Chinese cuisine

Chinese cuisine is the food and culinary culture of the people of China. This is the most populous country in the world and the third biggest in terms of land area. Bordering Russian Siberia and Korea in the north east and India in the South west; with frigid temperate through to tropical climates; containing 55 ethic minorities; Chinese cuisine is diverse and distinctive.

Traditionally Chinese cuisine was divided into eight regional cuisines. Eight being an auspicious number in China. Modern books on Chinese cuisine tend towards using the modern political boundaries. Over the last century or so, there have been significant migrations of people within China. This mixing of people has brought with it new cuisines and several new regions have come to the fore for culinary excellence. Aside from regional foods, the cuisine of the Emperors and their banquets is marked for exquisite taste, creativity and beauty. This Imperial cuisine reached it's peak during the Qing dynasty.

Eight traditional cuisines

Shandong Cuisine

(Lu 魯)

Sichuan Cuisine

(Chuan 川) Alternatively spelt Szechuan, this cuisine is best known for it's spices. Copious amounts of chili and peppers are used in most dishes form this region. Sichuan is famous for it's spicy hot pot. The chili makes diners sweet thus cooling them in the hot Sichuan summers. Restaurants serving Sichuan food can be found throughout china. Sichuan dishes also make a frequent appearance on western Chinese restaurants, albeit in a much tamer and less spicy form.

Guangdong Cuisine

(Yue 粵) Known to English speakers as Cantonese.

Fujian Cuisine

(Min 闽)

Jiangsu Cuisine

(Su 苏 or Yang 揚)

Zhejiang Cuisine

(Zhe 浙)

Hunan Cuisine

(Xiang 湘) Chairman Mao Zedong was born and brought up in Hunan. This region is known for it's spicy dishes. Mao's favourite was 'fat pork'. This dish is made from cubes of very fatty pork meat stir fried with roughly coped fresh chili peppers and a spicy sauce.

Anhui Cuisine

(Hui 徽)

References

• Di, Xianghua; Translated by Zhang Tingquan (First Edition 2007). A Food-lover's Journey Around China. Foreign Languages Press, Beijing., 156. ISBN ISBN 978-7-119-04175-9.