Contents: Chinese Cuisine: Introduction, Features of regional cuisine, cooking methods, seasoningand flavorings used in Chinese cuisine, equipment used.
Important Questions
- List regional cuisine of China. Explain any three with features (5 Marks, 2016)
- List regional cuisines of China. Explain them with examples of dishes. (10 Marks, 2017)
- Explain the Cantonese styles of Chinese cuisine with its cooking seasoning and flavouring. (10 Marks, 2018)
- Define Century egg. (1 Mark, 2019)
A century egg is a preserved Chinese delicacy made by curing duck, chicken, or quail eggs in an alkaline mixture until the whites turn jelly-like and the yolk becomes creamy and dark. - Explain in detail the Southern region of Chinese Cuisine. (10 Marks, 2019)
- Why Chinese cuisine is popular worldwide? Explain its with regional cuisine. (10 Marks, 2021)
- Enlist five seasonings and flavouring of Chinese cuisine. (1 Mark, 2022)
Introduction to Chinese Cuisine
Chinese cuisine is one of the oldest and most influential culinary traditions in the world. It has been developed through hundreds of regional traditions, imperial influences, religious practices, and seasonal availability.
The cuisine is known for its emphasis on balance in taste, texture, color, and aroma.
Staple foods such as rice, wheat (noodles, dumplings, buns), soy products, vegetables, poultry, pork, and seafood form the foundation of most meals. Chinese cuisine also gives importance to proper cutting techniques, controlled heat application, and the use of natural seasonings. Traditional practices such as tea drinking, communal eating, and the concept of Yin and Yang in food also contributed to the evolution of Chinese food culture.
Features of regional cuisine
Chinese cuisine is divided into several regional styles formed by local geography, climate, agricultural products, and cultural preferences. Although the number of regions varies in different classifications, the most widely accepted division is the “Eight Culinary Traditions of China.” These represent the major regional flavors and cooking practices.
Eight Culinary Traditions of China
- Shandong Cuisine (Lu Cuisine) – Known for seafood, soups, and use of vinegar.
- Sichuan Cuisine (Chuan Cuisine) – Famous for bold, spicy, and numbing flavors (chili and Sichuan pepper).
- Guangdong Cuisine (Yue Cuisine / Cantonese Cuisine) – Emphasizes freshness, mild flavors, and steaming.
- Fujian Cuisine (Min Cuisine) – Focuses on soups, seafood, and umami-rich broths.
- Jiangsu Cuisine (Su Cuisine) – Known for delicate presentation, sweetness, and freshwater fish.
- Zhejiang Cuisine (Zhe Cuisine) – Light, fresh, and slightly sweet; seafood-focused.
- Hunan Cuisine (Xiang Cuisine) – Spicy, aromatic, and oil-rich with chili and smoked flavors.
- Anhui Cuisine (Hui Cuisine) – Uses wild herbs, slow cooking, and hearty mountain ingredients.
Northern Chinese Cuisine
Northern China has covered provinces:
- Tianjin
- Hebei
- Inner Mongolia
- Shanxi
- Beijing
- Shandong
Northern China experiences cold, dry winters and hot & humid summers, which affects agricultural practices and dietary preferences. Due to the climate and terrain, rice grows poorly, but the fertile lands along the Yellow River support the cultivation of wheat, millet, and barley, which became the staples of northern cuisine.
Staple Foods
- Wheat-based products dominate, including noodles, dumplings (jiaozi), steamed buns (mantou), stuffed buns (baozi), and pancakes.
- Steamed buns and stuffed buns are commonly filled with vegetables, meat, or red bean paste, often eaten for breakfast.
- Pancakes are frequently eaten with porridge (zhou).
- Jiaozi, meat- or vegetable-filled dumplings, are served with black vinegar dipping sauce.
- Rice and grains are secondary compared to wheat.
Popular Dishes:
Dishes are typically oily and high in calories to provide warmth and energy against the cold.
- Peking Duck (Beijing) – most famous dish of northern cuisine
- Dezhou Stewed Chicken
- Chicken Ball in Milk Soup
- Braised Sea Cucumber with Onions
- Braised Prawns
- Shandong-style dishes represent the northern culinary tradition
- Large stuffed cakes with scallions or minced meat
Flavors and Seasoning:
- Common seasonings include: soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, ginger, scallions (leeks), star anise, sweet bean sauce, chili peppers, sesame oil.
- Garlic, scallions (spring onions), leeks, and chilies are highly used.
- Salt and calorie-rich foods are important due to harsh winters.
Meat:
- Mutton and pork are staple meats; poultry is consumed mostly during special occasions.
- Fish and seafood are abundant in coastal areas like Shandong, while Inner Mongolia emphasizes dairy products such as cheese, butter, and yogurt.
Vegetables:
- Due to cold weather, fresh vegetables are limited, prompting preservation methods like drying, pickling, and fermenting.
- Common vegetables include cabbage, Chinese cabbage, radish, carrot, tomatoes, cucumber, eggplant, and chives.
- Northern people generally makes pickled vegetables
- Fruits are mostly seasonal, such as apples, while the northwest region is known for dried fruits and wine.
Cooking Methods:
- Stewing is the most common technique, followed by roasting, stir-frying, and deep-frying.
- Hot pot is popular during winter months, reflecting Mongolian influence.
Regional Influences
- Northern cuisine shows strong Mongolian influence, especially in dairy products and lamb dishes.
- Historic migrations have introduced little Korean and Russian culinary elements in some northern regions.
- Shandong, a coastal province, is known for its abundant seafood.
- Inner Mongolia focuses mainly on dairy and mutton-based dishes.
- Being the capital, Beijing’s cuisine blends regional styles from across China, combining flavors and techniques from different provinces.
| a. Shandong Cuisine (Lu Cuisine) |
It is one of the Eight Culinary Traditions of China and one of the earliest cultural centers of Chinese civilization.
Shandong cuisine is famous for its fresh, salty, crisp, and tender flavors. With its long coastline, seafood plays a central role, but wheat-based foods like bread, pancakes, and noodles are also staples, often preferred over rice. The cuisine is hearty and flavorful, yet natural taste of ingredients is preserved during cooking.
Key Features:
- Staple foods: Bread, noodles, and other wheat-based products; rice is secondary.
- Flavors: Salty, savory, slightly garlicky, and crisp.
- Seasonings: Soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, shallots, chili peppers.
- Main Items:
- Common Seafood like Scallops, prawns, clams, sea cucumbers, squid
- Grains: Millet, wheat, oats, barley—used in breads and noodles
- Vegetables: Potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, garlic, eggplants
- Others: Roasted or salted peanuts for crunch and flavor
Cooking Technique:
- Bao (quick frying)
- Liu (quick frying with corn flour)
- Pa (stewing)
- Kao (roasting)
- Zhu (boiling)
Seafood is often braised or lightly seasoned to maintain its original taste, while meat and vegetable dishes are stir-fried, deep-fried, or boiled depending on the recipe. They also often use coat fruits with honey to give sweetness and shine.
Special Ingredients:
- Corn grown in Shandong is famous for its chewy texture, starchy bite, and grassy aroma.
- Peanuts are fragrant and naturally sweet, often added for texture and flavor.
- Onions and garlic are commonly used for seasoning, giving dishes a distinct northern taste.
Popular Dishes:
- Sea cucumber with meatballs
- Braised shark’s fins with shredded chicken and bamboo shoots
- Sweet and sour crab fish
- Sweet potato in caramelized sugar
- Peking Duck (Beijing style): The duck is roasted after air is blown between its skin and flesh, creating a crispy outer layer. It’s served in thin slices with pancakes, sweet bean sauce, and cucumber.
b. Beijing Cuisine (Jing Cuisine / Peking Cuisine)
Beijing cuisine developed over many centuries as the capital city attracted people from all over China. Beijing cuisine is a mix of multiple culinary traditions, including: Shandong cuisine, Imperial court cuisine, Chinese Islamic (Halal) cuisine and Huaiyang cuisine.
Key Characteristics:
- Beijing cuisine has a strong influence from Shandong cuisine, especially in its salty flavors, hearty soups, skilled frying methods, and preference for wheat-based foods.
- It also reflects its imperial background, with many refined dishes originating from the Emperor’s Kitchen in the Forbidden City.
- The cuisine includes clear Halal influences, particularly in lamb and beef dishes introduced by Muslim communities during the Yuan dynasty.
- Due to Beijing’s dry climate, people rely more on wheat products such as noodles, buns, and pancakes instead of rice.
- The overall flavor profile of Beijing food is bold, featuring fermented bean pastes, sesame paste, sesame oil, and aromatic ingredients like scallions.
Flavor & Seasonings:
Beijing cuisine uses robust, dark, and aromatic flavors, such as:
- Dark soy paste
- Sesame paste
- Sesame oil
- Scallions
- Fermented bean curd (served as a condiment)
- Garlic, vinegar, chili
Cooking Techniques:
- Bao – i.e. quick frying with soup or sauce
- Pa – i.e. cooking semi-cooked ingredients again in a soup or sauce
These two above methods were adopted directly from Shandong cuisine. There are also other common techniques like:
- Brewing
- Barbecuing
- Roasting
- Boiling
- Stewing
Popular Dishes of Beijing Cuisine:
- Peking Duck
It is signature dish of Beijing. The duck is air-pumped to separate skin and flesh, roasted until crisp, then sliced thinly. It is served with pancakes, sweet bean sauce, scallions, and cucumber. Locals traditionally dip the crispy skin in sugar first. - Zhajiangmian
Wheat noodles topped with fermented soybean paste stir-fried with diced pork and vegetables. - Instant-Boiled Mutton
A simple northern-style hot pot featuring thin mutton slices cooked in plain boiling water, eaten with dipping sauce. - Beijing Barbecue
Marinated lamb or beef grilled or pan-fried. - Sweet and Savory Snacks
Beijing is famous for its traditional street snacks, such as:- Douzhi (fermented mung bean drink) – tangy and beloved by locals
- Lüdagun (glutinous rice rolls)
- Luzhu Huoshao (offal stew)
- Jiaoquan (crispy dough rings)
- Chaogan (stir-fried liver and lungs)
- Tanghulu (sugar-coated hawthorn fruit)
- Pea cake (wandouhuang)
- Sugar twists (tangerdou)
Seafood and Meat Dishes:
While Beijing is not coastal, it inherited many Shandong-style fish dishes. Lamb and beef are widely used due to strong Halal influence.
- Braised fish (酥鱼)
- Soft-fried fish
- Fish with vinegar and pepper
- Sea cucumber with quail egg
- Hot and sour soup
- Meatballs (炸丸子)
- Quick-fried tripe (爆肚)
3. Inner Mongolia Cuisine
It is heavily dairy- and meat-based, with a focus on lamb and mutton, and is influenced by northern Han Chinese culinary traditions, making it a unique blend of flavors.
- Dairy products dominate: Milk, yogurt, and cheese are used extensively in cooking and beverages. The traditional Mongolian milk tea is a regional specialty.
- Meat-focused: Lamb and mutton form the bulk of meals, often roasted, stewed, or boiled. Animal fats are commonly used for cooking.
- Hotpot style: Mongolian hotpot is popular, usually with a well-flavored broth but without the strong chili spices common in central China.
- Northern Chinese influence: Dumplings, noodles, buns, and wheat-based pancakes are commonly eaten, though rice dishes also exist.
- Simple, hearty flavors: Emphasis is on natural taste of meats and dairy, rather than heavy seasoning or spices.
Popular Dishes
- Mongolian Hotpot – simmered meats and vegetables in a flavorful broth.
- Hand-torn mutton – traditional shredded mutton dish.
- Succulent roast leg of lamb – often served at feasts and banquets.
- Shaomal – steamed or baked bread from wheat or millet flour.
- Buuz – steamed meat-filled dumplings, especially popular in urban areas.
- Other lamb/mutton dishes – a wide variety of slow-cooked, grilled, or fried preparations.
- Shaomai
- Youmian
- Khuushuur
Vegetable & Mixed Dishes
- Huicai – Boiled vegetables, sometimes with braised meat; may include potatoes, string beans, carrots, pickled vegetables, and toasted bread.
- Bameng Tieguo Huicai – Iron pan stir-fried variation with toasted bread
- Suan Huicai – Huicai version with more sour, pickled vegetables.
- Men Mian – Noodles slow-cooked with ingredients like pork ribs (Paigu Menmian).
- Liang Cai – Cold appetizers, often with pickled vegetables, peanuts, and tofu skin.
Beverage
- Manaijiu – Traditional Mongolian liquor made from fermented mare’s milk.
- Baijiu – Chinese white liquor popular in Inner Mongolia
Southern Chinese Cuisine
Southern Chinese cuisine is celebrated for its fresh ingredients, delicate flavors, and diverse cooking techniques. Southern China has covered following provinces:
- Guangdong
- Fujian
- Jiangxi
- Hunan
- Zhejiang
- Guangxi
- Sichuan
- Yunnan and areas south of the Yangtze River
- Seafood emphasis: Fish, shrimp, clams, and other shellfish are staples, often steamed or lightly stir-fried, and featured in congee (rice porridge) and glutinous rice desserts.
- Fresh ingredients: The cuisine prioritizes the natural flavors of ingredients, with careful preparation and light seasoning.
- Rice as staple: Being a fertile, it is rice-growing region, rice is common, often served with almost every meal; rice-based dishes such as noodles, cakes, and dumplings are also common.
- Delicate flavors: Cooking techniques preserve the subtle taste and texture of food. Sweet, salty, and umami flavors are layered rather than overpowering.
- Variety of techniques: Steaming and stir-frying are most common technique, while roasting, braising, and glazes (sugar, wine, soy sauce) are used for pork, duck, and poultry.
- Exotic and preserved ingredients: Southern cuisine often makes extensive use of preserved, pickled, sun-dried, or smoked foods to maximize flavor and minimize waste.
| a. Cantonese Cuisine |
Cantonese cuisine, also known as Guangdong or Yue cuisine, originates from Guangdong province and Hong Kong and is one of the Eight Culinary Traditions of China. It is widely recognized globally due to the migration of Cantonese people. The cuisine gives importance to fresh, high-quality ingredients, subtle and natural flavors, and a wide variety of cooking techniques.
- Soups: Making a variety of soups is a hallmark of Cantonese cuisine. Soups are often sweet, mildly flavored, and simmered or braised for hours to extract natural flavors. Popular methods include:
- Bou Tong: Ingredients heated together in a single pot.
- Dun Tong: Ingredients placed in a small stew pot, then heated in a larger pot for better flavor retention.
- Dim Sum: Bite-sized dishes like dumplings, buns, small cakes, and deep-fried snacks are a major feature, especially in Hong Kong. Dim sum is traditionally enjoyed for breakfast, brunch, or afternoon tea.
- Seafood: Being a coastal cuisine, seafood is central. Fish, shellfish, and other seafood are preferred fresh and lightly seasoned, often displayed live in restaurants. Steaming and stir-frying preserve natural flavor.
- Meat: Besides pork, chicken, and beef, Cantonese cuisine includes almost all edible meats, including offal, chicken feet, duck tongue, snakes, and snails. Lamb and goat are rarely used.
- Flavor: Dishes are lightly seasoned, often slightly sweet, to focus the natural taste of fresh ingredients. Condiments and sauces such as sugar, salt, soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, corn starch, vinegar, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, and plum sauce are commonly used. Strong spices like garlic, ginger, chili, star anise, and five-spice powder are used sparingly.
- Cooking methods: Cantonese cuisine uses stir-frying, steaming, boiling, braising, baking, roasting, sautéing, shallow frying, and deep frying, with stir-frying and steaming being the most common. Cooking techniques aim to preserve the natural flavor, texture, and appearance of ingredients.
- Dried and preserved foods: Influenced by Hakka and other traditions, Cantonese cuisine uses preserved ingredients like century eggs, dried scallops, Laap Cheong (roast pork sausage), pickled vegetables, salted duck, and tofu skin to enhance flavors.
- Natural flavor emphasis: The cuisine values ingredient quality, peak freshness, and careful seasoning, ensuring that no single ingredient overpowers another.
Notable Dishes
- Soups: Old Fire Soup (Lou Fo Tong), simmered herbal broths, Birds nest soup, Shark fin soup
- Dim Sum: Wontons, buns, dumplings, spring rolls, small pan rice, egg tarts.
- Seafood: Steamed fish, clams, shrimp, seafood stir-fries.
- Meat dishes: Brine-soaked duck, roast pork, stir-fried chicken or beef, chicken feet.
- Desserts: Tong Sui (sweet soup desserts), custard tarts, black sesame soup, coconut pudding, mung bean soup, red bean soup, sago soup, steamed egg custard, tortoise jelly, tofu flower pudding
- Deep fried dishes: Youtiao, Zhaliang
Other points:
- Cantonese cuisine is the birthplace of oyster sauce and hoisin sauce, both commonly used to glaze Cantonese barbecue dishes.
- Cantonese barbecue is known for being slightly sweet because the meat is glazed with sugar or honey and often air-dried before roasting, which gives it a shiny, caramelized finish.
| Anhui Cuisine |
Anhui cuisine is green, mountainous inland province rich in wildlife, wild herbs, bamboo, mushrooms, and natural produce.
- The cuisine uses an range of wild plants, herbs, mountain vegetables, berries, fungi, and game meats.
- Chefs focus on preserving natural, original flavors, paying careful attention to heat control, cooking time, color, and texture.
- Braising, stewing, simmering, steaming, and slow cooking are the core techniques; frying and flash-frying are used less often than in other Chinese cuisines.
- Anhui dishes generally use more oil, often colza oil.
- Ham (especially Anhui-style cured ham) is widely used as a seasoning ingredient, giving dishes a smoky, savory fragrance unique to this cuisine.
- Many dishes incorporate mountain herbs, tea leaves, bamboo shoots, local mushrooms, wild birds, and freshwater fish, especially from the Huangshan region.
- Some preparations use added sugar, giving certain dishes a mild sweetness.
- Anhui cuisine is known for its nutritious combinations, where ingredients are matched scientifically to enhance health benefits.
- Compared to other southern cuisines, Anhui cuisine is less refined, more rustic, and far less internationally known, partly due to the region’s historical poverty.
- It features three regional styles: Yangtze River style, Huai River style, and Southern Anhui (Huangshan) mountain style.
- Anhui is famously associated with tofu culture, believed to be the birthplace of tofu, and home to hairy tofu and regional stinky tofu.
Popular Dishes:
- Hairy Tofu – Fermented tofu with a mold-covered surface, crispy outside and soft inside.
- Stinky Mandarin Fish – Strong aroma but tender, flavorful flesh with a reddish finish.
- Huainan Stinky Tofu – Famous variant known as “four seasons tofu.”
- Li Hongzhang Chop Suey – A stew with sea cucumber, ham, squid, tofu skin, bamboo, and vegetables.
- Steamed Stone Frog – Nutritious delicacy using wild mountain frogs.
- Wushan Imperial Goose – A historic dish from the Tang dynasty, lightly seasoned and fragrant.
- Sanhe Shrimp Paste – Small white shrimp cooked with rice flour into a soft, salty paste.
- Luzhou Roast Duck – fragrant regional roast duck.
- Zhonghe Soup – Traditional soup with mixed greens and local ingredients.
- Yiping Guo Hotpot – A layered mountain hotpot with bamboo shoots, chicken, duck, abalone, mushrooms, and vermicelli.