The Eight Major Regional Cuisines in China
The Eight Major Regional Cuisines in China
An old Chinese saying goes – “people take food as their heaven”. As a nation with so much passion for food, Chinese people have never restricted themselves to a certain tedious food list but created various mouthwatering regional delicacies that together constitute the long-standing Chinese food culture. Benefiting from the complex and diverse geographical environment and the continuous integration of different cultures, each regional dish in China has developed its own characteristic and distinctive flavor. Generally, Chinese food can be roughly divided into eight regional cuisines—Sichuan cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, Shandong cuisine, Fujian cuisine, Jiangsu cuisine, Zhejiang cuisine, Hunan cuisine, and Anhui cuisine.
Sichuan Cuisine
Located inland in Southwest China, Sichuan is known as the “Land of Abundance” for its pleasant climate, which is suitable for farming and husbandry. Sichuan cuisine is well-known worldwide with a long history and unique flavor and is widely regarded as the top of the eight major regional cuisines.
Most people form their first impression of Sichuan cuisine to be hemp and spicy. The reason why Sichuan cuisine has such a unique taste is said to be because of the humid climate in the Sichuan basin. People in Sichuan believe that eating spicy food can help them get rid of moisture and feel refreshed. However, hemp and spicy are not everything about Sichuan cuisine. Sichuan people attach great attention to the selection and balance of ingredients in the dishes and the dishes’ color coordination. Based on the five flavors: salty, sweet, numb, spicy, and sour, various seasonings are added to cooperate with each other to form multiple compound flavors.
The rare and bold combination of ingredients creates the special flavor of Sichuan cuisine, which enjoys the reputation of “one dish with one flavor, one hundred dishes with one hundred flavors”. Kung Pao Chicken and Mapo Tofu, two dishes that can be found in almost every Chinese restaurant all around the world, are representative works of Sichuan cuisine. If a proper metaphor is made, Sichuan cuisine is like bombs of flavors, which can greatly trigger and impact people’s appetites.
Mapo Tofu
Cantonese Cuisine
Guangdong, the hometown of Cantonese cuisine, is located in the subtropical zone on the verge of the South China Sea. Blessed by its abundant rainfall and evergreen seasons, Guangdong possesses rich products all year round. Cantonese people, therefore, cultivated a habit of eating fresh and vigorous.
Cantonese cuisine has a long history that can be traced back to the early Han Dynasty, more than 2,000 years ago. For thousands of years of development, Cantonese cuisine has inherited some of the Central Plains catering culture and absorbed other regional cuisines’ cooking styles. It also innovated its flavor according to local preferences and finally formed a variety of dishes with exquisite taste. At the beginning of the 19th century, the massive wave of Cantonese immigrants from Guangdong to North America and Southeast Asia brought their dining culture to different countries. As a result, Cantonese cuisine has become one of the most representative and world influential Chinese regional cuisine over the past century.
Cantonese cuisine values the original flavor of the food, so the overall taste of Cantonese cuisine is relatively light in order to preserve the natural taste of the food itself. The best way to trigger the original taste of the food is by steaming and boiling. Therefore, Cantonese restaurants always serve you a bowl of soup first, and most Cantonese dim sum is mainly steamed. Famous Cantonese dishes include roast suckling pig, boiled white prawns, “Dragon Tiger Phoenix”, family-cooked chicken, stewed pork with taro, etc.
Cantonese Cuisine
Shandong Cuisine
Shandong is located in the lower reaches of the Yellow River and has a mild climate. The province is home to a variety of landforms such as large rivers, large lakes, hills, plains, and seas, creating an exceptionally rich selection of ingredients for Shandong cuisine. Fruits and vegetables, livestock, seafood, freshwater products, mountain mushrooms, and dried treasures are all raw materials of Shandong cuisine.
Shandong cuisine has the most extended history among all regional cuisines in China of more than 2500 years and requires the most complicated cooking techniques. During Ming and Qing Dynasties, Shandong cuisine was favored by the royal family and aristocrats, who paid more attention to health preservation.
As the representative of northern Chinese food, Shandong cuisine pursues naturalness and a taste of salty, crispy, and tender. Therefore, Shandong cuisine emphasizes quick frying to maintain the quality and nutrition of the food while making the dishes refreshing and not greasy. In addition, the cuisine is famous for using shallots in flavoring. Its signature dishes are popular at grand Chinese banquets, such as roast duck, roast suckling pig, deep-fried pork hock, and deep-fried lamb with sesame sauce.
Fujian Cuisine
Fujian Province is situated in southeastern China, facing the sea and backed by mountains. The long coastline and the vast shallow mudflats are habitats of fish, shrimps, snails, mussels, sturgeons, oysters, and many other seafood and delicacies. Meanwhile, the vast river plains in Fujian are rich in rice, vegetables, and fruits. Fujian people use these unique resources to cook delicacies, gradually forming the distinctive Fujian cuisine.
Fujian Cuisine features light taste and tenderness, similar to Cantonese cuisine, but its ingredients are mainly seafood products. In terms of condiments, Fujian people are good at using peanut sauce and shacha sauce, which provide more sweetness to Fujian cuisine. Fujian cuisine also addresses the importance of the “seasonality” of food, using seafood of the season to match other seasonal ingredients. Moreover, Fujian cuisine is known for its soups. The most prominent cooking is simmering, so from seafood to mountain treasures, all the fresh products can incorporate into a pot of soup in Fujian cuisine. The absolute status of soup has become the most significant difference between Fujian cuisine and other regional cuisines. Dishes such as ham in Rong soup, chopped meat with fish lips, and chicken noodle soup feature thick local characteristics of Fujian cuisine.
Zhejiang Cuisine
Known as the “land of fish and rice”, Zhejiang is a major rice and silk-producing area. The northern half of Zhejiang is located in the Yangtze River Delta Plain, with fertile land and dense rivers. At the same time, the southwestern part of Zhejiang is rich in mountainous, with chickens and ducks in flocks, and cattle in farmhouses. Thus the freshness of all produces can be guaranteed, and the supply of these high-quality raw materials provides the prerequisite for the development of Zhejiang cuisine.
Zhejiang cuisine is originated from the Hemudu culture in the Neolithic era. Through the pioneering of Yue people in the Spring and Autumn Period, over thousands of years’ refinement, Zhejiang cuisine has developed into a style of delicate, crisp, tender, and refreshing.
A strict selection of ingredients is the top priority of Zhejiang cuisine. Only the best part of raw materials is reserved for cooking. Meanwhile, to make the cuisine elegant and superior, Zhejiang people mainly use local seasonal specialties to highlight the local characteristics of the dishes. They also focus on the use of fruits, vegetables, freshly killed seafood, and river products to diversify the dishes’ contents while ensuring the food’s pure taste. Representative Zhejiang cuisines are West Lake fish in vinegar gravy, Longjing prawn, Fenghua small clam, and Nanhu crab meat, etc.
Jiangsu Cuisine
Sited in the middle of the eastern coastal region of mainland China, Jiangsu has been a land of wealth since ancient times. The economic and cultural prosperity has led the local people to have extremely high standards for food, from taste to shape.
The history of Jiangsu cuisine can be traced back to 1500 years ago. The economic development of in Tang and Song dynasties promoted the prosperity of the catering industry in Jiangsu, and Jiangsu cuisine became one of the two pillars of “Southern Food”, together with Zhejiang cuisine. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Jiangsu cuisine developed even more rapidly thanks to the intensive canals in the Yangtze River. Discerning diners from all places have made Suzhou cuisine ever more sophisticated.
Fresh and elegant are name cards of Jiangsu cuisine. It is characterized by extreme attention to knife work. Whether it is the process of cold dishes, fancy hot dishes, or melon and fruit carving, all show exquisite knife skills. Jiangsu cuisine also emphasizes the original flavor, highlighting light and elegant colors and novel shapes. Jiangsu cuisine is famous for cooking duck and river food, but also good at making exquisite desserts. Nanjing Salted Duck, braised fish head, steamed shad, widgeon dish, and chicken shreds with bean sprouts are all classic Jiangsu cuisines you shall not miss in Jiangsu.
Hunan Cuisine
Hunan is located in the hilly area of central China. Unlike today’s thriving scene, Hunan was less developed than provinces of other major regional cuisines in ancient times. The relatively less comfortable geographical and climatic environment has created the hard-working spirit of the Hunan people. They generally have a distinctive regional character of bellicose, brave, straightforward, and united. Girls in Hunan are named “spicy girls” for their bold and forthright personalities. Such a hot character is also reflected in the taste of the local people–spicy is the central theme and soul of Hunan cuisine.
After the chili pepper was introduced to China at the end of the Ming Dynasty, it became the most popular ingredient of Hunan cuisine. Eating pepper can stimulate saliva secretion and appetite and dispel rheumatism. The habit of eating spicy food thus continues to this day. In China, there is a joke saying that an outlander arrived in Hunan and told the chef he would like to have something light, with no chill pepper in it. Then the chef said directly to that person that he did not know how to cook without chill pepper.
Hunan cuisine is heavy on oil and salt. Its color is vibrant because of the extensive use of chili peppers. Unlike Sichuan cuisine, which is mainly hemp and spicy, Hunan cuisine tastes spicy and sour. Signature dishes of Hunan cuisine include stir-fried pork with chili, fish head with minced pepper and Changsha stinky tofu, etc.
Stir-Fried Pork with Chili
Anhui Cuisine
Bordering the river and near the sea, Anhui sits in the Yangtze River Delta, with moderate rainfall and four distinct seasons. The special location of Anhui made it a vital area in connecting the north and the South in both cultural and trade exchanges. The opportunities for regional businesses greatly promoted the development of Anhui cuisine. Based on the traditional folk cooking techniques, Anhui cuisine absorbed the strengths of other cuisines and adapted them to cater to the salty and fresh taste of local people. Meanwhile, Anhui cuisine was also spread throughout the country with the footprint of businesspeople from Anhui.
Anhui cuisine pays attention to the dietary regimen and mainly uses natural ingredients. It is worth noting that Anhui cuisine is claimed to have the effect of nourishing the body through its food supplementation and nutrition matching. The strict mastery of fire in roasting, stewing, smoking and steaming is also a fine tradition of Anhui cuisine. Moreover, the use of different fire control techniques for different dishes is an important sign of Anhui chefs’ mastery. It is also the essential means for Hui cuisine to form a unique style of crispy, tender, fragrant, and fresh style. Stinky mandarin fish, Huangshan stewed pigeon, Fuliji roasted chicken, steamed partridge, and fired hairy tofu are notable Anhui dishes.
Stinky Mandarin Fish
Chinese diet seeks delicacy in taste, but people’s tastes vary significantly from place to place. The establishment of regional food culture is closely related to its local products, climate, history and culture, religion, and many other factors. For example, people in the southwest eat spicy to clear the fatigue from the dampness, while those in the north prefer salty meat to protect themselves from the cold. People who live along the coasts are more adapted to cooking salty seafood, while those in lack salt areas eat spicy and sour to neutralize alkaline food. The stagnant flow and inheritance of regional culture in feudal society made regional food tastes accumulate to what they are like today. At the same time, the great migration of population and military changes in history sometimes brought impact and integration to local tastes.