Who did you hear say that Cantonese people like to eat "tilapia"? Guangdong people don't like tilapia so much. You have been to Guangdong, and you will find this little detail. In restaurants in Guangdong, you rarely see tilapia. And when you visit a Cantonese home, they will treat you with big fish and meat, but you will not find tilapia either.

Guangdong people prefer grass carp, bighead fish, shad, or higher-grade osmanthus fish, perch, turbot, etc. Tilapia is definitely not Guangdong people's favorite. This is the rule that I found out from the dining table of my own family and others' families after living in Guangdong for decades.

In Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, there is also a kind of "crispy pomfret", which is actually a variety of grass carp, but its meat is very crispy, hence its name. Anyway, no matter how you cook and stew, its meat will not soften and its taste will still be crisp. There will also be a crispy meat carp food festival every year, which is very special and distinctive.

As for the tilapia you mentioned, in fact, more people in Guangdong like to call it "longevity fish", and they don't like this tilapia very much. Because tilapia is more suitable for braising than steaming. However, Cantonese cuisine prefers light steaming to braising in soy sauce. Therefore, tilapia is not so popular with Cantonese people.