Southern Chinese Food

Southern Chinese food


The rich and prosperous southern Chinese cuisine is dominated by the Guangdong Province's influence and is characterised by fresh flavours and textures using cooking techniques that preserve the integrity of the ingredients. Expect many foods to be lightly seasoned with simple flavours and literally all cooking techniques used; don't be surprised to see salt, clay or lotus leaves wrapped around something tasty to eat. The subtropical climate provides an abundance of fresh vegetables and fruits, a fusion of fish and seafood (fresh and dried), as well as poultry and pork. If you want to see a veritable zoo, you only need visit a local market; the Cantonese are known to pretty much eat anything in the name of eating well. Common exotics include dogs, cats and frogs...you've been warned.

Fresh seafood in southern China is perhaps the best available in China. Nearly all restaurants have fresh fish and seafood, which is the standard. Look for the live tanks filled with incredible varieties of fish, clams, crab, abalone and lobster. You can go to the live tanks and point your finger at anything you want. Try clams or crab stir fried with ginger and spring onion; nearly any seafood can be done this way. Whole fish steamed until just cooked and seasoned with light soy sauce and sprinkled with scallions is a classic dish. If you love seafood, southern China is the place to be.

"Yum cha" or literally "drink tea" is perhaps the most social of all dining traditions in China and is a must especially when in Hong Kong or Guangzhou. From morning to mid afternoon, small snacks or titbits called dim sum, or "touch of the heart" are served with bottomless pots of hot tea. It's a time to socialise and catch up with friends and family or just read the morning paper while snacking on a variety of savoury and sweet items that are steamed, fried or baked. There are perhaps thousands of different dim sum items to choose from but it couldn't be any easier to order. Just point at anything you like on the dim sum cart that is wheeled about and you are served immediately.

Fresh vegetables are abundant in southern China and are usually cooked with reverence. Their colour, flavour and texture are usually retained very easily. They're typically stir-fried with a bit of garlic cooked "in soup". Try Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce, or pea shoots stir-fried with garlic. Pea shoots are the tender young tendrils of the pea vine, tasting a bit like fresh peas. Most vegetables are cooked with some crunch and texture remaining, and seasoned very lightly with soy sauce, oyster sauce, or a chicken stock based sauce.

The world's original deli is perhaps the famous Cantonese roast or barbecued meat. Pork and duck are favourites and shouldn't be missed out on; you can find them prominently displayed in shop windows. Try crispy roast pork, barbecued duck or salt baked chicken. When visiting southern China, remember that the Cantonese people live to eat.

Ten Representative Southern Dishes:

Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce a very simple classic for Chinese broccoli or other vegetables such as lettuce, using oyster sauce which makes the dish, premium oyster sauce requires 40 litres of oysters to yield 1 litre of sauce.

Clay pot chicken chicken, long grain rice, sweet pork sausage and black mushrooms are cooked in a clay pot and served with soy, rice wine, sugar and sesame oil based sauce.

Drunken prawns steamed with rice wine steamed with Shaoxingwine, or other rice based wine, live shrimps are "drowned" by letting the shrimp swim in rice wine before they are steamed.

Barbeque pork that's usually dark red on the outside and juicy and succulent on the inside, often served as a side dish or on top of rice or noodles.

Pepper and salt fried shrimp seasoned with pepper and salt, the shrimps are cooked very crisply resulting in shrimp shells that are crunchy and edible, if cooked whole the heads may be eaten as well.

Pig knuckle stew a pig knuckle is first boiled then slowly stewed in a mixture of vinegar, sugar and salt. This dish has a sweet tangy zest.

Roast duck Cantonese style this roast duck does not have the crispy skin of Peking duck, but is more flavourful, it's marinated with five spice powder, soy and sugar or honey, typically some marinade is poured into the ducks cavity before roasting.

Roast pigeon best when plain roasted and accompanied by pepper salt for dipping, the rich succulent flavour of pigeon is not masked by anything, typical of Cantonese cuisine.

Salt baked chicken a whole chicken is buried in salt using a large wok and cooked creating an "oven" to producing amazingly succulent chicken.

Whole steamed fish nearly any variety can be used, more of a universal Cantonese technique than a dish, often uses slivers of scallion and ginger, thin soy sauce and a quick dousing of smoking hot oil, usually uses whole fish and steamed until just cooked.

See also:

  • Essential KETO BHB Gummies - let KETO BHB Gummies www.essential-ketogummies.com.


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