Eight Distinct Regional Cuisine

Chinese dishes have many schools in cooking. Of them, the most influential and representative and acknowleged by the society are the culinary schools of Lu, Chuan, Yue, Min, Su, Zhe, Xiang and Hui, namely, what people often says ‘the eight culinary schools’ of China.

The formation of a culinary school is inseparable with its long history and original cooking characteristics.  It is also under the influences such as natural geography, climatic conditions, resources, specialties and dieting habits of this area. Someone decribes 'the eight culinary schools' with personalized devices: the cuisines of Jiangsu and Zhejiang are compared to delicate and pretty beauties of the Yangtze River Delta; those of Shandong and Anhui are compared to clumsy and simple sturdy man of the north; those of Guangdong and Fujian are compared to dissolute and elegant childes; those of Sichuan and Hunan are like the personage with abundant and substantial connotations and varied accomplishment.

The cooking techniques of Chinese 'eight culinary schools' have their own charm and the characteristics of dishes also have their own strong points.

Lu Cuisine 
Lu cuisine is composed of Jinan cuisine, Jiaodong cuisine and Kongfu cuisine. Though the three cuisines have the same geographical position and belong to the category of 'Lu cuisine', they have their own characteristics.

Jinan cuisine selects materials extensively. The dishes with thick color are particular about being bold and unconstrained. Moreover, the strong point of Jinan cuisine lies in making soup. The use and making of clear soup, milky soup and superior soup all have strict stipulations. The famous snacks of Jinan include Wuren Stuffed Bun (a bun stuffed with five kernels of walnuts, peanut, ginkgo, melon seeds and sesame), Large Stuffed Bun of the Spring City, Spring Cake and Spring Rolls with shepherd’s purse herb, etc. 

Jiaodong cuisine, which includes dishes in Qingdao, Yantai and Weihai, excels in making seafood. The cooking method of Jiaodong cuisine is particular about freshness, aliveness and insipidity and its flavor gives priority to tenderness. Famous snacks include sauce olla podrida, baked sleeve-fish, stir-fried clam, frozen vegetables and green-bean starch noodles and Chinese fried dumpling. Of them the Chinese fried dumplings have twenty to thirty flavors.

Kongfu cuisine, which is represented by 'high quality materials and finely cut meat' of Confucius, is composed of the two categories of banquet catering and daily homemade meals. The Kongfu banquet has different specifications in accordance with the rank of monarch, minister, father and son, uses the whole set of silver tablewares and serves 196 courses of dishes.

Representative dishes: Fish in sweat and sour sauce, braised pig elbow, fried mutton slices with green scallion, braised sea cucumbers with spring onions, baked bean curd, braised whelk with brown sauce and fried oysters, etc.

Chuan Cuisine
In late Qin and early Han period, Chuan cuisine had basically been established. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, it went through rapid development. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it had enjoyed a great reputation. Now the Chuan cuisine restaurants spread all over the world. Authentic Chuan cuisine is represented by the dishes of Chengdu of Sichuan Province and Chongqing. It attaches importance to material choice and is particular about specifications. The side dishes distinguished by different colors have a clear distinction between primary and secondary priority, thus being bright-colored and harmonious. It is characterized by sourness, sweetness, numbness, spiciness, fragrance, heavy oil and thick flavor.

Placing an emphasis on seasoning, it can't go without chilli, pepper and Chinese red pepper as well as fresh ginger. It wins universal praise for its hotness, sourness and numbness, which are rare in other local dishes, develop the unique flavor of Chuan cuisine and enjoys a good reputation as 'one dish with one flavor and one hundred dishes with one hundred flavors'. Its cooking methods excel in baking, sauteing, dry-sauteeing and steaming. Chuan cuisine is good at using flavor and has thick gravy. Based on the five flavors of saltiness, sweetness, numbness, spiciness and sourness, it is added with all kinds of seasonings, which cooperate with each other and develop into twenty three compound flavors of all sorts, such as homemade flavor, salty and fresh flavor, fish flavor, litchi flavor and bizarre flavor, etc.

Representative Dishes: Braised chicken dices with peanuts, sauteed spicy pork, boiled beef in hot sauce, Mapo dofu (spicy bean curd), fried sliced pork meat with spicy sauce and fish with bean sauce, etc.

Yue Cuisine
There have been records of Yue cuisine since the West Han Dynasty. During the South Song Dynasty, it was under the influence of the migration of imperial chefs to the lamb city (Guangdong). During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it went through rapid development. In the 20th century, due to international trade, it assimilated some strenghs of western food and hence was spread all over the world. There are several thousand of Yue cuisine restaurants in New York of America.

Yue cuisine develops with the dishes of Guangzhou, Chaozhou and Dongjiang as representatives. The cuisine has extensive raw materials, a great variety of designs and colors, novel shapes. It is changeable and particular about freshness, tenderness, refreshingness and smoothness. Generally it strives to be light in summer and autumn and lay particular stree on thickness and pureness in winter and spring. Seasoning has the dinction between five tastes (fragrance, softness, stinkiness, fatness and thickness) and six flavors (sourness, sweetness, bitterness, saltiness, spciness and freshness). Its cooking excels in frying, deep-frying, braising, stewing, and sauteing, etc. The dishes have thick colors and taste smooth without being greasy.

Representative Dishes: Fried eggplant slices, fish-flaovred bean curd, sauteed dove breast with green kale, fried prawn with sesame, sauteed conch slices, crispy chicken in hot sauce, fried shrimp with scrambled egg and stir-fried meat slices with pear, etc.

Min Cuisine
Represented by Fuzhou cuisine, it has long been well known for its delicate making, beautiful color and clear and fresh seasoning. Fujian cuisine gives prority to seafood. In taste, it is complete with saltiness, sweetness, sourness and spiciness. The salty seasonings include shrimp sauce, shrimp oil and soy sauce; the sour ones include white vinegar and Qiaotou (a vegetable similar to green onion and garlic); the sweet ones include brown sugar and cystal sugar; the spicy ones include pepper and mustard; the sweet-smelling ones include brown sugar, spiced powder, aniseed and cassia bark.

Min cuisine is especially particular about the flavoring of clear soup and generally takes oil chicken, ham, hoof and upper arm as ingredients. The cooking method is as follows: first use oil chicken, ham, hoof and upper arm to make soup over a slow fire and filter it; chop the bones of raw chicken into pieces and add water and salt before putting them into the soup, and then continue to cook it over a slow fire while stirring it evenly (also called making soup) and filter it once again. It will finally become lustrous, clean and tasty soup and is very helpful for color, fragrance and flavor when using it to flavor the dishes.

The cooking methods of Fujian cuisine also have pan-frying, deep-frying, boiling, baking, stewing, mixing, sauteing with wine, stewing in gravy, grilling, sauteing with red rice wine, simmering, stir-frying, smoking, braising and salting, of which the most characteristic is sauteing with red rice wine, including stir-frying with red rice wine, and baking with red rice wine, quick-frying with red rice wine and deep-frying with red rice wine.

Representative Dishes: Braised weever with chrysanthemum, sauteed phoenix-tailed shrimp, simmer top grade pomfret, Buddha’s delight (made of selected seafood), stir-fried azure jade pea, finding pleasure amid suffering (made of tomato, balsam pear, prune, crumb, red seaweed, lobster sauce, Frech caraway and lettuce), stewed frog with garlic, stir-fried meat with celery and bamboo shoots and Chinese cabbage soup with dried shrimps, etc.

Su Cuisine
Jiangsu cuisine is called Su cuisine for short. Represented by Suzhou and Yangzhou cuisine, it is one of the eight famous culinary schools in China. The famous chefs of past dynasties in Jiangsu have created the traditional dishes in the style of Su cuisine. Nanjing repted as the 'emperor's continent' since antiquity, Suzhou with a good reputation as 'paradise' and Yangzhou acclaimed as 'the most affluent city under heaven' by historians are the cradles of famous chefs and delicious food. The culinary school of Jiangsu is just formed by joining the flavors of these three places together.

In sum, Jiangsu cuisine has the following several characteristics: firstly, with precise material choice and exquisite and fine cooking, it is made according to materials and on schedule; secondly, it excels in cooking methods such as stewing, simmering, baking over a slow fire, warming-up, steaming, sauteing and stir-frying, and is skillful in braising in mud and baking on fork; thirdly, it has a clear and fresh taste with moderate saltiness and sweetness, which is thick without being greasy and light without being thin; fourthly, it places an emphasis on flavoring soup and retaining original juice.

Nanjing cuisine has fine cutting techniques and is skillful in timing. Hence, it has thick flavor with tastiness of four directions and caters to tastes of people from eight directions. It wins especially by freshness, fragrance, crispness and tenderness. Suzhou cuisine tends to be sweet in taste and excels in making vegetables of four seasons, riverfood and lakefood. Yangzhou cuisine, which has been called Huai-Yang flavor in the history, has fine cutting techniques, perfect timing, fresh color and original design. It gives prominence to main ingredients and lays stress on original flavor. Being light and tasty, it caters to a wide range of diners. It is especially noted for excelling in making soup.

Representative Dishes: Diced chicken and carrots, mandarin fish in squirrel shape, dry-blown chicken, sparrow with special hot sauce, braised turtle dove with spiced powder, fresh water shrimp with bitter melon, egg soup with chrysanthemum leaves, lasting wealth (stir-fried large intestine) and sweet-smelling and crispy duck, etc.

Zhe Cuisine
Zhejiang cuisine, which is called Zhe cuisine for short, is the culinary school of Zhejiang local flavor. Zhejiang is a land of fish and rice in the Yangtze River Delta. Zhe cuisine of modern times has produced a large number of fine products, is being perfected and has established a school of its own. It enjoys a great reputation as 'having three thousand delicacies and snacks'. 

To sum up, Zhe cuisine has the following several features: firstly, it has an extensive selection of materials and a precise matching of materials. Emphasis is placed on the season and variety of main ingredients. The choice of supplementary ingredients and seasonings is aimed to give prominence to main ingredients, strengthen freshness and fragrance and get rid of the smell of fish and greasiness; secondly, it has fine cutting techniques and original shapes; thirdly, it places the most emphasis on the moderateness in duration and degree of cooking as well as seasoning; fourthly, it is clear, fresh, tender and refreshing with both taste and flavor; lastly, the three branches of Zhejiang cuisine have their own charm. Zhejiang cuisine is composed of the three local flavors of Hangzhou, Ningbo and Shaoxing, which go together hand in hand. Hangzhou has long been reputed as 'paradise'.

Hangzhou cuisine is exquisitely and finely made with delicate apperance and delicious taste. It excels in the cooking techniques of quick frying, stir-frying, braising and deep-frying and is characterized by clearness, freshness, refreshingness, tenderness, delicateness and purity. The local chefs of Ningbo are especially skillful in making seafood. The cooking techniques are well known for stewing, baking and steaming. The taste is moderate in freshness and saltiness. The chefs are particular about freshness, tenderness, refreshingness and smoothness of dishes and emphasis is placed on its original flavor. It is more of originality to cook dishes with dried fish products. Shaoxing cuisine is fragrant, crisp, soft and glutinous with thick soup and pure flavor. It is rich in the simple style of water town and ancient city. 

Representative Dishes: West Lake fish in vinegar, fried fish with three slices, stir-fried crab in orange, eel shredds in Ningbo style, Bifengtang dasheen with shrimp, beggar’s chicken (roasted chicken in mud), braised duck tongue & web with fresh mushroom and Zhu Hongwu bean curd, etc.

 
Xiang Cuisine
Hunan cuisine, also called Xiang cuisine, has long been reputed as a land of fish and rice as products abound and the people live in plenty in Hunan. It gives priority to abundance, fatness, smoothness and moist and mostly take chillis as the main course. It not only has the saltiness of the north and the sweetness of the south, but also the hotness and sourness of local characteristics. It is characterized by fragrance, tenderness, clearness and crispness. Its seleted materials are based on the principle of being fresh and cheap but good.

Hunan cuisine is especially particular about the tastiness of raw materials. It has varied cooking techniques such as sauteing, stir-frying, steaming and smoking. It is especially good at 'stewing' dishes. However, it is most skillful in braising and baking, by which dishes of original flavor can be cooked. It has excellent cutting techniques and is both excellent in appearance and flavor. The dishes are changeable with all shapes. The special seasonings of Hunan cuisine include soy sauce, tea seed oil, spicy oil, Chinese red pepper, fennel and cassia bark, which add color to the cuisine.

Hunan cuisine is noted for pungency. What is especially worthy of mention is Hunan chilli, which is also especially spicy. The local people of Hunan have a preference for chillis and put them in almost everything they eat.

Representative dishes: Zu'ang shark fin, chicken with cayenne pepper, sweet-smelling and crisp duck, braised pork with lotus seed, crispy crushed bean slices, hot pot sliced chicken with chilli, Dong'an chicken, yolkless egg with log flower mushroom and welk and duck with tea-tree mushroom, etc.

Hui Cuisine
Hui cuisine, the short term of Anhui cuisine, is also called Wan cuisine. It is one of the eight culinary schools of China. The Anhui flavor is mainly composed of the dishes of South Anhui, coastal areas of the Yangtze River and those of the Hui River, of which the cuisine of South Anhui serve as the representative. The cuisine of South Anhui originates from ancient Weizhou Prefecture, namely She County at the foot of the world famous tourist resort, the Huang Mountain; the cuisine of the coastal areas of the Yangtze River refers to the local dishes of Hefei, Fuhu and Anqing; the cuisine of coastal areas of the Hui River is made up of the local flavors of Bangbu, Suxian and Fuyang. The three branches of Hui cuisine with their strong points are rich and colorful.

However, in sum, it mainly has four basic features: firstly, it uses local materials and wins by freshness. Anhui abounds in mountain delicacies, wild animals, riverfood and fowl. The use of local materials makes the local characteristics of dishes stand out and guarantees freshness and aliveness. Secondly, it is good at controlling duration and degree of cooking and original in timing. It respectively adopts large fire, medium fire and slow fire according to the quality and characteristics of different materials and flavor requirements of finished dishes. Thirdly, it is skillful in sauteing and stewing with moderate thickness and lightness in taste. Apart from that the cooking techniques such as quick frying, stir-frying, flaming, deep-frying, braising, boiling, baking and warming all have their strong points, it is especially well known for sauteing, stewing, smoking and steaming dishes. Fourthly, it places an emphasis on naturalness and keeping in good health with food.

Hui cuisine follows the tradition of the same origin of medicine and food of our country and is particular about using food as medicine, which is another characteristic of Hui cuisine.  

Representative Dishes: Stir-fried frog with log flower mushroom, phoenix-tailed shrimp steak, Li Hongzhang hotchpotch, Bagong Mountain bean curd, grape fish, mountain bamboo shoots, assorted meat, etc.