Chinese food enjoys a high reputation in the world also for its sheer abundance. It is due to the diversity of the climate, products and customs that there are widely different styles and tastes in local regions. The most influential and typical known by the public are the 'Eight Cuisines'. These are as follows: Shandong Cuisine, Sichuan Cuisine, Guangdong Cuisine, Fujian Cuisine , Jiangsu Cuisine, Zhejiang Cuisine, Hunan Cuisine, and Anhui Cuisine .

 

Shandong cuisine is known as shandongcai) or lucai in Chinese, which is one of the a??Eight Culinary Traditionsa??of China. It dates to the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and is known to have influenced imperial cuisine. A strongly flavoured cuisine relies upon spring onions and garlic, featuring locally plentiful seafood. Clear soups and offal dishes and sweet and sour flavours predominate.

People in Shandong like to eat onions and scallion and to use them as a seasoning. The dishes include braised sea cucumber with onion, cartilage stewed with onions, and meat stewed with onions. Roast meats are also served with onions.

The typical menu can include many delicate dishes such as:

Crab Eggs with Shark's Fin, Walnuts in Butter Soup, Sea Cucumber Braised with Spring Onion

 

Chinese say that the Cantonese "eat everything with legs except a table, and everything with wings except an airplane." Cantonese cuisine includes almost all edible food in addition to the staples of pork, beef and chicken a??? snakes, snails, insects, worms, chicken feet, duck tongues, and entrails. Cantonese (Yue) cuisine originates from Guangdong Province in southern China, or more precisely, the area around Guangzhou (Canton). Of the various regional styles of Chinese cuisine, Cantonese is the best-known outside of China.

 Cantonese cuisine is characterised by the immensity and diversity of the ingredients used. Despite the countless Cantonese cooking methods, steaming, stir frying and deep frying are the most popular cooking methods in restaurants due to the short cooking time, and philosophy of bringing out the flavor of the freshest ingredients.

The typical menu can include many delicate dishes such as:

steamed whole fish, crispy-skinned chicken, shark's fin soup, and roast suckling pig.

 

Sichuan Cuisine

Sichuan Cuisine is famous for its hot spicy "Tongue Numbing" dishes. Chili peppers and prickly ash are used in many dishes, giving it a distinctively spicy taste, called Ma in Chinese. It often leaves a slight numb sensation in the mouth. Their uniquely hot, pungent flavor is created by a mixture of spices and condiments, including red hot peppers, garlic and ginger in the ingredients. Salt is an enduring characteristic of Sichuan cuisine and is known for its use of locally mined well salt from places such as Zigong with its unique flavour. Cuisine purists argue that for the cuisine to be authentic, it must contain well salt.

The typical menu can include many delicate dishes such as:

Stir-fried Tofu with Minced Beef in Spicy Bean Sauce, Lung Pieces by Couple, Gong Bao Ji Ding, Lamp-shadow Beef.

 

Fujian Cuisine 

Consisting of Fuzhou Cuisine, Quanzhou Cuisine and Xiamen Cuisine, Fujian Cuisine has four distinctive features, that is, fine cutting techniques, alternative soups, unique seasonings, and exquisite cooking. The typical menu can include many delicate dishes such as: Fried golden bamboo shoot with chicken mince, Buddha jumping over the wall , Dongbi dragon pearl, 'Fried Xi Shi's tongue'is made from the locally produced Fujian mussel.

 

Jiangsu Cuisine, also called Huaiyang Cuisine, based itself largely on the three local cooking styles of Yangzhou , Nanjing and Suzhou , all within Jiangsu Province . Aquatics as the main ingredients, it stresses the freshness of materials. While emphasizing the original flavours of well-chosen materials, it features carefully selected ingredients. In addition, the artistic shape and bright colors of the dishes add more ornamental value. Yangzhou cuisine is essentially a combination of the best elements of northern and southern cooking.

The most highly recommended courses are:

Three sets of ducks, Boiled dry thread of Tofu , Lion's head braised with crab-powder.

 

The cuisine includes the specialties of Hangzhou , Ningbo and Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province, which is known as a??land abundant in fish and rice', Zhejiang cuisine, not greasy, wins its reputation for freshness, tenderness, softness, and smoothness of its dishes with mellow fragrance. Hangzhou cuisine is the most famous one among the three.

The typical menu can include many delicate dishes such as:

West-lake braised fish in vinegar, Shelled shrimps cooked in Longjing tea, West Lake Sour Fish

 

Hunan cuisine consists of more than 4,000 dishes, among which more than 300 are very popular. Hunan food is characterized by its hot and sour flavor, fresh aroma, greasiness and deep color.

Hunan dishes are so cooked because of the humid weather here, which makes it difficult for the human body to eliminate moisture. The local people eat hot peppers to help remove dampness to keep health.

 

It comprises the specialties of Southern Anhui , Yanjiang and Huaibei. The highly distinctive characteristic of Anhui cuisine lies not only in the elaborate choices of cooking materials but also in the strict control of cooking process.

Anhui cuisine chefs pay more attention to the taste, color of dishes and the temperature to cook, and they are good at braising and stewing, especially at cooking delicacies from mountains. Anhui dishes preserve most of the original taste and nutrition of the materials. Generally, the food is slightly spicy and salty. Some typical dishes stewed in brown sauce with stress on heavy oil and sauce. Ham is often added to improve the taste and sugar candy added to gain freshness.