The Chinese food most familiar to Westerners is basically Cantonese (Yuet) cuisine, which originates from Guangdong. Of all the regional varieties of Chinese cuisine, 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.

Cantonese cuisine draws upon a great diversity of ingredients as Guangdong has been a trading port since the days of the Thirteen Factories, bringing it many imported foods and ingredients. Besides pork, beef, and chicken, Cantonese cuisine incorporates almost all edible meats, including organ meats, chicken feet, duck tongue, snakes, and snails. However, lamb and goat is rarely eaten, unlike in cuisines of Northern or Western China.

Tasting clear, light, crisp and fresh, Guangdong cuisine's basic cooking techniques include roasting, stir-frying, sauteing, deep-frying, braising, stewing and steaming. Among them steaming and stir-frying are more commonly applied to preserve the natural flavor. Guangdong chefs also pay much attention to the artistic presentation of dishes.

Recommended Foods:

Sweet and Sour Pork

Sweet and sour pork is a Chinese dish that is particularly popular in Cantonese cuisine and may be found all over the world. It spread to the United States in the early 20th century after the Chinese migrant goldminers and railroad workers turned to cookery as trades. The original meaning of the American term chop suey refers to sweet and sour pork.

The dish consists of deep frying pork in bite sized pieces, and subsequently stir-fried in a more customized version of sweet and sour sauce made of sugar, ketchup, white vinegar, and soy sauce, and additional ingredients including pineapple, green pepper, (capsicum) and onion.

Zhaliang

Zhaliang is a kind of food in Chinese cuisine. It is made by tightly wrapping rice noodle roll outside of youtiao (fried dough). It is most popular in the Guangdong province of southern China, as well as in Hong Kong. For breakfast, it is usually eaten with soy milk. For dim sum, it is often sprinkled with sesame and layered with soy sauce. Other ingredients include hoisin sauce or sesame paste to the likes of tahini.

Wonton noodles

Wonton noodle or wantan mee is a Cantonese noodle dish which is popular in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore. The dish is usually served in a hot broth, garnished with leafy vegetables, and wonton. The types of leafy vegetables used are usually kailan also known as Chinese kale. Another type of dumpling known as shui jiao is sometimes served in place of wonton. It contains prawns, chicken or pork, spring onions with some chefs adding mushroom and black fungus.

Drunken Shrimp


 
Drunken shrimp is a popular dish in Guangdong based on fresh-water shrimp that are often eaten alive, but stunned in a strong liquor—baijiu(白é…')—to make consumption easier.

Little pan rice

Little pan rice (ç…²ä»"飯, bou zai fan) are dishes that are cooked and served in a flat-bottomed pan (as opposed to a round-bottomed wok). Usually it is a saucepan or braising pan (see Clay pot cooking). Such dishes are cooked by covering and steaming, making the rice and ingredients very hot and soft. Usually the ingredients are layered on top of the rice with little to no mixing in between. Quite a number of ingredients are used with many standard combinations.

Char siu

Char siu (also spelled cha siu, chashao, and char siew), otherwise known as barbecued meat (usually pork) in China or Chinese-flavored barbecued meat outside China, is a popular way to flavor and prepare pork in Cantonese cuisine. It is classified as a type of siu mei, Cantonese roasted meat.

Guangdong has a many restaurants, with Guangzhou in particular having a reputation as a diner's paradise. Other than sit-down restaurants, bustling night markets provide an eclectic mix of inexpensive finger foods, snacks, and delicacies. These markets are filled with shops and food carts integrating the eating and window-shopping experiences. Night markets are usually very crowded with both tourists and locals.

Braised Snake porridge

This dish choose rare meat of cobra, grimalkin, and pullet, braised elaborately, also called 'Dragon and phoenix contending' (Long Feng Dou).

Roast suckling pig

This is a famed dish with rather long history, golden and crisp exterior, and tender meat, with dense aroma.

Recommended Restaurants:

Xin Li Zhi Wan Restaurant

Add: No. 50, Shamian Nan Rd. (opposite to the White Swan Hotel), Guangzhou
Opening hour: 11:30 am-2:00am
Telephone: +86 020 8121 6188
Introduction: Regarded as one of the top ten Cantonese restaurants in Guangzhou, Xin Li Zhi Wan (New Lichi Bay) specializes in Cantonese cuisine. The business started in 1994 with its first establishment in Shamian Island, an "oasis" place exuding elegance and style. Mainly for the "better-off" groups, it features quality delicacies in a grand and tasteful ambience. Its signature dishes include "A-sen Abalone", "Xie's Braised Shark Fins" and "A-qiong Swallow-nest".

Chong Qing Xiao Dong Tian Restaurant

Add: 76. Nonglin Xia Lu, Guangzhou
Telephone: +86 020 8776 7856
Introduction: One of the top Sichuan cuisine venues in Guangzhou, Chong Qing Xiao Dong Tian features the Chongqing flavor. Although part of a chain the food is authentic Sichuan style, but the decoration and ambience remains a bit dated. Like most Sichuan restaurants, the scent of their traditional hot pot permeates the whole place. Food here is medium-priced; around 50 yuan per person.

Dong Bei Ren

Add: 36 Garden Bldg,TianHe- Nan Er Rd., Guangzhou
Opening hour: 11:00-22:00
Telephone: +86 020 8750 1711
Introduction: Dong Bei Ren is meant for northerners. The decoration is basically red. From the paper cuts and the curtains to the Kang (a table where people can sit comfortably without shoes and with their legs folded). As perhaps a way to remind the northerners of back home or for other people to get in touch with the North.

Taiwan Shaba-shaba Hotpot

Add: 6/F, Grandview Mall, 228 Tianhe Lu, Guangzhou
Opening hour: 10:00am–22:00
Telephone: +86 020 3833 0905
Introduction: Shaba-Shaba takes an eclectic approach to hotpot—heavier helpings of steak and a "semi-buffet." Basically this compromises salad and sweets without mains. This eatery is unlike most Mongolian or Sichuan hot-pot joints as the décor is more upscale. The dining hall is grand and decked out with cinnamon hues. The brightly colored ornaments and plastic twigs sticking from the wall also give you a sense of ahem, peculiar ambience. As for hotpot choices, the lamb hotpot (68 yuan) is appropriate for spring and comes with an assortment of mushrooms, clams, meat balls and rice noodle rolls. The menu also features beef and bacon hotpot (68 yuan) as well as pan-fried pomfret (98 yuan).

Beijing Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant

Add: No. 6-8, Tianhe Bei Rd., Tianhe District, Guangzhou
Opening hour: 9:00-23:00
Telephone: +86 020 8750 1906
Introduction: As an old saying goes, "To learn how to eat takes three lives, and to learn how to dress, five." Indeed, the way to eat Beijing roast duck is so sophisticated it only comes into being after generations of epicures.

Japan Fusion

Add: 2/F, Metro Plaza, 358-378 Tianhe Bei Rd., Guangzhou
Opening hour: 11:00-23:00
Telephone: +86 020 3880 8118
Introduction: Japan Fusion is the largest Japanese restaurant in Guangzhou, with reportedly more than 1000 seats, it is famous for it's enormous hairy crabs. Prices range from 10-50 for each dish, and it makes a great location for a gathering of family or friends.

1920 German Restaurant

Address: 183 Yanjiang Zhong Lu, Guanghzou
Telephone: +86 020 8333 6156
German restaurant settled in a monumental building built in 1920. Now a beloved meeting place for the German community in Guangzhou.

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