Guangzhou Food

Cantonese is renowned both inside and outside China. Its prominence outside China is due to its palatability to Westerners and to the great numbers of early emigrants from Guangdong. In China, too, it enjoys great prestige among the eight great traditions of Chinese cuisine, and Cantonese chefs are highly sought after throughout the country.

Due to Guangdong's location on the southern coast of China, fresh live seafood is a specialty in Cantonese cuisine. Many authentic restaurants maintain live seafood tanks. From the Cantonese perspective, strong spices are added only to stale seafood to cover the rotting odor.

Many cooking methods are used by Cantonese cooks, steaming and stir-frying being the most favoured due to their convenience and rapidity, and their ability to bring out the flavor of the freshest ingredients. Other techniques include shallow frying, double boiling, braising, and deep frying.

The flavors of a finished dish should be well-balanced, and never cloying or greasy. Also, spices should be used in modest amounts to avoid overwhelming the flavors of the primary ingredients, and these primary ingredients in turn should be at the peak of their freshness and quality.

Famous Cuisines in Guangzhou

Cantonese Cuisine

The Panxi Restaurant, located in the western part of Guangzhou, is the largest garden restaurant in China, and enjoys fame at home and abroad. The restaurant serves mainly Guangdong-style cuisine and pastries

Sichuan Cuisine

Different from Cantonese cuisines, Sichuan Cuisine is famous for its spicy dishes. It is now popular in Guangzhou. The representatives are Spicy Boiled Fish, Duck blood in chili sauce and Kungbao chicken.

Hunan Cuisine

Hunan Cuisine is also famous for its spicy but different from Sichuan Cuisine. Some typical dishes are Stir fry fish head with chopped hot chili and Fired Sliced Cabbages.