Stir-fried Beef with Broccoli

Beef is an American favourite, but it has never been popular among the Chinese. Meats, in any case, are never the centrepiece of Chinese meals. A small quantity of meat or seafood serves to enliven and diversify the various dishes, which are dominated by vegetables and grains. In many Chinese dishes, vegetables overwhelm the meat.

This popular Chinese restaurant dish - beef with broccoli - illustrates the Chinese approach; it could as well be called ‘broccoli with beef’. In the West