Four Great Traditions
Chinese cuisine is rich and diverse, with different styles in different regions. Its history can be traced back thousands of years, and it changes along with the environment (such as climate) and local preferences over time. It also varies by ethnic background. All these factors have resulted in unparalleled cooking techniques, ingredients, dishes, and eating styles that constitute Chinese cuisine. China is divided into 34 provincial-level administrative regions, each region has its own unique culinary heritage that is influenced by climate, geography, culture, and history. Therefore, there are four Chinese cuisines.
Cantonese Cuisine (Yue)
Cantonese cuisine comes from Guangdong Province, among which Dim Sum is widely known. Tasting light, crisp, and fresh Cantonese cuisine's basic cooking techniques include roasting, stir-frying, deep-frying, stewing, and steaming. Among them, steaming and stir-frying are more commonly used to maintain the natural flavor.
Sichuan Cuisine (Chuan)
Sichuan cuisine is known for its use of spicy flavors. Many dishes use chili and Chinese pepper, giving it a distinctly spicy flavor. It usually leaves a slight numbness in the mouth. Sichuan hot pot is perhaps the most famous hot pot in the world, and the most famous one is Yuanyang hot pot.
Shandong Cuisine (Lu)
Shandong cuisine is derived from the local cooking style of Shandong, a coastal province in northern China. There are two main styles: Jiaodong, which features light seafood dishes; Jinan, which is famous for its soup. Although Shandong cuisine is rarely known in Western countries, it is generally regarded as one of the most influential cooking styles in the history of Chinese cooking.
Jiangsu Cuisine (Su)
Jiangsu cuisine consists of several different styles of Chinese cooking, such as Huaiyang, Yangzhou, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Zhenjiang. The food in Jiangsu cuisine is considered soft, but not to the extent that it is falling apart. The meat tastes fresh and tender, but it does not separate from the bones when picked up.
Nowadays, the list is expanded to Eight Cuisines. In addition to the cuisines above, four more cuisines are added later. There are Anhui Cuisine (Hui), Fujian Cuisine (Min), Zhejiang Cuisine (Zhe), and Hunan Cuisine (Xiang).
Written by Sistercuisine
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