The four characteristics of Chaozhou cuisine Chaozhou cuisine and Cantonese cuisine together to compare, its characteristics are still very obvious. First, the Cantonese cuisine with a wide range of materials, river and sea fish, livestock and game, almost everything; Teochew cuisine, although the material varies like this, but heavy fish, with livestock, game commonly used, frogs and turtles only. Heavy fish, and geography. Chaoshan Plain, such as the network of rivers and streams, pools and marshes such as stars; long coastline, wide beaches. The coastline is long and the beaches are wide. Aquatic products are abundant and have long been used in the diet of the Chaoshan people. Teochew cuisine fish ingredients, saltwater fish most heavy horse pomfret, freshwater fish commonly used fish grass, in recent years by the influence of Hong Kong-style Chaozhou cuisine, grouper, cod and so on, common in the feast. Shellfish ingredients, locally produced oysters, arkshells, abalone, snails and sun and moon shellfish. Rattlesnake snail scientific name long Xin snail, wild in the region's coastal salinity of the mud seabed, trawlers caught from time to time. With the snail as raw material of the open-hearth roasted insects and oil soaked snail slices, are famous dishes in Chaozhou. Sun and moon shellfish grow in the water depth of 5-10 meters of the sandy seabed, like a fan, two pieces of shell a red and a white, so the name "sun and moon shellfish"; sun and moon shellfish in the seabed to the two shells to open and close rapidly, traveling as flying, so it is also known as the "flying snail". Sun and moon shellfish closed-shell muscle commonly known as "tape", extremely fat, white as jade, to steam, crisp and fresh, is a good Chaozhou dishes on the table. Crustacean sand shrimp, prawns, saw-edge green crabs are indispensable ingredients for making Chaozhou cuisine. Green crabs grow on the muddy seabed near the estuary. Male crab meat is white, tender and sweet, fishermen caught, sold on the market, called "meat crab". Fertilized female crabs, anciently known as "yellow paste crab", in recent decades, the Chaoshan fishermen invented artificial breeding methods, after catching, stocked in the crab pool, supplying sufficient bait, after about 20 days, the female crab crab paste is full, the back of the shell is red, and then marketed for sale, known as "paste crab "It is also called "red crab". Raw cooked meat crab and raw cooked crab are also famous dishes in Chaozhou. Teochew cuisine is also characterized by the use of coarse materials to make fine dishes. Thick mushrooms and mustard greens and taro puree with golden gourd in Teochew cuisine are all made with ordinary vegetables as the main ingredients. There is a very famous Chaozhou dish called "Guoguo Cai", the main ingredient of which is sweet potato leaves. About the origin of this dish, there is a legend: the last year of the Southern Song Dynasty, the last Sung Emperor was forced by the Yuan soldiers to collect Fujian into Chaozhou, running around in distress, came to a small mountain temple. Monks saw the Emperor of the Ning Song tired and hungry, but suffering from the temple nothing to pay, had to use the sweet potato leaves to make a soup offered. Who expects the little emperor after eating the praises, and give the name of the "protection of the country dish". Legend after all is a legend, in fact, this famous dish is still by the evolution of Chaozhou home cooking. In the market of Chaoshan, sweet potato seedlings are sold as vegetables. After buying them, pick the young leaves, scald them in boiling water without chilling them, fry them in a pot or cook them in soy sauce, which is smooth and has a special sweet flavor. In the hands of Chaozhou cuisine masters, potato leaf soup made more and more fine. Potato leaves hot soft chopped, plus old chicken soup simmering rotten, pungent aroma, smooth and tender in the mouth. It should be served in a small white porcelain bowl to bring out the jade-like color of the soup. There are also added mushrooms and ham with simmering, the more dense and colorful, not as pure as a single flavor of potato leaves, can only be considered a different kind. Secondly, the flavor of Cantonese cuisine emphasizes clear, fresh, slippery, cool, Chaozhou cuisine also vary like it, but in contrast, Chaozhou cuisine flavor, more light and fresh. Cantonese and Chaozhou cuisine soup, there is a very obvious difference. Cantonese banquets generally have only one soup, used after the meal. The soup is made of a variety of ingredients, boiled over a gentle fire, and those who have been boiled for a long time are called "old soup", which is thick and rich in flavor, and is considered to be the best. Chiu Chow Banquet 12 dishes should have at least two soups. Four times with different ingredients, soup varieties. But the ingredients of each soup are relatively simple, fish, shrimp and snails, with pickled cabbage preserved vegetables as a side dish, meatballs and fishballs, with cilantro coriander lettuce as a side dish, for its light and fresh. Bamboo Shoots and Spare Ribs Soup in spring, Winter Melon and Crab Soup in summer, Water Duck and Lemon Soup in fall, and Dried Scallop and Radish Soup in winter are all seasonal dishes that are also light and fresh. Teochew chowder soup, the ingredients are also mixed, oyster meat, pork and poultry liver, tofu and pickled vegetables, blanch for a soup, although the name of chowder, and Judas light and fresh. Teochew's fresh and beautiful, mainly by the raw materials of fresh and raw, but thanks to the cooking of the light. Only its light, fish and vegetables to give full play to the fresh flavor. Teochew cooking, deep-fried, baked, braised a method used less than the Cantonese cuisine, more use of steaming, stir-frying, stewing, blanching method. Stir-fry more fierce fire fried, such as raw fried squid, raw fried snails; steam stew more steamed and stewed, such as steamed eel, stewed water fish. This is also an important reason why Chaozhou cuisine can get light and fresh flavor. If the flavor of Chaozhou cuisine is all light and fresh, it is not. There are also a lot of dishes with strong flavors in the Teochew menu. The most famous ones are Shacha Beef and Marinated Goose. Shacha, also known as satay, is a foreign word in the Chaoshan language and a translation of the Indonesian word cate. Indonesian people call beef and mutton kebabs grilled with spicy sauce cate, while Chaoshanese "sacha" refers to the spicy sauce. Chaoshan's sacha sauce is a localized imported product made of chili peppers, mustard seeds, garlic, fennel, peppercorns, shredded coconut, peanuts, sesame seeds, shrimp, and preserved fish, etc. It is crushed, stir-fried with salt and chaff, and then boiled in oil to make it pungent and fragrant. There are two ways to cook sacha beef in Chaoshan recipes. One is Shacha Beef Hot Pot, a former Chaoshan scholar living in Southeast Asia, Mr. Xiao Yaotian, has a vivid description of this dish, summarized in the following: On the table set a small clay stove with a fierce fire, on the top of the casserole dish, inject water, add sand daddy sauce, and then hold a plate of thin slices of beef shanks cut horizontally, shredded beef pepitas, with green coriander. Diners use chopsticks to hold the meat, hold the cilantro, to the waves of satay soup hot, hot while eating, spicy, flavorful, stimulating, cold days are eating sweaty. ("Talking about Teochew Culture", in Special Issue on the 40th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Thai Teochew Association and the Inauguration of the New Hall, 1979.6.) Now Teochew