Chinese cuisine has a very long history and is renowned all over the world. Cantonese (the style most Westerners are most familiar with) is just one regional style of Chinese cooking. There are eight major schools of Chinese cuisine, named after the places where they were conceived: Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan and Zhejiang. China’s cuisine breaks down into four major regional categories:
Northern cuisine:Beijing food has developed from the Shandong school of cuisine.
Specialties:• Peking duck (roasted and eaten in a thin
pancake with cucumber and a sweet plum sauce).
• Mongolian Hotpot (a Chinese version of fondue; it is eaten in a communal style and consists of simmering soup in a special large round pot into which is dipped a variety of uncooked meats and vegetables, which are cooked on the spot).
•
Shuijiao (pasta-like dough wrapped round pork meat, chives and onions, similar in idea to Italian ravioli; these can be bought by the
jin (pound) in street markets and small eating houses, and make a good snack).
Southern cuisineGuangdong (Cantonese) food is the most exotic in China. The food markets in Guangzhou are a testimony to this, and the Western visitor is often shocked by the enormous variety of rare and exotic animals that are used in the cuisine, including snake, dog, turtle and wildcat.
Specialties:•
Dim sum served at lunch.
• Shrimp wonton noodle soup.
Eastern cuisineShanghai and Zhejiang cooking is rich and sweet, often pickled. Noted for seafood, hot and sour soup, noodles and vegetables.
Specialties:•
La Mian (pulled noodles) served with curry beef soup.
•
Xiao Long Bao (pan fried pork buns eaten dipped in vinegar).
Western cuisineSichuan and Hunan food is spicy, often sour and peppery, with specialties such as diced chicken stirred with soy sauce and peanuts, and spicy
doufu (beancurd).
Specialties:• Sweet and sour chicken.
• Orange beef.
National drinks:• One of the best-known national drinks is
Maotai, a fiery spirit distilled from rice wine.
• Local beers are of good quality, notably
Tsingdao, which is similar to German lager.
• There are now some decent wines, which are produced mainly for tourists and export, such as
Great Wall and
Dynasty red wines and
Qingdao white wine.
Legal drinking age: Although China has no minimum legal drinking age, a ban on the sale of alcohol to under-18s was introduced in January 2006.
Tipping: Still not officially approved of, tipping is becoming more commonplace in China. It is usual in tourist hotels and restaurants, and with tour guides and drivers. A service charge is often added by restaurants in large hotels.
NightlifeVisitors generally sample the nightlife of the larger cities with prearranged restaurant meals and visits to Chinese
opera, Chinese
state circus, ballet and theater. Local Chinese tend to only drink socially with a formal meal so bars and nightclubs are usually only found in the more cosmopolitan cities and major towns.
Karaoke (written
OK+ on Chinese signs) is a popular form of evening entertainment. Traditional
local music and dancing is often found in areas where there are strong ethnic minority groups, notably in provinces including Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Sichuan.
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