Shandong Cuisine

This is the local flavor of Jinan City and Jiaodong peninsula derived from the use of shallots and garlic. Both restaurant chefs and those in families are expert in cooking seafood, soups, meat and offal. The recipes are those that once delighted the royal court and were served to the emperor. 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

Bree with a complex – clear, mild and fresh

‘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.

Guangdong Cuisine

Guangdong Cuisine takes fine and rare ingredients and is cooked with polished skills and in a dainty style. It emphasizes a flavor which is clear but not light, refreshing but not common, tender but not crude. In summer and autumn it pursues clarity and in winter and spring, a little more substance. The sauteed dishes always rely upon exquisite presentat ion involving cutting and carving skills. Typical menu here can ultimately embody these characteristics:

Chrysanthemum fish – chefs with adept cutting techniques shape the fish like chrysanthemums, each individual morsel being convenient to enjoy with either chopsticks or forks.

Braised Snake porridge – choose rare meat of cobra, grimalkin, and pullet, braised elaborately, also called ‘Dragon and phoenix contending’ (Long Feng Dou).

Roast suckling pig – a famed dish with rather long history, golden and crisp exterior, and tender meat, with dense aroma.

Sichuan Cuisine

This combines the cuisines from Chengdu and Chongqing. From as early as the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911), books had systematically recorded a total of 38 cooking methods like to scald, wrap, bake, mix, stew, and adhere, etc. it features pungent seasonings which were famed as ‘Three Peppers’ (Chinese prickly ash, pepper and hot pepper), ‘three aroma’ (shallot, ginger, and garlic), ‘Seven Tastes’ (sweet, sour, tingling, spicy, bitter, piquant, and salty), and ‘eight flavors’ (fish-flavored, sour with spice, pepper-tingling, odd flavor, tingling with spice, red spicy oily, ginger sauce, and home cooking).

Delicious dishes menu:

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.

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.

Gong Bao Ji Ding – in Chinese it is called 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.

Hunan Cuisine

Hunan cuisine lays a stress on the use of oil, dense color, and techniques that produce crispness, softness and tenderness as well as the savory flavors and spices. Stewed fins, fried fresh cabbage with chestnuts, Dong Anzi chicken, immortal chicken with five elements, are of the highest reputation. Chairman Mao, together with other leaders praised the Hunan cuisine in 1958.

Stewed fins – had been famous during the Qing Dynasty. Choice fins, chickens, pork are stewed in chicken soup and sauce, tasting really fresh and mellow.

Immortal chicken with five elements – means to put five elements, litchi, longan, red dates, lotus seeds, and medlar, into the body of a chicken, then to braise. The taste is rather peculiar but it is said to have the effect of strengthening the constitution.

Jiangsu Cuisine

Jiangsu Cuisine developed from the local recipes of Yangzhou, Suzhou and Nanjing. Its main cooking techniques are braising and stewing, thereby enhancing the original flavor and sauce. The elegant color, novel sculpts, with salt and sweet taste will soothe your stomach. The Jiangsu cuisine has several branches, including Shanghai cuisine, Nanjing cuisine is known for its duck recipes, Suxi cuisine with flowery hue, etc. the most highly recommended courses are:

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.

Zhejiang Cuisine

As Zhejiang cuisine consists of hundreds of small delicacies from its main cities, it takes in Hangzhou’s fineness and diversification, Ningbo’s softness and originality, and Shaoxing’s pastoral interests. Hangzhou, once the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127 – 1279), it is customary to endow cuisine with dainty place-names. The chief techniques of cooking lie in the methods used such as frying, quick-fry, stir-fry, braising, and steaming thus rendering the dishes both salubrious and savory.

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.

Fujian Cuisine

Chinese noodles vary in width. They can be thin as needles, or thick as chopsticks. However, when it comes to length, they are usually served long and uncut. This is because long noodles are a symbol of longevity in Chinese tradition. Thus, during birthday celebrations, people will serve “longevity noodles” in good hope for longevity.

Chinese noodles are generally made from wheat flour, rice flour, or types of starches, such as Mung Bean starch. Wheat flour noodles are commonly produced and consumed in North China, while rice flour noodles are more typical in South China.

Rice flour and starch-based noodles are made only with rice flour or starch and water. Wheat flour noodles maybe added in low quantities with egg, lye or food coloring in order to have a yellow color, and change the texture, tenderness and taste of the noodles. No matter their type, noodles cook very quickly. Usually it requires no more than 5 minutes to become al dente, while thinner noodles only take less than one minute to finish cooking.

Because of different manners of preparation and using of materials and ingredients, there are over a thousand types of noodles all over China with local characteristics. Among them, the most famous ones are soy bean paste noodles (or Zhajiang Mian) in Beijing, hand-pulled noodles (or Lamian) in Shaanxi Province, sliced noodles (or Daoxiao Mian) in Shanxi Province, dandan noodles (or dandan mian) in Sichuan Province, to name just a few.

Noodles are served and eaten hot or cold, boiled, steamed, stir-fried, deep-fried, or served in soup. Whichever way, you’ll first need to, by using chopsticks, stir the noodle till all the materials are evenly mingled before enjoying it. Noodles are an excellent food for the nutritionally-inclined, providing harmonious dietary balance. They are low in calories, and high in protein and carbohydrate.

Famous Chinese Noodles

Lanzhou Hand pulled Noodles with Beef 兰州牛肉拉面

This kind of hand-pulled noodle is also known as the “Lanzhou Beef Noodles”, one of the most common dishes in the local area. Visitors can see it at every corner of the city and it has become a part of the local people’s life. The noodle is handmade, and it takes a cook only one or two minutes to stretch the flour cake into many needle-like noodles. Today small restaurants serving Lanzhou Beef Noodles can be found at almost every Chinese cities. However, most of them are hidden at small alleys or back streets.

Among the many beef restaurants in Lanzhou, the Jinding Beef Noodle Restaurant in Pingliang Road, and the Mazhilu Beef Noodle Restaurant in Wudu Road and the Minority Restaurant in Zhangye Road are the most famous ones.

Guilin Rice Noodles 桂林米粉

Taking pride of place as the most popular local snack (or breakfast, lunch or dinner) in Guilin, mifen is pliable but strong, fragrant and mellow, and cheap (2.5 yuan for a bowl). Guilin rice noodles can probably be found within 100m of any town or city area.

Rice noodles, gravy, fried peanuts or soybeans, chopped scallions and thin slices of different kinds of meat are added for various versions of this renowned and tasty dish. Well-chopped condiments include: spring onions, chilli, pickled beans and pickled white raddish in chilli sauce. Soup may be ladled on or dispensed from an urn. Although there are many restaurants around the country who claim to serve authentic Guilin Rice Noodles. However, There are rarely any restaurants serving authentic Guilin Rice Noodles outside Guilin City.

Guangzhou Shahefen 广州沙河粉

Shahefen is a kind of noodles made of rice. It is broad, white in color. Their texture is elastic and a bit chewy. They do not freeze or dry well and are thus generally (where available) purchased fresh, in strips or sheets that may be cut to the desired width. Shhefen is popular in southern China’s Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan Province.

Although Asian noodles may not have the intriguing variety of shapes and sizes that characterize Italian pasta, they are made with a number of unusual ingredients, including rice flour and even mung bean flour.

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