Chinese cuisine enjoys the reputation for its color, scent, taste, and design, as well as its variety.
Four Categories of Chinese Cuisine
Due to the vast territory, abundant resources, varied climate and different living habits in China, people from different places have quite different flavors of food, for instance, southerners like light food while northerners are on the opposite, Sichuan people like spicy food, but Shanxi people like sour food. As a result, many different cuisines unique to certain areas are formed, among which that of Lu, Chuan Huaiyang and Yue are called the "Grand Four Categories of Chinese Cuisine".
Shandong cuisine, also known as Lu Cai for short, is characterized by quick-frying, stir-frying, braising and deep-fat frying. It focuses on the confection of vegetable soup and milk soup. Famous dishes include Dezhou stewed chicken, sweet and sour carp, etc.
Yue Cai is short for Guangdong Cuisine, which is famous for its wide selection of materials, variety of designs and colors, and original forms. It features tender and refreshing taste. Famous dishes are: saute shrimp, roast suckling pig, etc.
Chuan Cai, short for Sichuan Cuisine, is famous for being spicy, hot, oily and salty. Famous dishes include: fish-flavored pork threads, diced chicken with chili pepper, multi-flavor chicken, pockmarked woman's bean curd,etc.
Huai Yang Cuisine is represented by the dishes from the places along the Huaihe River and in the lower reaches of the Changjiang River like Yangzhou, Zhenjiang and Huai'an. It's characterized by careful selection of materials, the timing of cooking and the controlling of the heat and the beautiful appearance of the dishes.Famous dishes include: Hangzhou roast chicken, salty duck, braised pork balls with stewed vrab, etc.
Visitors to Beijing will,definitely have a taste of the Beijing roast duck, which is the repres entative dish of Beijing. It enjoys an international reputation for its date-red, shining with oil, but with a crisp skin and tender meat. The place that offers very good Beijing roast duck is the Quanjude Restaurant.
