So I was watching some cooking shows lately, and not being a culinary person at all myself (I like to say that I can make food shou, but I can't cook a meal), I was wondering--do you know if traditional Chinese cooking has something like this rigid division between "savory" vs. "pastry/dessert" or is that just a European/Western European thing?
hmm, I think the biggest thing is that desserts in chinese cuisine tend to be much less sweet than western european desserts, and a LOT less sweet than american desserts. fruit is considered an acceptable dessert. also, desserts aren’t necessarily in pastry form; often they’re soups (sometimes hot soup), and may contain ingredients that people think of as prototypically savory. like, when I was studying abroad in singapore, my white friends were really weirded out that there were beans in chinese desserts, but they’re sweet beans, so...
another big difference is in breakfast—chinese cuisine doesn’t really have pancakes or waffles with syrup for breakfast; more often than not you might just have some porridge with toppings, or eggs and toast, or savory noodles. oh, and cinnamon is considered a savory topping that goes with meats rather than a sweet topping that goes with desserts.
I feel like taiwanese cuisine has sweeter desserts, though. taiwanese cuisine is very similar to southern chinese cuisine, but because of various phases of colonization and foreign rule, taiwan has some other influences in its cuisine. so you’ll see some pastry-like things like egg tarts that might be from dutch/portuguese influence.
hope that helps? :)