Everything in cooking must match and there is an order in eating food of different flavors. Clear mush go with clear, thick with thick and soft with soft. Usually, we should eat food of a salty flavor first and then food of a more negative flavor. Heavy should precede the light and dry precedes gravy. We must have noticed that in a Chinese dinner, soup is never served first as it is in the west.
Salty flavor is relieved by bitter or hot tasty food.
Too much wine dulls the stomach, which can only be aroused to vigor again by sweet or sour food. Mustard is for a warm day and pepper for a cool day. For a formal dinner, the four heroes of the dining table are the chicken, duck, fish and pig. Without these four a formal dinner loses its elegance and formality. The absorption of good points from other cultures has enriched a Chinese dinner today.