奇速英语

我竟然不知道菜刀还可以这样用

Caidao, a large flat Chinese chopping knife or Chinese chef’s knife, is an all-purpose tool. It can do most cutting tasks in the kitchen from breaking down to cutting materials to the thinness of hair.

The name is made of the Chinese character cai, which means vegetable, and dao, which means knife. But caidao is used in preparing all types of food.

In Western kitchens, a chef needs a set of knives, like a cleaver for butchering and a small blade for peeling work. The more detailed classification allows users to choose specialized tools for specific purposes.

For Chinese cooks and chefs, a high-quality and handy caidao is one of the most useful tools in the kitchen, and that one knife is enough for basic food preparation in the kitchen.

Though caidao generally refers to a wide and flat chopping knife, it’s sometimes used as a generic term to describe different kinds of Chinese kitchen knives which includes slicing, chopping and boning knives.

Although the shape and size of a caidao resembles the cleaver in Western kitchens, it’s not the same in both design and purpose. The Chinese caidao is a large rectangular thin-bladed knife that can be used in the slicing, chopping and mincing of the majority of ingredients, such as vegetables, fish or meat. It can even break down some not-so-tough bones. Purpose-wise, it’s similar to the Western chef’s knife, only in a different shape that’s advantageous in Chinese cooking.

Slicing and chopping with the caidao is also safer, as the wide blade can keep the fingers away. Meanwhile, the caidao’s large surface area can be used to transport processed materials from the cutting board to plates, saving time and effort.