What wouldn’t you Eat ? (Catonese Cuisine)
Updated: 2011-06-23 16:52
By Jodie S. (chinatraveldepot.com)
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Cantonese cuisine originated from the region around Canton (Guangzhou) in southern China’s To find out more interesting facts about this wonderland or any other places in China check out what’s available at China Travels. You can Travel to Guangzhou and make this a trip of a lifetime.
An Interesting Cantonese saying I came across states “anything that walks, swims, crawls, or flies is edible. There is also another that says “the only four-legged things that Cantonese people won’t eat are tables and chairs.” Cantonese cuisine includes what they consider edible such as staples of pork, beef, chicken, snakes, snails, insects, worms, chicken feet, duck tongues, and entrails. As a trading post, Canton (Guangzhou) had access to a large range of imported food, which resulted in the huge variety of Cantonese dish we can enjoy today.
Cantonese usually serves soup before a meal, unlike most Chinese meals. Typically the soup is a clear broth prepared with meat and other ingredients, and then it is cooked on a mild fire for hours. It is said that some people put Chinese herbal medicines into their clay pots, to make the soup nutritious and healthy. Cantonese normally only consume the liquid in the pot, the solids are usually thrown away unless they are expensive such as abalones or shark fins. There’s also a Cantonese saying that to “secure” a husband, a Cantonese woman needs to first cook good soups.
Guangdong is close to the South China Sea, so cooking live seafood is a specialty in Cantonese cuisine. Prawns, shrimps, scallops, lobster and crab are in ample supply. Many Chinese restaurants maintain live seafood tanks. The freshest seafood is odorless, and is best cooked by steaming. Less fresh ones will be fried or even deep fried. When cooking a fresh fish, only a small amount of soy sauce, ginger, and spring onion is added to a steamed fish, while loads of garlic and spices will be added to cook an un-fresh fish.
Dim Sum (Dian Xin) – Dim sum translates to “touch the heart”. Dim sum is usually served as breakfast or brunch, enjoyed with family or friends. There is a wide variety of food available; Gow (Dumpling), Siu Mai, Phoenix talons (Chicken feet), Steamed spare ribs, and Spring rolls are good examples. In some restaurants, they are served on trolleys. Instead of placing an order after reading a menu, you order whatever you like after physically seeing the yummy dim sums on the trolley. Dim sum is part of the Cantonese culture. It is common to see good Cantonese restaurants crowded with people having dim sums on Sunday mornings, enjoying dim sum while reading newspapers. So why not witness this today by staying in a Beijing Hotel or by making the leap to visit China’s many wonders.