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braised whole abalone with vegetable and delicious
sauce |
Guangdong cuisine, known as Cantonese cuisine in the West, originates from
China's southern province
Guangdong and develops in
Guangzhou, Huizhou and Chaozhou
of Guangdong Province and Hainan
Island. The recipes of Cantonese
dishes appeared in the literature of the Han (206BC-220AD), Wei, South and North
Dynasties (220-587), became famous both at home and abroad at the beginning of
the 20th century. The majority of overseas Chinese, especially in Southeast Asia, are from Guangdong (Canton), so Cantonese food is perhaps the
most widely available Chinese regional cuisine outside China.
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sauteed sliced beef with
vegetable |
Long, warm, wet days in Guangdong throughout the year create the
perfect environment for cultivating almost everything. Cantonese are known to
have an adventurous palate, able to eat many different kinds of meats and
vegetables and other exotic ingredients. In fact, it seems that, to the
Cantonese, almost everything that walks, crawls, flies, or swims is edible. A
humorous saying goes like this, Cantonese will eat anything that flies except
airplanes, anything that moves on the ground except trains, and anything that
moves in the water except boats. This statement is far from the truth, but
Cantonese food is surely one of the most diverse and richest cuisines in
China. It usually has fowl and
other meats that produce its unique dishes. Various unusual materials are used
for their dishes, including snakes, cats and pangolins. Cooked snake is
considered a delicacy in Guangdong.
As the climate of Guangdong is hot, Cantonese food does not use
much spice, bringing out the natural flavor of the vegetables and meats. The
dishes are fresh, crisp, tender, and lightly seasoned.
Guangdong cuisine
has absorbed the cooking skills of the West as well as that of other Chinese
regions, to develop its own unique methods. The basic cooking techniques include
roasting, stir-frying, sauteing, deep-frying, braising, stewing and steaming.
Steaming and stir-frying are most commonly used to preserve the ingredients'
natural flavors. Guangdong chefs
also pay much attention to the artistic presentation of their
dishes.
The most famous snake dish in Guangdong is the dragon and tiger locked in
battle, in which cobra, leopard cat, and over twenty spices are used. Roasted
snake with chrysanthemum blooms is provided in autumn; the dish is creamy in
color and garnished with beautiful petals of chrysanthemum, mushrooms, and
various flavorings. Other delicacies in Guangdong cuisine are braised whole
abalone with vegetable and delicious sauce, roasted suckling pig, duck web in
oyster sauce, shark's fin with brown sauce, sauteed sliced beef with vegetable,
fish belly in clear soup, fried shrimp, drunken shrimp (shrimp that are still
alive, yet drowning in liquor), bird's nest with wax gourd, Dongjiang
salted chicken and braised chicken feed with wild herbs.
In addition, Guangdong is also well known for its dim sum,
snack-like delicacies of savory and sweet buns, steamed meat with vegetable and
pastries. Dim sum is usually served for breakfast and
lunch.