Techniques: Ying and yang in Chinese cooking

In Chinese philosophy, there are two opposing forces, ying and yang. And the Chinese try and live by a balance of these forces. So, you think light/dark, male/female, hot and cold. We're always trying to achieve the perfect balance.

So, how does this work in terms of Chinese cooking? Well, ingredients have a ying or yang quality. So ying foods are ingredients such as watermelon, or melons or cucumbers, radishes even. And yang foods are meats, ginger, garlic and chillies.

Broadly, ying are cooling, while yang are heating. And in any dish, we're always trying to create the perfect balance. I mean, when I was growing up in Taiwan, I suffered terribly from nose bleeds. And that was because I was addicted to lychees, which are very, very 'yang' in quality. So my grandmother would feed me a diet of mainly ying foods, such as cucumber juice. And, miraculously, my nose bleeds disappeared. So the idea is not to have too much of any one thing and try and achieve the perfect balance.