Introduction
There is evidence that the food that the Chinese eat today is the same type of food that they ate hundreds of years ago.
Rice
Most rice farming was done by the Yangtze River. It started to be farmed in about five thousand B.C.E. Rice was cooked in a few different ways. One way was that it was boiled. The other way was that it was made into wine. Rice has been popular since prehistory. It does not grow in Northern China because the north is too dry and cold.
Millet and Sorghum
Both millet and sorghum were gathered in Northern China. These grains were mostly boiled.
Tea
The Chinese farmed tea since three thousand B.C.E. Tea was either brewed brewed or roasted.
Wheat
Wheat was eaten because it tasted good. Wheat started to be grown because in five hundred B.C.E. Mesopotamia there was not enough wheat to pick, so wheat started to be planted. Since the Chinese were not able to grow that many other other crops, they learned to cook wheat in many ways. One way was to put it in a pot or skin and boil it like porridge or oatmeal. This was filling and easy to cook. Another way to cook it was to make bread with it. This was harder to cook, but easier to carry around. To cook bread you needed more fuel for the fire. When the Ancient Chinese made bread, it was mostly flat bread like pizza and pancakes.