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Episode: CHINA

“The Sweet and Sour of Human Evolution”

Many of the greatest advances in human development happened in ancient China. This place saw humans crawl out of their caves to erect wooden houses, forming them into villages and then the first cities in the world. The reason a primitive civilization grew into being the world’s most populous nation has to do with two foods – wheat and rice!

This episode begins over half a million years ago at a number of archaeological sites where our ancient ancestor, Homo Erectus, did one thing which was to change the way humans behave, but more importantly, the way we look. It helped us evolve into the species we are today, Homo Sapiens. They cooked their food. They used fire and roasted meat. 

Other archaeological sites in China uncover how the cultivation of wheat and rice led to the rise of the world’s first and largest empires and how the lack of these foods were the main contributors to their fall. We’ll prove how the greatest structure ever built by humans, the Great Wall of China, was constructed as a result of the need for the Chinese to protect their greatest asset, their food.

We look at how Chinese cuisine turned a Homo Erectus roasting a deer on a fire into a modern Homo Sapiens feasting on an array of scrumptious, sweet, spicy and sour foods. And it is at the Dong Dajie Food market in Xi’an northern China that we uncover the secrets of Chinese cuisine. Having to feed a population of 7.5  million people daily means that these markets are exceptionally large and contain over a thousand stalls and stands, cafes and food nooks loaded with fried, steamed, grilled, boiled, baked, dried raw, even live, food. Some of it is locally grown, some of it imported from north (Mongolian yak meat), south (Thai chilli), east (Korean deer antlers) and west (Indian spice). And it is here that we discover the true essence of Chinese cooking.

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