Sweet and sour Yellow River carp
A whole carp scored, fried until its head and tail curl up, and covered in a glossy sweet and sour sauce. A classic of Shandong cooking, often called the oldest of the eight cuisines.
Life in Mainland China
The eight great cuisines of China
Shandong, Sichuan, Cantonese, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan and Anhui: where each comes from, what it tastes like, and the dishes to order.
Play: Whose kitchen?Chinese cooking is not one cuisine. Ask a cook and you will usually hear of eight, each named after a province: Shandong, Sichuan, Cantonese, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan and Anhui. No official body defines them; it is the grouping cookbooks, chefs and restaurant signs have used since the 20th century, grown out of an older list of four.
Each has a one-character short name, the old name of its province, which appears on menus and shop signs: Lu for Shandong, Chuan for Sichuan, Yue for Cantonese, and so on. And none of them covers everything: the noodles of the northwest, the hotpot of Chongqing, the dumplings of the northeast and the food of the minorities sit outside the eight.
Shandong cuisine
Taste. Salty, fresh and clear, with plenty of scallion and garlic.
Methods. Quick-frying over a fierce flame, clear and milky soups, and braising.
The oldest of the eight, and the base of the cooking of the imperial court in Beijing. Its cooks are known for stocks: a clear one and a milky one, made from chicken, duck and pork bones.
Also order:
- Braised sea cucumber with scallion
- Dezhou braised chicken
- Nine-turn pig intestines
Sichuan cuisine
Taste. Bold: numbing, hot, sour, sweet and savoury, often in one dish.
Methods. Dry-stir-frying, quick-frying, and slow braising in chilli bean paste.
Sichuan cooks count dozens of flavour combinations; mala, the numbing heat of Sichuan pepper with chilli, is only the famous one. Chillies reached China from the Americas around the 1600s; Sichuan pepper was used for two thousand years before that.
Mapo tofu
Soft tofu simmered with minced beef in a sauce of fermented chilli bean paste, finished with ground Sichuan pepper. Said to be named after the pockmarked old woman who served it in Chengdu in the 1800s.
Kung Pao chicken
Diced chicken stir-fried with peanuts, scallion and whole dried chillies in a sauce that is a little sweet, a little sour and hot. Named after Ding Baozhen, a Qing governor of Sichuan whose title was Gongbao.
Also order:
- Twice-cooked pork
- Fish-fragrant aubergine
- Dan dan noodles
- Water-boiled fish
Cantonese cuisine
Taste. Mild, fresh and a little sweet; the ingredient is the point.
Methods. Steaming, quick stir-frying and roasting.
Emigrants from Guangdong carried it overseas. A steamed fish is the test: just cooked, with ginger, scallion and hot oil, so that nothing hides the fish.
Dim sum
Small dishes with tea, in baskets and plates: siu mai (open-topped pork dumplings with a dot of roe), har gow (translucent shrimp dumplings), char siu buns, rice noodle rolls and many more.
Char siu
Strips of pork marinated in honey, soy and five-spice and roasted on forks until the edges char red and sticky. Served sliced over rice or tucked into buns.
Also order:
- Steamed fish with ginger and scallion
- Roast goose
- Slow-cooked soups
Jiangsu cuisine
Taste. Light, fresh and slightly sweet, with precise knife work.
Methods. Stewing, braising and slow simmering.
Cooking of the canal cities. It includes Huaiyang, the style of Yangzhou and Huai'an that older lists count among the four great traditions with Shandong, Sichuan and Cantonese. A chef's test is a block of tofu cut into threads fine enough to float like hair in a clear soup.
Squirrel-shaped mandarin fish
A mandarin fish boned and cut in a deep crosshatch, then fried so the flesh fans out like a squirrel's fur, and glazed with a bright sweet and sour sauce. The sauce is said to squeak as it is poured.
Yangzhou fried rice
Day-old rice fried with egg so every grain stays separate, with shrimp, ham, peas and scallion.
Also order:
- Lion's head meatballs
- Salted duck
- Finely shredded tofu in broth
Zhejiang cuisine
Taste. Fresh, tender and mellow; lake fish, bamboo shoots and rice wine.
Methods. Braising, stewing and quick-frying.
Hangzhou's dishes borrow from the hills and the lake: shrimp stir-fried with fresh Longjing tea leaves, fish poached and sauced with vinegar. Shaoxing's rice wine goes into the pot here more than anywhere.
Dongpo pork
Squares of pork belly, tied with string, braised slowly in Shaoxing rice wine, soy and sugar until the fat is soft as custard. Named after the Song poet Su Dongpo, who governed Hangzhou.
Also order:
- West Lake fish in vinegar sauce
- Longjing tea shrimp
- Beggar's chicken
Fujian cuisine
Taste. Light, a little sweet and sour, and full of soups.
Methods. Soups and broths, slow stewing, red fermented rice for colour.
A coastal cuisine of seafood and mountain produce. Soups and broths run through a Fujian meal, and its most famous dish is a soup.
Buddha Jumps Over the Wall
A soup of abalone, sea cucumber, scallop, fish maw, mushroom and more, simmered for hours in a sealed jar of rice wine. The name says the smell would make a monk leap the wall to taste it.
Also order:
- Oyster omelette
- Fish balls
- Lychee pork
Hunan cuisine
Taste. Hot and fresh: chilli without the numbing pepper, often sour from pickles.
Methods. Smoking and curing, steaming, and stir-frying.
Often hotter than Sichuan food, because the heat is not softened by sugar or numbed by pepper. Smoked and cured meats hang in farmhouse kitchens through the winter.
Fish head with chopped chillies
A big fish head split in two and steamed under a thick layer of salted, chopped red chillies. When the fish is eaten, noodles go into the sauce.
Changsha stinky tofu
Tofu soaked in a fermented brine until it turns black, then deep-fried and filled with chilli sauce and garlic. You smell the stall before you see it.
Also order:
- Chairman Mao's red-braised pork
- Smoked pork with garlic shoots
- Farmhouse stir-fried pork
Anhui cuisine
Taste. Hearty and earthy: mountain herbs, bamboo shoots and fungi.
Methods. Braising and stewing over a slow fire.
Spread across China by Huizhou's merchants, who took their cooks with them. It cooks the produce of the Huangshan mountains, and is not to be confused with the halal cooking of the Hui people, which shares its name in English.
Fermented mandarin fish
Mandarin fish salted and left to ferment for days, then braised. It smells strong and tastes rich and savoury. The story is that fish carried over the mountains to Huizhou arrived a little high.
Also order:
- Bamboo shoots cooked with ham
- Stewed soft-shelled turtle
- Hairy tofu
Play
Whose kitchen?
Name the cuisine each dish belongs to. Get all of them right for the cuisines stamp.
Whose kitchen does Sweet and sour Yellow River carp come from?
Answer
Shandong. Shandong. A whole carp scored, fried until its head and tail curl up, and covered in a glossy sweet and sour sauce. A classic of Shandong cooking, often called the oldest of the eight cuisines.
Whose kitchen does Mapo tofu come from?
Answer
Sichuan. Sichuan. Soft tofu simmered with minced beef in a sauce of fermented chilli bean paste, finished with ground Sichuan pepper. Said to be named after the pockmarked old woman who served it in Chengdu in the 1800s.
Whose kitchen does Kung Pao chicken come from?
Answer
Sichuan. Sichuan. Diced chicken stir-fried with peanuts, scallion and whole dried chillies in a sauce that is a little sweet, a little sour and hot. Named after Ding Baozhen, a Qing governor of Sichuan whose title was Gongbao.
Whose kitchen does Dim sum come from?
Answer
Cantonese. Cantonese. Small dishes with tea, in baskets and plates: siu mai (open-topped pork dumplings with a dot of roe), har gow (translucent shrimp dumplings), char siu buns, rice noodle rolls and many more.
Whose kitchen does Char siu come from?
Answer
Cantonese. Cantonese. Strips of pork marinated in honey, soy and five-spice and roasted on forks until the edges char red and sticky. Served sliced over rice or tucked into buns.
Whose kitchen does Squirrel-shaped mandarin fish come from?
Answer
Jiangsu. Jiangsu. A mandarin fish boned and cut in a deep crosshatch, then fried so the flesh fans out like a squirrel's fur, and glazed with a bright sweet and sour sauce. The sauce is said to squeak as it is poured.
Whose kitchen does Yangzhou fried rice come from?
Answer
Jiangsu. Jiangsu. Day-old rice fried with egg so every grain stays separate, with shrimp, ham, peas and scallion.
Whose kitchen does Dongpo pork come from?
Answer
Zhejiang. Zhejiang. Squares of pork belly, tied with string, braised slowly in Shaoxing rice wine, soy and sugar until the fat is soft as custard. Named after the Song poet Su Dongpo, who governed Hangzhou.
Whose kitchen does Buddha Jumps Over the Wall come from?
Answer
Fujian. Fujian. A soup of abalone, sea cucumber, scallop, fish maw, mushroom and more, simmered for hours in a sealed jar of rice wine. The name says the smell would make a monk leap the wall to taste it.
Whose kitchen does Fish head with chopped chillies come from?
Answer
Hunan. Hunan. A big fish head split in two and steamed under a thick layer of salted, chopped red chillies. When the fish is eaten, noodles go into the sauce.
Whose kitchen does Changsha stinky tofu come from?
Answer
Hunan. Hunan. Tofu soaked in a fermented brine until it turns black, then deep-fried and filled with chilli sauce and garlic. You smell the stall before you see it.
Whose kitchen does Fermented mandarin fish come from?
Answer
Anhui. Anhui. Mandarin fish salted and left to ferment for days, then braised. It smells strong and tastes rich and savoury. The story is that fish carried over the mountains to Huizhou arrived a little high.
Which cuisine is known as the hot one without the numbing pepper?
Answer
Hunan. Hunan: its heat comes from fresh and pickled chillies, not softened by sugar or numbed by Sichuan pepper, so it can taste hotter than Sichuan food.
Huaiyang cooking, from Yangzhou and Huai'an, belongs to which of the eight?
Answer
Jiangsu. Jiangsu. Older lists name four great traditions: Shandong, Sichuan, Cantonese and Huaiyang.
Roughly when did chillies reach China?
Answer
Around the 1600s. From the Americas, around the 1600s, by sea. Sichuan pepper, the numbing part of mala, had been used for two thousand years before.