stir-fry. Are the English too conservative for soya beans or are the margins much better on lamb, I wondered.
    Enjoying sumptuous evening meals and lots of wine in Beijing’s top restaurants, my clients outlined the eating habits of the typical British consumer. People who want to ‘be good’, the euphemism for losing weight, or eat what they regard as healthy options, do so from Monday to Friday, the marketing director confided. Many people starve themselves all week so that from Friday night to Monday morning they can have maximum taste and satisfaction. ‘This is what the ready-meals market tries to