It's not just Chinese people, it's prevalent all over Asia.
While most Western cooks prefer trimmed meat and filleted fish, Asian diners like to eat their food off the bone and shell.
In Asia it is traditional practice, not a style.
Eating has always been one of life’s great tactile and sensual pleasures.
There’s nothing more primal than eating a roast chicken with your hands, tearing off the legs and wings and using your teeth to get all the meat from the bones. It is as satisfying as digging into a plate of barbecued ribs with the sauce staining your fingernails, or attacking every crevice of a crab, so you can suck out the tasty tomalley.
However somewhere in the course of Western society’s prudish progress, it was decided genteel people shouldn’t touch their food. Fine cuisine isn’t devoured but nibbled on.
Fish is filleted, meat is trimmed and deboned, even the skin on potatoes and fruit has to be removed for sanitised consumption.
In Asian food preparation the portion of meat and vegetables etc. are cut into smaller pieces before or after cooking depending on the nature of the dish.
A whole roast is an example in Chinese cuisine. It is cut up to accommodate the sharing of the food. Smaller portions of meat are chopstick friendly. Communal dining.
There is an old saying: ”the nearer the bone, the sweeter the meat”. Not only do bones add nutritional value, but they add a ton of flavour to the cooking process as well!
- Uyghur Lamb Pilaf; northern China
Meat bones are surrounded by fat, so as the bone heats the marrow its juices penetrate the meat and add a depth of flavour that does not exist with a boneless cut.
- Hokkien stewed herbal pork; Malaysia
Bone-in food is tastier as well as nutritious. During cooking the bone releases fat and high concentration of collagen, gelatin, and glycine - these nutrients play a role in the health of our immune system.
- A grilled fish served in Japanese restaurant.
Bone-in meat is sustainable and reduces food wastage. Both fish and meat industries generate large amounts of waste, bones being a significant portion of them.
In Chinese cooking a sizeable whole fish is thoroughly prepped and cooked head to tail and served as diners appreciate picking on the various parts of the fish including the head, which may appear gross to some.
- Dim sum braised ‘phoenix claws’ - chicken feet - are ever popular.
Cooked heads and feet are common street and restaurant food in China and parts of Asia.
Fish head curry: the ‘angry looks’ reflects freshness. The head of a chilled or frozen fish looks sedate.
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