Chinese cuisine----Cantonese cuisine

Cantonese cuisine (Guangdong cuisine or Yue Cai), has a great prestige among the eight great traditions of Chinese cuisine. Of all the regional varieties of Chinese cuisine, it’s also the best known outside China, due to its palatability to Westerners and the great numbers of early emigrants from Guangdong Province. Most "Chinese restaurants" in Western countries serve authentic Cantonese cuisine and dishes based on it.

Coming from Guangdong Province in Southern China, Cantonese cuisine is reputed as China's finest cuisine. Featuring diverse and delicate in material, its material includes almost all edible food in addition to the staples of pork, beef and chicken - snakes, snails, insects, worms, chicken feet, duck tongues, ox genitals, and entrails, etc. There is a famous saying, "Anything that walks, swims, crawls, or flies with its back to heaven is edible".

The seasonings in Cantonese cuisine are varied and well coordinated. Sauces made from ingredients like ginger, garlic, onion, vinegar, and sugar are complemented to enhance flavors. Somewhat lighter than most regional Chinese cuisine, the Cantonese dishes are prepared carefully and exquisitely. With the basic cooking techniques such as roasting, stir-frying, sauteing, deep-frying, braising, stewing and steaming, they turn out to be fresh, crisp, tender, slippery and not salty with all flavors and tastes.

The basic cooking techniques include. Steaming and stir-frying are most frequently used to preserve the ingredients' natural flavors. Guangdong chefs also pay much attention to the artistic presentation of their dishes.

An emphasis on preserving the natural flavor of the food is the hallmark of Cantonese cuisine. As cooking time is short, the flavors and nutrition of the food are preserved. Fresh live seafood is a specialty in Cantonese cuisine. Many authentic restaurants maintain live seafood tanks. The Cantonese people are very finicky when it comes to the freshness of their food. Even the amount of time taken for a live, swimming fish to be placed on a plate is kept to a minimum.

Cantonese barbecuing methods are unsurpassed. Another unique Cantonese specialty is slow-cooked soup. Sometimes, Chinese herbal medicines are added to the pot. Dim sum is, without a doubt, a trademark food in Cantonese cuisine. It is usually consumed in the mornings and afternoons. The Cantonese are also very inventive, and happy to incorporate non-native ingredients in their cooking.

It’s a pity that traveling to China without enjoying this wonderful Cantonese cuisine. So explore and try the long Cantonese menu!!

Chinese cuisine----Shandong cuisine

As an important component of Chinese culinary art, Shandong cuisine is considered to be the most influential in Chinese cuisine, with majority of the culinary styles in China having developed from it.

Also called Shandongcai or Lucai in Chinese, It is derived from the coastal province of Shandong in eastern China. Shandong cuisine boasts a long history and far-reaching impact. Dating back to the Spring and Autumn Period (770-221BC), Shangdong cuisine is representative of northern China's cooking and its technique has been widely absorbed in northeast China. The recipes are those that once delighted the royal court and were served to the emperor. Modern day schools of cuisine in North China, such as those of Beijing, Tianjin, and Northeast, are all branches of Shandong Cuisine. Also, the typical dishes in most North China households' meals are prepared in simplified Shandong methods.

Shandong is a large peninsula surrounded by the sea, with the Yellow River meandering through the center. As a result, seafood is a major component of Shandong cuisine. Shandong's most famous dish is the "sweet and sour carp". A truly authentic "sweet and sour carp" must come from the Yellow River.

Beyond the use of seafood, Shandong cuisine is famous for its wide selection of material and use of different cooking methods. The raw materials are mainly domestic animals and birds, seafood and vegetables. On another hand, Shandong is somewhat unique for its wide use of corn, a local cash crop that is not widely cultivated elsewhere. Unlike the sweet corn of North America, Shandong corn is chewy and starchy, often with a grassy aroma. It is often served simply as steamed or boiled cobs, or removed from the cob and lightly fried.

Condiments such as sauce paste, fistulous onion and garlic are freely used, so Shangdong dishes usually taste pungent. Possibly Shandong's greatest contribution to Chinese cuisine has been in the area of brewing vinegars. Hundreds of years of experience combined with unique local methods have led to Shandong's prominence as one of the premier regions for vinegar production in China. Unlike the lighter flavored, sharper vinegars popular in the southern regions, Shandong vinegar has a rich, complex flavor which, among some connisseurs, is considered fine enough to be enjoyed on its own merits.

Soups are given much emphasis in Shangdong dishes. Clear soup (or thin soup) features clear and fresh while milk soup (or creamy soup) looks thick and tastes strong, both of which are often choicely made to add freshness to the dishes. The dishes are mainly clear, fresh and fatty, perfect with Shandong's own famous beer, Qingdao Beer.

Shandong cuisine mainly consists of two major styles: Jiaodong style, This style encompasses dishes from Fushan, Qingdao, Yantai and surrounding regions. It is characterized by seafood cooking, with light tastes; and Jinan style: This style encompasses dishes from Jinan, dezhou, Tai'an and surrounding regions. It is famed for its soup and utilizing soups in its dishes. The typical menu can include many delicate dishes such as:

Braised abalone - smooth, delicate, fresh and savory

Sweet and Sour Carp - with crisp exterior and tender fish interior, a little sweet and sour. It’s one of the most famous dishes in Shandong cuisine. A truly authentic "sweet and sour carp" must come from the Yellow River.

Bree with a complex - clear, mild and fresh

Dezhou stewed chicken - known throughout the country; the chicken is so well cooked that the meat easily separates from the bone although the shape of the chicken is preserved.

'Eight Immortals Crossing Sea teasing Arhats' - This is a starter before a celebration feast. It is luxurious and traditionally uses as its eight main ingredients: fin, sea pumpkin, abalone, asparagus, prawns and ham. The stock is flavored with fish's swimming bladder and fish bones. These symbolize the eight immortals and the Arhats [Buddhist saints] are symbolized by the inclusion of chicken breast.

Chinese cuisine----Sichuan cuisine

Sichuan cuisine, another a hot style cuisine in China, is also called Chuan Cai. Originating in Sichuan Province of southwestern China, it is famed for bold flavors, particularly the spiciness resulting from liberal use of chilis and "numb" or "tingling" flavor of the Sichuan peppercorn. Just as we said in the former article, Sichuan cuisine, comparing to Hunan cuisine, lays great stress on its distinctive málà (hot and numbing) seasoning.

Sichuan food is famous for its many flavors, and almost every dish has its own unique taste. Actually, hot pepper, was introduced into China from South America only 200 to 300 years ago. Once it came to Sichuan, it became a favored food flavoring. Sichuan has high humidity and many rainy or overcast days. Hot pepper helps reduce internal dampness, so hot pepper was used frequently in dishes, and hot dishes became the norm in Sichuan cuisine. The Sichuan peppercorn is commonly used, which is an indigenous plant producing peppercorns with a fragrant, numbing, almost citrusy flavor. Also common are chili, ginger and other spicy herbs, plants and spices. Broad bean chili paste and yuxiang are also staple seasonings in Sichuan cuisine.

Common preparation techniques in Sichuan cuisine include stir frying, steaming, pickling, salting, drying, smoking and braising, but a complete list would include more than 20 distinct techniques. Beef is somewhat more common in Sichuan cuisine than it is in other Chinese cuisines, perhaps due to the widespread use of oxen in the region. Stir-fried beef is often cooked until chewy, while steamed beef is sometimes coated with rice flour to produce a very rich gravy.

There are many local variations of Sichuan cuisine within Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality. The four best known regional sub-styles are Chongqing style, Chengdu style, Zigong style, and Buddhist vegetarian style.Delicious dishes include:

Stir-fried Tofu with Minced Beef in Spicy Bean Sauce - A real feast of tender bean curd, minced beef, pepper and bean sauce. It is said that it was made by a pock-marked but ingenious woman, thus the name Ma Po Tofu (pock-marked woman's bean curd).

Lamp-shadow Beef - with larruping techniques, the beef is cut in very thin sheet. When a piece is carried, it looks like translucent paper, slippery and reddish. When put under the lamp or light, a red shadow will appear.

Gong Bao Ji Ding - This is a tender chicken dish, tender as the meat is quickly fried. Flavored with peanuts, this is tasty and very popular.

Lung Pieces by Couple - a quite popular in Chengdu. It got the name because the dish was ever sold be a couple and today it remains the original savor, tender meat, tingling and spicy.

Chinese cuisine----Hunan cuisine

While mentioning Hunan cuisine, the first word coming into mind must be hot for most people! It’s so hot that tears and nose are running down the first time I taste it.

Hunan cuisine, also called Xiang cuisine, is one of the eight regional cuisines of China and is well known for its hot spicy flavor, fresh aroma and deep color.

Due to the high agricultural output of the region and the special location, ingredients for Hunan dishes are abundant, such as game, fish, shrimp, crab, and turtle. It’s said that Hunan cuisine consists of more than 4,000 dishes, among which more than 300 are very famous.

With liberal use of chilli peppers, Hunan cuisine is known for being hot. Hunan cuisine is hot because the air is very humid, which makes it difficult for the human body to eliminate moisture. The local people eat hot peppers to help remove dampness and cold.

Compared to another well-known Chinese cuisine------ Sichuan cuisine, Hunan Cuisine is often spicier by pure chili content, contains a larger variety of fresh ingredients, tends to be oilier, and is said to be purer and simpler in taste. The Sichuan cuisine, known for its distinctive málà (hot and numbing) seasoning and other complex flavor combinations, frequently employ Sichuan peppercorns along with chilies which are often dried, and utilizes more dried or preserved ingredients and condiments.

Another feature of Hunan cuisine is that the menu changes with the seasons. In a hot and humid summer, a meal will usually start with cold dishes or a platter holding a selection of cold meats with chilies for opening the pores and keeping cool in the summer. In winter, a popular choice is the hot pot, thought to heat the blood in the cold months. A special hot pot called lover's hot pot is famous for splitting the pot into a spicy side and a milder side.

Hunan cuisine is consisted of three styles: Xiang River style which is represented by dishes of Changsha, Dongting Lake style which is represented by dishes of Hengyang, and western Hunan style which is represented by dishes of Xiangtan. Common cooking techniques include stewing, frying, pot-roasting, braising, and smoking.

Chinese cuisine----Jiangsu Cuisine

The elegant color, novel sculpts, with salt and sweet taste of the Jiangsu Cuisine will soothe your stomach!

Derived from the native cooking styles of the Jiangsu region in China, Jiangsu cuisine is one of the Eight Culinary Traditions of China. The style of this cuisine is both mild and healthy. Its main cooking techniques are braising and stewing, thereby enhancing the original flavor and sauce. In general, Jiangsu cuisine's texture is characterized as soft, but not to the point of mushy or falling apart. For example, the meat tastes quite soft but would not separate from the bone when picked up.

The main characteristics of Jiangsu cuisine include:
(1) Distinguished for exquisite ingredients, freshness and aliveness.
(2) High cutting techniques.
(3) Have a good command of duration and degree of heating and cooking.
(4) Good at keeping the original taste one particular taste for one dish. All dishes have light, mellow and refreshing tastes. Yangzhou Cuisine is light and elegant; Suzhou Cuisine is slightly sweet; and Wuxi Cuisine is fairly sweet.
(5) Pay great attention to soup, which is strong but not greasy, and delicious.

The Jiangsu cuisine has several branches: Nanjing cuisine - its dishes emphasize an even taste and matching color, with excellent dishes incorporating river fish/shrimps and duck; Suzhou cuisine - emphasis on the selection of material, stronger taste than Nanjing cuisine, and with a tendency to be sweeter than the other varieties of the cuisine; Wuxi cuisine - famed for the numerous types of congee.

The menu of Jiangsu cuisine is long and the most highly recommended dishes include:

Butterfish in Creamy Juice with Lotus Smell - Butterfish is one of the three treasures (including hilsa herring, cutlass fish and butterfish) from the Yangtze River. Butterfish in Creamy Juice with Lotus Smell features thick and tender fish meat, no fishbone, and a delicious taste.

Caigen Large Meatballs - A representative of Jiangsu Cuisine. At the banquet to celebrate the founding of the People‘s Republic of China, Premier Zhou Enlai entertained Chinese and foreign honored guests with this dish, which was spoken highly by guests. Though made of meat, this dish is not greasy, but delicious and refreshing.

Sanfengqiao Soy Sauce Spareribs - Sanfengqiao Soy Sauce Spareribs, which is prepared with high-quality spareribs, and more than 20 natural precious seasonings, features a red and bright color, soft bones, tender meat, a slightly sweet taste. This dish has been well known at home and abroad.

Three sets of ducks - an interlinking dish, that is to put pigeon into wild duck, then put the wild duck into a fowl duck. When stewed, the fowl duck is tender, the wild one crisp, and the little pigeon delicate!

Boiled dry thread of Tofu - thanks to the exquisite skill of the chefs, the Tofu can be cut into very thin threads which have chances to absorb the savor of soup. When chicken pieces added to the soup, the dish is called 'chicken dry thread'; likewise, when shrimp added, it makes 'shrimp dry thread'.

Lion's head braised with crab-powder - there is a metaphor in the dish name. In actual fact the Lion's head is a conglomeration of meat that is shaped like a sunflower and resembles a lion's head. It can be braised in a clear soup, or be red-cooked in a dense soup. A seasoning of crab powder enhances the flavor.

Chinese cuisine----Zhejiang cuisine

Derived from the native cooking styles of the Zhejiang region in China, Zhejiang cuisine (Zhe cai) is one of the most famous types of cooking.

Zhejiang, as a famous coastal province, is rich in produce and has long been known as "the land of fish and rices". Naturally, therefore, it has always been a great place for eating. Especially after 1127 when Hangzhou become the capital of the Song Dynasty, moved from Kaifeng in the north. Some of the best chefs from both these cities were brought together, and as a result northern methods of cooking were introduced to the south. Now, taking in Hangzhou's fineness and diversification, Ningbo's softness and originality, and Shaoxing's pastoral interests, Zhejiang cuisine is not greasy, having instead a fresh and soft flavor with a mellow fragrance.

The cuisine consists of four styles, each originating from a city in the province: the Hangzhou style, the most well-known one, is characterized by rich variations and the utilization of bamboo shoots. Some of its representative dishes include Dongpo Pork, Jiaohua ji (beggar's chicken) and Xi Hu cu yu (West Lake fish in vinegar), Shelled shrimps cooked in Longjing tea, Fried Eel Slices and Steamed Pork in Lotus Leaves. About half the dishes on a Hangzhou menu contain bamboo shoots, which add a tender element to the food. The Shaoxing style specializes in poultry and freshwater fish, and the Ningbo style specializing in seafood, with emphasis on freshness and salty dishes. Some sources also include the Wenzhou style as a separate subdivision, characterized as the greatest source of seafood as well as poultry and livestock.

Some of the most popular dishes include:

Dongpo Pork - First created by Su Dongpo, a well-known writer and poet of the Song Dynasty, when he served as a local official of Hangzhou, Dongpo Pork is red and bright in color, oily but not greasy, crisp but not smashed, plus mellow juice.

West-lake braised fish in vinegar - is a traditional delicacy in Hangzhou. It is said that there was once a boy who made his living by fishing. When he fell ill, his sister-in-law fished for him and braised the fish she caught with a marinade of vinegar and sugar. He was said to have made an immediate recovery after eating it. The boy's story aroused the attention of the emperor and the recipe has been used ever since.

Jiaohua Young Chicken - Select fat and young Yue chicken, clean the chicken thoroughly, add seasonings to the chicken, wrap it with special materials, and bake it over a low fire. Jiaohua Young Chicken is aromatic, tasty, and soft, with tender meat.

Shelled shrimps cooked in Longjing tea - as the Longjing tea is taken from the best tea in Hangzhou, which is recognized for greenness, fragrance, pure taste and elegant looks, when the living shrimps are stir-fried in the Long tea, the dish sends an artistic aroma and is quite delicious.

Eight traditional Chinese cuisines

Chinese cuisine enjoys a high reputation in the world also for its sheer abundance. Due to the diversity of the climate, products, historical factors, and eating habits, there are widely different food styles and tastes in local regions. Even many minorities have their own fantastic traditions and appeal, as well as the cuisine of the majority Han people.

The most influential and typical known by the public are the 'Eight Cuisines', the distinction between which is now widely accepted. They are:
Anhui cuisine
Cantonese cuisine
Fujian cuisine
Hunan cuisine
Jiangsu cuisine
Shandong cuisine
Szechuan cuisine(Sichuan cuisine)
Zhejiang cuisine
We will give details on every of them in the following articles.