When you travel, it feels as if there are two worlds: your home and the rest of the world. When you step into a restaurant, this feeling is echoed, and it changes based on which restaurant you are in. Right around the corner from home, a restaurant may feel like you are in Thailand eating pad Thai, in America enjoying a cheese burger or in France eating snails. In other cases, you may be half way around the globe in a spot full of Aussies that makes you feel like you are back home. Hi, my name is Betina, and I love eating out and travelling. This blog looks at everything related to those concepts. It talks about the sense of home and away in restaurants. Whether you are a diner or a restaurateur, I hope you enjoy the diverse posts I include in this blog.
China may be one country, but that doesn't mean it only has one type of cuisine. Given how big China is, it should come as no surprise that food varies from region to region. If you've noticed that you like some Chinese restaurants a lot more than others, it could be because they're all serving a different type of cuisine. With each type boasting different ingredients and cooking styles, you're bound to have favourites and least favourites.
Before you choose your next Chinese restaurant to dine out at, read on to find out which cuisine suits your flavour preferences.
Cantonese Cuisine: Sweet and Mild
Cantonese food is one of the most popular types of Chinese cuisine around the world. It's characterised by sweeter, milder flavours that are palatable even for the fussiest of eaters. The food is steamed or stir-fried with little grease, making it healthy and tender.
Sichuan Cuisine: Spicy and Bold
Sometimes spelled Szechuan, this cuisine stands out amongst the others—in taste, smell and sight—because of its bold flavours and use of spices. Specifically, the Sichuan peppercorn is what gives this cuisine its 'sting'.
Hunan Cuisine: Hot and Sour
If you're one of the rare few who things Sichuan cuisine isn't spicy enough, you'll love the even hotter Hunan cuisine. Hunan dishes also use a lot of citruses and pickled chili to give them a sour flavour that balances out the high level of spiciness.
Fujian Cuisine: Light and Exotic
Fujian cuisine combines ingredients from the sea and ingredients from the mountains to create exotic dishes with light and interesting flavours. They are particularly fond of soup, so you'll find a lot of broths and stews on a Fujian menu.
Zhejiang Cuisine: Raw and Mellow
If you can't stand bold, spicy food, you might love Zhejiang cuisine. This style of food is very mellow and refined, and dishes are often served raw. In particular, Zhejiang cuisine excels at seafood dishes.
Anhui Cuisine: Hearty and Wild
Anhui cuisine is what most people would describe as good and hearty 'peasant food'. This cuisine uses a lot of wild ingredients you could find by foraging, including mushrooms, frogs, shrimp, and herbs.
Jiangsu Cuisine: Fresh and Unusual
If you love seafood but you're bored of the typical fish and oysters, you can't go wrong with Jiangsu food. In Jiangsu dishes, you'll find sea animals and vegetables you've probably never even heard of before, all presented artistically. Their cuisine is fresh and aromatic, with little use of overpowering seasonings like salt and chili powder.
Shandong Cuisine: Salty and Crispy
Last but not least is Shandong cuisine. Shandong is another coastal region that uses a lot of fish and seafood in their dishes, but the cooking style is vastly different to other regions. They tend to cook at high heat so the food is crispy, using salt and soy sauce liberally.
Share