China’s Eight Major Cuisines

China’s food culture has a long history, and the formation of a cuisine is inseparable from its long history and unique cooking characteristics. At the same time, it is also affected by the natural geography, climate conditions, resources, specialties, and eating habits of the area. Some people describe the "Eight Major Cuisines" in an anthropomorphic way: Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisines are like the delicate and graceful beauties from the south of the Yangtze River; Shandong and Anhui cuisines are like the simple and honest northern men; Cantonese and Fujian cuisines are like elegant young men; Sichuan and Hunan cuisines Just like a celebrity with rich connotations and talents.

The cooking techniques of China's "eight major cuisines" each have their own charm, and the characteristics of their dishes also have their own merits. Shandong cuisine is the first of the eight major cuisines, with a long history, "you never tire of fine food, and you never tire of delicate food", and has a rich cultural heritage; Sichuan cuisine uses the rich products of Bashu and cooks the delicacies of Bashu, including "seven tastes and eight flavors"; Jiangsu cuisine " "Jin Yu Yu Jian", exquisite techniques, exquisite and clear; Hunan cuisine, sweet and sour, all kinds of flavors, rich flavor; Anhui cuisine is antique, fresh river poultry, all the flavor; Zhejiang cuisine is cooked from the south to the north, the taste runs from north to south, fresh and crisp; Fujian cuisine is fresh and mellow, with all kinds of colors, flavors and shapes; Cantonese cuisine is light and fresh, drawing from many cuisines and having a far-reaching influence.

Sichuan cuisine

Sichuan cuisine is a cuisine with a long history. Its birthplace is the ancient countries of Ba and Shu. There are many records of Sichuan cuisine in ancient classics and poems and articles by literati and poets from various dynasties.

Sichuan cuisine includes the characteristics of Chengdu, Chongqing, Leshan, Zigong and other local cuisines. The main feature is the variety of flavors. Chili pepper, pepper, Sichuan peppercorns, bean paste, etc. are the main condiments. Different ratios create spicy, sour, peppery, sesame sauce, garlic paste, mustard, red oil, sweet and sour, fish flavor, strange flavor, etc. The taste types are all thick and mellow, with the special flavor of "one dish, one style" and "hundred dishes and hundreds of flavours", and all kinds of dishes are very popular.

In terms of cooking methods, there are 38 types of Sichuan cuisine, including stir-frying, pan-frying, deep-frying, bursting, roasting, braising, steaming, mixing, stewing, pasting, dry-roasting, deep-frying, smoking, soaking, and stewing. The changes are subtle. Sichuan cuisine therefore has three characteristics: a wide range of materials, diverse seasonings, and strong adaptability of dishes. A complete flavor system is composed of five major categories: banquet dishes, popular light dishes, home-cooked dishes, three-steamed and nine-duck dishes, and flavored snacks. It enjoys the reputation of "eat in China and taste in Sichuan" internationally.

The most famous dishes are: dry-roasted rock carp, dry-roasted mandarin fish, fish-flavored shredded pork, strange-flavored chicken, kung pao chicken, steamed beef with rice flour, mapo tofu, and tripe hot pot , dried beef shreds, couple's lung slices, Dengying beef, dan noodles, glutinous rice balls, dragon chaoshou, etc.

Anhui cuisine

The flavor of Anhui cuisine includes the characteristics of dishes in southern Anhui, along the Yangtze River and along the Huaihe River.

Southern Anhui cuisine includes Huangshan, Gexian (ancient Weizhou), Tunxi and other places. It pays attention to fire skills, is good at cooking game, is large in quantity and heavy in oil, is simple and affordable, and maintains its original flavor. Many dishes are stewed, roasted or steamed over low heat over charcoal. The soup is clear and mellow, and the aroma is overflowing when served in the original pot. Although there are not many aquatic products in southern Anhui, the marinated "stinky mandarin fish" is very famous.

Riverside cuisine is represented by Wuhu and Anqing areas, and later spread to Hefei area. It specializes in cooking river fresh food and livestock, and pays attention to knife skills, color and shape. The good use of sugar for seasoning makes the smoked dishes unique.

The cuisine along the Huaihe River is represented by Bengbu, Suxian, Fuyang and other places. The dishes are salty and spicy, and the soup is rich in color and heavy in taste. Coriander is also commonly used for color matching and seasoning.

The famous flavor dishes of Anhui cuisine include: Wuwei smoked duck, Maofeng smoked fish, Fuliji roasted chicken, square cured fish, Shierbing chicken, cloud meat, mung bean pancakes, butterfly noodles, etc.

Shandong cuisine

Shandong cuisine is Shandong cuisine, which consists of Jinan, Jiaodong and Kongfu cuisine.

Jinan cuisine especially emphasizes soup. There are strict regulations on the use and preparation of clear soup and milk soup. The dishes are famous for their freshness, crispness and tenderness.

Jiaodong cuisine originated from Fushan, Yantai and Qingdao. It is famous for cooking seafood. The taste is mainly fresh and tender, with an emphasis on lightness and color.

Confucian cuisine is a concrete embodiment of "the food is never tired of fine food, and the food is never tired of fine food". The exquisite and wide range of ingredients used and the sumptuous banquet are comparable to those of the imperial palaces in the past.

Shandong cuisine is highly seasoned, pure and mellow, with few complex synthetic flavors. Each dish is flavored and strives to reflect the original taste of the raw materials. Another feature is that there are many kinds of pasta. Wheat, corn, sweet potato, soybean, sorghum, and millet can all be made into pasta with different flavors and become famous dishes at banquets.

Famous Shandong flavor dishes include: fried mountain scorpion, Texas boneless braised chicken, original shell braised abalone, nine-turn large intestine, sweet and sour Yellow River carp, etc.

Fujian Cuisine

Fujian cuisine is a cuisine mainly composed of local flavor dishes in Fuzhou, southern Fujian and western Fujian.

Fuzhou cuisine is fresh and light, leaning towards sweet and sour. It pays particular attention to soup preparation. Another feature is that it is good at using brown sugar as an ingredient, which has the functions of preventing deterioration, removing fishy smell, increasing aroma, fresh taste and color. effect.

Southern Fujian cuisine, represented by Xiamen, also has the characteristics of freshness and lightness. It pays attention to seasonings and is good at using chili sauce, salsa sauce, mustard sauce and other seasonings.

Western Fujian is located at the junction of the three provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi. Hakka cuisine is the mainstay, and most of the ingredients are unique to the mountainous areas, giving it a strong mountainous flavor.

Fujian cuisine is characterized by deep-frying, distilling, boiling, stir-frying, baking and steaming, especially seafood, with exquisite knife skills and interesting taste. Most of the dishes are soups, which are fresh, fragrant, rotten and light. It has a unique flavor of sweet, sour and spicy. Fujian snacks and snacks have another merit. They are made from various seafood from coastal shoals and seasoned with special flavors. They are delicious.

The famous flavor dishes of Fujian cuisine include: Buddha Jumps over the Wall, Yu Hai Mu in Chicken Soup, Light Snail Slices, Braised Duck Nuggets, Seven Star Fish, Drunken Chicken, Pan-fried Carp, Half Moon Shenjiang, Yanpi Mixed noodles, Fuzhou noodles, snake fried rice, etc.

Su Cuisine

Su Cuisine is a famous cuisine in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China, covering the current Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Shanghai, and parts of Jiangxi and Henan. Due to the later Zhejiang Huaiyang cuisine and Anhui cuisine are each one of the eight major cuisines with their distinctive characteristics. Huaiyang cuisine is gathered in Jiangsu. At the same time, the cooking industry is accustomed to refer to Jiangsu regional dishes to which Huaiyang cuisine belongs as Jiangsu cuisine. In addition to Huaiyang cuisine, Jiangsu cuisine also includes Nanjing cuisine. Local cuisines such as Suzhou cuisine, Suxi cuisine and Xuzhou cuisine.

Huaiyang cuisine is rigorous in selecting ingredients, paying attention to freshness, outstanding main ingredients, and fine knife skills. It is good at stewing, stewing, roasting, and roasting. It pays attention to soup preparation, pays attention to the original flavor, and is good at modeling, melons and fruits. The carvings are lifelike. The taste is moderately salty, suitable for both north and south, and can be used to cook "full-board meals". Huaiyang is fine, with beautiful appearance, various flavors, exquisite production, fresh and delicious taste, and the four seasons are different.

Nanjing cuisine is good at stewing, boiling, forking and roasting. It pays special attention to the seven tastes and seven flavors, and is famous for its good duck preparation. It is known as "Jinling duck is the best in the world".

Su Xi cuisine is good at stewing, braising, simmering and baking. It pays attention to maintaining the original flavor, fine colors, seasonal freshness, moderate sweetness and salty, crispy and delicious. In recent years, they have cooked "Wuxi Qianlong Jiangnan Banquet", "Wuxi Xishi Banquet", "Suzhou Cuisine Banquet" and Taihu Boat Cuisine.

The flavor of Xuzhou cuisine belongs to Shandong cuisine in history. With the changes of the times, its cuisine has become between the two major cuisines of Su and Shandong. Not light, thick but not turbid. No matter what ingredients are used in its dishes, attention should be paid to the "diet therapy and food tonic" effects. In addition, Xuzhou cuisine mostly uses crab and dog meat, especially the whole dog meal is very famous.

Famous dishes in Jiangsu include: squirrel crucian carp, Farewell My Concubine, Tianmu Lake casserole fish head, Huaian soft bag, golden fairy skirt, etc. Jiangsu dim sum is rich in characteristics, such as Qinhuai snacks, Suzhou cake dumplings, and soup dumplings, all of which are famous.

Hunan Cuisine

Hunan cuisine includes dishes from three regions: the Xiangjiang River Basin, the Dongting Lake area and the mountainous areas of western Hunan.

The Xiangjiang River Basin, centered on Changsha, Hengyang and Xiangtan, is the main representative of Hunan cuisine. It is characterized by its heavy oil, rich color, emphasis on affordability, and emphasis on freshness, sourness, hotness, softness and tenderness. It is especially famous for its spicy dishes and preserved vegetables.

Dishes in the Dongting Lake area are famous for cooking river fresh food, poultry and livestock. They are characterized by large amounts of oil, thick oil, salty, spicy, fragrant and soft. They are famous for stews and roasted dishes.

Xiangxi cuisine is good at making mountain delicacies, smoked bacon, various cured meats, and chicken. The taste focuses on salty, sour and spicy, with a strong mountain flavor. The biggest features of Hunan cuisine are spicy and spicy.

Famous dishes of Hunan cuisine include: Dong'an Chicken, Steamed Cured Meat, Shark's Fin, Rock Sugar Hunan Lotus, Red Pepper Cured Beef, Hairy Beef Baiye, Fire Palace Stinky Tofu, Jishou Sour Pork, Egg Replacement, etc. .

Cantonese cuisine

Cantonese cuisine is Guangdong cuisine, which is developed from the special dishes of Guangzhou, Chaozhou and Dongjiang. It is a cuisine that started late, but it has far-reaching influence. As well as Chinese restaurants around the world, most of them focus on Cantonese cuisine. Cantonese cuisine pays attention to absorbing the strengths of various cuisines and forms a variety of cooking styles. It is a cuisine with its own unique flavor.

Guangzhou cuisine is light but not bland, fresh but not vulgar, with well-chosen ingredients and diverse varieties. It is also compatible with many Western cooking methods and pays attention to the momentum and grade of the dishes.

Chaozhou belongs to Fujian in ancient times, so Chaozhou cuisine combines the flavors of Fujian and Cantonese. It is famous for cooking marine dishes and sweets, with a clear and mellow taste, among which soups are the most distinctive.

Dongjiang cuisine is also called Hakka cuisine. The Hakkas are Han people from the Central Plains who are descendants of the South. They live in the Dongjiang mountainous area. Their dishes are rich in local flavor and are famous for stir-frying, deep-frying, uncovering and baking.

Cantonese cuisine is generally characterized by a wide selection of ingredients, novelty and freshness. The dishes are light in taste and rich in taste. They pay attention to light but not bland, tender but not raw, oily but not greasy, and have "five flavors". "(fragrant, loose, soft, fat, rich), and "six flavors" (sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, salty, fresh). Seasonality is strong, summer and autumn are lighter, winter and spring are richer, and many dishes have unique flavors.

The famous dishes of Cantonese cuisine include: chicken stewed with snake, dragon and tiger fight, roasted suckling pig, Dongjiang salt-baked chicken, boiled shrimp, roast goose, snake oil beef, Cantonese moon cakes, Shahe noodles, Tingzi Porridge etc.

Zhejiang Cuisine

Zhejiang cuisine has a long history, and its flavors include dishes from Hangzhou, Ningbo and Shaoxing.

Hangzhou cuisine attaches great importance to fresh, live and tender raw materials, mainly fish, shrimp and seasonal vegetables. It pays attention to knife skills, fresh taste and highlights the original taste.

Ningbo cuisine combines salty and fresh food. It is famous for cooking seafood, which emphasizes tenderness, softness and smoothness, emphasizing original flavor and delicious taste.

Shaoxing cuisine specializes in cooking fresh river poultry. The dishes emphasize the fragrant, crispy and glutinous texture in the mouth, and the rich soup is full of country flavor.

Zhejiang cuisine has the characteristics of bright colors, delicious and tender taste, crisp, soft and refreshing, small and exquisite dishes, handsome and beautiful. It is famous for stewing, frying, baking and steaming, and emphasizes its original flavor. There are many varieties of dumplings, cakes, soups and noodles in Zhejiang dim sum with good taste.

Famous dishes of Zhejiang cuisine include: Longjing shrimp, West Lake herbal vegetable soup, fried eel back with shrimp, West Lake fish in vinegar, fried bell, crab, fresh-wind crab, yellow croaker in pickle soup, rock sugar Soft-shell turtle, Mu Shun eggs, honey-filled lotus root, Jiaxing rice dumplings, Ningbo glutinous rice dumplings, Huzhou steamed buns, etc.