Cantonese cuisine


Cantonese or Guangdong cuisine, also known as Yue cuisine, is the cuisine of Cantonese people, associated with the Guangdong province of China, particularly the provincial capital Guangzhou, and the surrounding regions in the Pearl River Delta including Hong Kong and Macau. Strictly speaking, Cantonese cuisine is the cuisine of Guangzhou or of Cantonese speakers, but it often includes the cooking styles of all the speakers of Yue Chinese languages in Guangdong.
The Teochew cuisine and Hakka cuisine of Guangdong are considered their own styles. However, scholars may categorize Guangdong cuisine into three major groups based on the region's dialect: Cantonese, Hakka and Chaozhou cuisines. Neighboring Guangxi's cuisine is also considered separate despite eastern Guangxi being considered culturally Cantonese due to the presence of ethnic Zhuang influences in the rest of the province.
Cantonese cuisine is one of the Eight Great Traditions of Chinese cuisine,
and chefs trained in Cantonese cuisine are highly sought after throughout China.
Its prominence outside China is due to the large number of Cantonese emigrants; until the late 20th century, most Chinese restaurants in the West served largely Cantonese dishes.

Background

, the provincial capital of Guangdong and the centre of Cantonese culture, has long been a trading hub, and many imported foods and ingredients are used in Cantonese cuisine. During the early to middle Qing dynasty period from 1757 to 1842, Guangdong, known as Canton at the time, was the only port where trade was permitted between Chinese and foreign merchants. Cantonese cooks aimed to serve European tastes in restaurants, lending to an ongoing European influence on Cantonese cuisine. Staples of the European nobility diet at the time, particularly turtle soup, were available to British merchants and dignitaries visiting Guangdong. The British taught Cantonese cooks how to make the dish, with the Caribbean sea turtle typically used in Europe replaced by the Chinese softshell turtle. Besides pork, beef and chicken, Cantonese cuisine incorporates almost all edible meats, including offal, chicken feet, duck's tongue, frog legs, snakes and snails. Lamb and goat are less commonly used than in the cuisines of northern or western China. Many cooking methods are used, with steaming and stir-frying favoured due to their convenience and rapidity.
Wok hay is the name given to the unique Cantonese cooking technique, emphasizing the energy, or hay, of the cooking vessel itself. Wok hay emphasizes the multiple flavors at play when cooking, using certain ingredients to balance the harshness of others. Additionally, dishes are typically cooked over a medium heat for a more prolonged period. Guangzhou is known for its year-round warm and humid climate; wok hay helps prevent chefs from working in an environment where they can easily overheat from the sweltering kitchen temperatures. This concept lends to a sense of superiority among Cantonese cooks with respect to stir-fry technique. Other techniques include shallow frying, double steaming, braising and deep frying. Compared to other Chinese regional cuisines, the flavours of most traditional Cantonese dishes should be well-balanced and not greasy. Spices should be used in modest amounts to avoid overwhelming the flavours of the primary ingredients, which in turn should be at the peak of their freshness and quality. There is no widespread use of fresh herbs in Cantonese cooking, in contrast with their liberal use in other cuisines such as Sichuanese, Vietnamese, Lao, Thai and European. Garlic chives and coriander leaves are notable exceptions, although the former are often used as a vegetable and the latter are typically used as mere garnish in most dishes.
Guangzhou’s notability in its restaurants, teahouses, and snack shops was targeted by the reforms of the CCP, as top party leaders made efforts to transform Guangzhou from a center of culinary arts into an industrial powerhouse. Well-established culinary institutions were targeted as traditionalist remnants, replaced with communal-style eating halls. “Massification” became key to the reforming of Guangzhou’s culinary scene, with many delicacies such as sharkfin soup, bird's nest soup, and sea cucumber, which were often imported, ushered out of restaurants in favor of less expensive ingredients. Frugality was emphasized as a revolutionary ideal, with restaurants previously reserved for the wealthy elites now serving the working class, who had felt that these “Old Society” delicacies were withheld from them.

Foods

Sauces and condiments

In Cantonese cuisine, ingredients such as sugar, salt, soy sauce, rice wine, corn starch, vinegar, scallion and sesame oil suffice to enhance flavour, although garlic is heavily used in some dishes, especially those in which internal organs, such as entrails, may emit unpleasant odours. Ginger, chili peppers, five-spice powder, powdered black pepper, star anise and a few other spices are also used, but often sparingly.
EnglishTraditional ChineseSimplified ChineseJyutpingPinyin
Black bean sauce蒜蓉豆豉醬蒜蓉豆豉酱syun3 jung4 dau6 si6 zoeng3suànróng dòuchǐjiàng
Char siu sauce叉燒醬叉烧酱caa1 siu1 zoeng3chāshāojiàng
Chu hau paste柱侯醬柱侯酱cyu5 hau4 zoeng3zhùhóujiàng
Hoisin sauce海鮮醬海鲜酱hoi2 sin1 zoeng3hǎixiānjiàng
Master stock滷水卤水lou5 seoi2lǔshuǐ
Oyster sauce蠔油蚝油hou4 jau4háoyóu
Plum sauce蘇梅醬苏梅酱syun1 mui4 zoeng3sūméijiàng
Red vinegar大紅浙醋大红浙醋daai6 hung4 zit3 cou3dàhóngzhècù
Shrimp paste鹹蝦醬咸虾酱haam4 haa1 zoeng3xiánxiājiàng
Shrimp paste block蝦膏虾膏haa1 gou1Xiāgāo
Sweet and sour sauce糖醋醬糖醋酱tong4 cou3 zoeng3tángcùjiàng

Dried and preserved ingredients

Although Cantonese cooks pay much attention to the freshness of their primary ingredients, Cantonese cuisine also uses a long list of preserved food items to add flavour to a dish. This may be influenced by Hakka cuisine, since the Hakkas were once a dominant group occupying imperial Hong Kong and other southern territories.
Some items gain very intense flavours during the drying/preservation/oxidation process and some foods are preserved to increase their shelf life. Some chefs combine both dried and fresh varieties of the same items in a dish. Dried items are usually soaked in water to rehydrate before cooking. These ingredients are generally not served a la carte, but rather with vegetables or other Cantonese dishes.

Traditional dishes

A number of dishes have been part of Cantonese cuisine since the earliest territorial establishments of Guangdong. While many of these are on the menus of typical Cantonese restaurants, some simpler ones are more commonly found in Cantonese homes. Home-made Cantonese dishes are usually served with plain white rice.

Deep-fried dishes

There are a small number of deep-fried dishes in Cantonese cuisine, which can often be found as street food. They have been extensively documented in colonial Hong Kong records of the 19th and 20th centuries. A few are synonymous with Cantonese breakfast and lunch, even though these are also part of other cuisines.

Soups

Old fire soup, or lou fo tong, is a clear broth prepared by simmering meat and other ingredients over a low heat for several hours. Chinese herbs are often used as ingredients. There are basically two ways to make old fire soup – put ingredients and water in the pot and heat it directly on fire, which is called bou tong ; or put the ingredients in a small stew pot, and put it in a bigger pot filled with water, then heat the bigger pot on fire directly, which is called dun tong. The latter way can keep the most original taste of the soup.
Soup chain stores or delivery outlets in cities with significant Cantonese populations, such as Hong Kong, serve this dish due to the long preparation time required of slow-simmered soup.

Seafood

Due to Guangdong's location along the South China Sea coast, fresh seafood is prominent in Cantonese cuisine, and many Cantonese restaurants keep aquariums or seafood tanks on the premises. In Cantonese cuisine, as in cuisines from other parts of Asia, if seafood has a repugnant odour, strong spices and marinating juices are added; the freshest seafood is odourless and, in Cantonese culinary arts, is best cooked by steaming. For instance, in some recipes, only a small amount of soy sauce, ginger and spring onion is added to steamed fish. In Cantonese cuisine, the light seasoning is used only to bring out the natural sweetness of the seafood. As a rule of thumb, the spiciness of a dish is usually negatively correlated to the freshness of the ingredients.
ImageEnglishTraditional ChineseSimplified ChineseJyutpingPinyin
Lobster with ginger and scallions薑蔥龍蝦薑葱龙虾goeng1 cung1 lung4 haa1jiāngcōng lóngxiā
Lobster with e-fu noodles in soup /
Cheese lobster with e-fu noodles		上湯龍蝦伊麵 / 芝士龍蝦伊麵上汤龙虾伊面 / 芝士龙虾伊面soeng6 tong1 lung4 haa1 ji1 min6 / zi1 si2 lung4 haa1 ji1 min6Shàngtāng lóngxiā yīmiàn / Zhīshì lóngxiā yīmiàn
Mantis shrimp攋尿蝦濑尿虾laai6 niu6 haa1làniàoxiā
Orange cuttlefish鹵水墨魚卤水墨鱼lou5 seoi2 mak6 jyu4lǔshuǐ mòyú
Steamed fish蒸魚蒸鱼zing1 yu4zhēngyú
Steamed scallops with ginger and garlic蒜茸蒸扇貝蒜茸蒸扇贝syun3 jung4 zing1 sin3 bui3suànróng zhēng shànbèi
White boiled shrimp白灼蝦白灼虾baak6 zoek3 haa1báizhuóxiā