Cooking is an ancient Chinese art. Some 3,000 years ago, the Chinese people already knew how to deliciously blend the five flavors, namely pungent, sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. Today Chinese cuisine is ranked among the world’s best and Chinese restaurants can be found in many countries and regions throughout the world.
Chinese cooking place great stress on the color, fragrance, taste, form and nutrition of the food and is very particular about cutting and temperature control. According to the rough estimates, there are more than 5,000 different local cooking styles in China. The most popular cooking styles in China are those of Sichuan, Guangdong, Shandong and Huaiyang

Sichuan Cuisine

     Distinct features of Sichuan cuisine: they prefer steaming, simmering and smoking. The cooking is elaborate and meticulous and the flavoring highly varied and mixed. The taste of each dish is very different. A common compliment to Sichuan cuisine is that each dish has its unique taste and no two dishes have the same flavor.
Sichuan cooking employs scores of condiments giving all the different tastes –salty, sweet, sour, hot, aromatic, peppery or bitter, of which a giving ingredients as chili pepper, black pepper, the mild red huajiao pepper, ginger and so on. Of hundreds of varieties of Sichuan dishes, it is said that only 20 % have a hot and numbing effect on the palate. In fact, the art of Sichuan cuisine emphasizes the aesthetic appeal of food. It offers everything pleasant and inviting to color, aroma and appearance, while flavor is the top priority. What Sichuan cuisine boasts is an abundance of flavor and diversified methods of cooking.

     Guangzhou food is a representative of Guangdong foods, including all the delicacies of Guangdong, Chaozhou, Dongjaing and Hainan Island. Guangsong food has absorbed some elements of Beijing, Suzhou, Yangzhou and Huangzhou Cuisines, while keeping its south China flavor.
In preparing the Guangsong cuisine, dozens of varieties of ingredients are often involved and more than 30 different kinds of cooking methods employed, such as frying, grilling, stewing, simmering, deep-frying, roasting and braising, etc. freshness is everything to the Grangdong cuisine. So is quick cooking: there is not much long broiling or barbecuing as in North China. Also, there is no simmering for hours with spices and herbs liking that of the west China. This objective is freshness, tenderness, smooth texture and piquant flavor. These qualities are especially evident in another Guangdong specialty –roast sucking pig. A piglet gutted and coated inside with fermented bean curd, sesame paste, Fen liquor and garlic-flavored sugar and then roasted until its skin is golden-red and shiny as lacquer. The custom is to eat the crisp, crackling skin first and then the tender, smooth-textured flesh.

     Shandong cuisine is known for its light seasoning and delicacy. Its chefs make a point of retaining the original flavor, freshness, crispness and tenderness of the ingredients. Among its specialties are Sweet-sour Huanghe Carp, fried crisp on the outside but tender that the meat can be shaken off the bones and melts deliciously in mouth. Chefs in the coastal cities of Qingdao and Yantai excel in preparation of seafood.
Shandong cuisine is also known for its soup, both the clear and milky-white kinds. One clear type, prepared with materials extracted from swallow’s nests, is often the first major course at banquets. White soup made with wild rice stems or dandelion greens is famed for color, fragrance, taste and appearance.

     Huaiyang Cuisine normally refers to culinary styles in Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Huai’an and other cities in the Yangtze River lower reaches, Jiangshu Province. Tenderness and freshness of materials, delicate tastes, and the fastidious way in which the chefs prepare them, are what make Huaiyang Cuisine so special. Dishes made from freshwater ingredients are a salient feature of this school of cooking, which is also known for a good assortment of disserts and pastry exquisitely prepared in eye-pleasing colors and adorable shapes. Major dishes are beggar’s chicken, sweet and sour mandarin fish, sliced chicken velvet, boiled salted duck, steamed minced pork ball with crab roe and steamed shad.
　

     Imperial Court Cuisine, as its name suggests, consists of dishes once prepared exclusively for the imperial family. Every dynasty in Chinese history had an “imperial kitchen” to prepare meals for the emperor and his consorts. The dishes were not only meticulously prepared, but also included rare and expensive foodstuffs, such as bear’s paws, birds’ nests, shark’s fins, venison, sea cucumbers, duck webs and other delicacies of land and sea. The Imperial Cuisine of today is based on the dishes prepared by the Qing imperial kitchens, but further developed ever since. The imperial refreshments are especially palatable and unique in flavor, such as Wandouhuang (pea flour cake), Yundoujuan (kidney bean roll), Xiaowotou (small steamed corn bread), and Roumoshaobing (sesame seed cake with meat fillings).

     Beijing Roast Duck has the reputation of being the most delicious food Beijing has to offer. A Beijing duck dinner is usually a fixed item on any Beijing tour itinerary. The earliest Beijing Roast Duck restaurant was the Bianyifang, founded mort than 400 hundred years ago, in the southern city of Beijing. Another restaurant, which offers Beijing Roast Duck, is Quanjude. Today the Quanjude has become a business group, has outlets in every district of Beijing. It is said that the first restaurant opened in 1864 near today’s Tian’an Men Square. At Quanjude, ducks are immersed in condiments unique to the restaurant and are roasted directly over flames stoked by fruit tree wood. The best roast duck is date-red, shining with oil, but with a crisp skin and tender meat. A chef then cuts the meat into thin pieces, each having a piece of skin. The meat is served with very thin pancakes, Chinese onions and special sauce. The way to enjoy it is to put several pieces of meat, onions and a little sauce together on the thin pan-cake and roll them up either with hand or chopsticks. The flavor is really delicious.

     Mutton Hot Pot, or Rinsed Mutton is a Muslim specialty. All the year round, the family, relatives and friends could gather around the fire and eat with intimacy and warmth. It has now spread to people of all nationalities including foreign diplomats and overseas visitors in Beijing and become one of the capital’s most celebrated dishes. The hot pot used to be a brass pot with a wide outer rim around a chimney and a charcoal-burner underneath. Nowadays electric pot is used. Water containing mushrooms and dried shrimps is boiled in a pot. Thin pieces of raw mutton are cooked with chopsticks in a self-service pot of boiling water. Diners dip thin slices of raw mutton into the water, where the meat cooks rapidly. The cooked slices are then dipped into a sauce. This cooking method ensures that the meat is both tender and tasty. Meantime, cabbage, noodles mushrooms and other vegetables can be cooked and eat in the same way.
But the most important thing for the dish is the sauce, which decides the flavor of the meal. In restaurant, there are ready-made sauces, as well as a dozen of condiments, such as sesame paste, Shaoxing rice wine, fermented bean curd, salted Chinese leek-flowers, soy sauce, chili paste, shrimp paste, rice vinegar, chopped green onion and minced coriander. So sometime you can make the sauce yourself according to your own taste.

     Tan Cuisine originated in the household of Tan Zongjun, a bureaucrat of the late Qing Dynasty. Tan Zongjun was born into a famed scholar’s family in Guangdong Province and worked his way up to a senior official at a young age. He had been appointed as sheriff in many places and finally got a position in Beijing during his 30s. Since Tan was a cooking enthusiast, he looked to perfect his skills and learn about local dishes wherever he went. After moving to Beijing, he was even more intrigued by food. He made efforts to fuse Beijing cooking with cooking styles of other places, especially of his hometown in Guangdong Province. Through his efforts, a new sect of Chinese cuisine –Tan Cuisine came into being.