China is a country with a big catering culture. For a long time, due to the influence of geographical environment, climate products, cultural traditions, ethnic customs and other factors in a certain area, a certain degree of kinship and inheritance has been formed. The dishes have similar flavors, are well-known, and are loved by some people.

Famous schools of local flavor are called cuisines.

Among them, Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Jiangsu cuisine and Cantonese cuisine are known as the "four major cuisines". Together with Zhejiang cuisine, Fujian cuisine, Anhui cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Beijing cuisine and Hubei cuisine, they are the "top ten cuisines".

This article focuses on how the "Four Major Chinese Cuisines" develop and evolve as a food culture, as well as their characteristics, superb techniques and famous representative dishes.

Keywords: cooking, unique flavor, all five flavors, exquisite technology, comprehensive techniques, and a wide range of ingredients.

Shandong cuisine has a long history and wide influence. It is an important part of Chinese food culture.

It has become one of the four major cuisines in China. It is famous at home and abroad for its salty, fresh, crisp and tender taste, unique flavor and exquisite production.

Ancient books say: "The land of the East is the birthplace of heaven and earth." The land of Qilu is a beautiful territory with mountains and seas, rich products and developed economy, which provides good conditions for the development of culinary culture and the formation of Shandong cuisine.

As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Yi Ya, the favorite of Duke Huan of Qi, was a famous chef known for his "kindness and five flavors".

Jia Sixie, the governor of Gaoyang during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, made a relatively systematic summary of the cooking techniques in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in his book "Essential Techniques for Qi Min", and recorded many famous dishes, which reflected the superb skills of the development of Shandong cuisine at that time.

Duan Wenchang was born in Linzi, Shandong Province in the Tang Dynasty.

Mu Zong was the prime minister at that time, and he was good at diet. He compiled fifty volumes of the Food Classic, which became a historical anecdote.

By the Song Dynasty, the "water cage" in Bianliang, the capital of the Song Dynasty, was another name for Shandong cuisine, which had already taken shape.

The Ming and Qing dynasties already called themselves cuisines.

From Luyu to Gyeonggi, from Neiguan to Waiguan, the influence has reached the Yellow River Basin.

The Northeast region has a broad base of food consumers.

Shandong was a state of Qi and Lu in ancient times. It has a wide range of seafood, aquatic products, grain, oil, livestock, vegetables, fruits, insects and game, providing abundant material conditions for cooking.

The exquisite cooking techniques of Shandong cuisine are also widely promoted.

Shandong cuisine has a unique flavor and distinctive personality. Its flavor and techniques extend from north to south, and are especially popular in the northern region.

The strong flavor of Shandong cuisine lies in the extensive use of ingredients, careful selection of ingredients, fine knife skills, proper blending, heat, and comprehensive cooking skills.

Especially when it is stir-fried, stir-fried, roasted, deep-fried, steamed, grilled and pasted, its flavor is salty, fresh, palatable, fragrant, crisp and tender, and the soup is mellow, unique and adaptable.

In its long-term development process, Shandong cuisine has accumulated a complete set of cooking techniques, among which explosive cooking is the most popular.

The "explosion" methods of Shandong cuisine can be divided into oil explosion, soup explosion, green onion explosion, sauce explosion, hot explosion, etc.

"Popping" vegetables requires high heat and rapid cooking. Therefore, it is one of the best cooking techniques to protect food nutrients. Especially oil stir-frying, it must be stir-fried over high heat and quickly, operated continuously, done in one go, and completed in an instant.

When the finished dish is filled with wine, oil and gravy, the juice will hang evenly. If there is juice but no juice, the dish will be completely gone.

Eat it, it's tender, crispy, refreshing but not greasy.

"Collapse" is a cooking quality unique to Shandong.

The main ingredients of the dish should be pickled with seasonings in advance, mixed with flavor or stuffed into the filling, and then dipped in flour or egg batter. When both sides are fried until golden brown, add the seasonings and clear soup, and use slow fire to drain the soup.

Dip it into the main ingredients to increase the flavor.

"Guotai fish belly" and "Guotai yellow croaker" that are widely circulated throughout Shandong are traditional dishes that have long been popular among people.

Shandong cuisine takes soup as the source of all kinds of fresh food, pays attention to the use of soup, and is good at making soup, especially the preparation of "clear soup" and "milk soup".

Light and distinct, whichever is fresher.

There are many dishes made with "clear soup" and "milk soup", and there are as many as ten famous dishes such as "clear soup willow-leaf bird's nest" and "clear soup family portrait".

Inside are delicacies for high-end banquets.

Shandong cuisine is also unique in cooking seafood.

The cooking of delicacies from the sea and small seafood is particularly outstanding.

In Shandong, all seafood, whether it is ginseng, fins, swallows, shells or scales, shellfish, shrimps and crabs, are prepared by local chefs and become delicacies. Only the fish, which is abundant along the coast of Jiaodong, is used

Hundreds of dishes can be cooked with a variety of knife skills and different preparation methods.

Color, aroma, taste, and shape each have their own characteristics, and all kinds of clever changes are all in one fish.

"Double fried in oil" cooked with small seafood, braised conch, fried oyster roe, "fried worms with chives", fried mullet strips with green onion, hibiscus and chrysanthemum crab, as well as "crab roe shark's fin" and "original fish fin" made with rare products.

"Shell Abalone", "Rusty Pearl Scallop", "Sesame Purple Abalone", "Chicken Fish Bone", etc. are all unique seafood treasures.

Shandong cuisine is good at seasoning with onions. In the preparation process of dishes, whether it is stir-frying, stir-frying, roasting, boiling or cooking soup, onions are used to stir-fry the pot; even steaming, grilling, frying, roasting and other dishes also use onions.

The aroma of green onion enhances the flavor.

For example, roast duck, roast suckling pig, pot-roasted elbow, fried fat cap, etc. are all served with scallions.

Due to the development of science and technology, vegetable oils have been widely used, and it has gradually evolved into that green onions are commonly added to dishes cooked with oils such as stir-frying, frying, lightly frying, and stir-frying.

This method not only enhances the flavor with the aroma of green onion, but also uses its functions of clearing the mind, smoothing the Qi, dispelling wind and surface heat, dispersing greasiness, inhibiting bacteria, and strengthening the stomach. It is widely used by modern people.

Jinan, the spring city, has not been governed by a province since the Jin Dynasty. Jinan's culinary prefectures have made use of the rich resources to fully inherit traditional techniques, widely absorb experience from other places, and integrate the cooking techniques of Fushan in the East, Jining and Qufu in the South, and

The cooking techniques from all over the world have been pushed to the realm of perfection.

Jinan cuisine uses a wide range of ingredients, ranging from delicacies from mountains and seas to pumpkins and vegetables. Even the most common cattails, coriander beans, tofu and offal of livestock and poultry can be made into delicious dishes.

Yantai and Qingdao are located in the beautiful Jiaodong Peninsula and are famous for their cooking.