8 GREAT CUISINES OF CHINA YOU SHOULD TRY!

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8 GREAT CUISINES OF CHINA YOU SHOULD TRY!

There are many styles of cooking in China, but Chinese chefs have identified eight culinary traditions as the best. These have set the course of how Chinese cook food, and are looked to as models. Each of these schools has a distinct style and different strengths.

 1.Guangdong/Cantonese Cuisine / Chinese: 粤菜 YuècàiYuècài

Main features - sweeter, favoring braising and stewing, adding various mild sauces

Cantonese food is the most popular style internationally. Guangdong Province and Hong Kong are noted for fine seafood dishes and rice dishes. 
They eat a very wide variety of foods. The dishes they serve don't have strong flavors since it is lightly seasoned, and they often tend to be a little sweet.

2. Sichuan  Cuisine / Chinese: 川菜 Chuāncài

Main features -  spicy and bold, often mouth-numbing, using lots of chili, garlic, ginger, and peanuts

Sichuan Province produced the most widely served cuisine in China. Their dishes are famous for their hot-spicy taste and the numbing flavor of Sichuan peppercorn that is rare in other regional cuisines. It is the food of Chengdu and Chongqing (which used to be part of Sichuan).

3.Jiangsu Cuisine / Chinese: 苏菜 Sūcài

Main features - fresh, moderately salty and sweet, precise cooking techniques, favoring seafood, soups and artistic, colorful presentation

Jiangsu Province and China's biggest city, Shanghai, have a very refined gourmet cuisine that is often served at government banquets. 
What makes it special is the exquisite cooking techniques that produce richly aromatic and visually artistic dishes. Their chefs also focus on serving meals that promote health.

4.Zhejiang Cuisine/ Chinese: 浙菜 Zhècài

Main features - mellow, using fresh seafood, freshwater fish, and bamboo shoots, and a wide variety of cooking methods

Zhejiang Province is the province south of Jiangsu, and it borders on Shanghai too, so their style is similar to theirs, but it is less elaborately prepared. They focus more on serving fresh food. 
The food is often served raw or almost raw and is fresh and crispy and seasonal. It is more like Japanese food. Ningbo cuisine is very salty.

5.Fujian/Min Cuisine/ Chinese: 闽菜 Mǐncài

Main features - lighter, with a mild sweet and sour taste, using ingredients from the sea and the mountains

Fujian Province is known for great seafood and soups and the precise use of scintillating but not tongue numbing spices. Adding much wild exotic delicacies from the sea and mountains makes their dishes have unusual flavors. It is like a culinary wild adventure.

6.Hunan Cuisine / Chinese: 湘菜 Xiāngcài

Main features - quite spicy, with a hot and sour taste, favoring sautéing, stir-frying, steaming and smoking

Even hotter than Sichuan cuisine. It is tastier and more delicious because they don't use peppercorn that numbs the mouth. 
It is a rich agricultural area that produces a broad range of vegetables and herbs, and these are served up.

7. Anhui  Cuisine/ Chinese: 徽菜 Huīcài

Main features - uses many wild plants and animals as ingredients, favoring stewing and more oil

Anhui cuisine is even wilder than Fujian cuisine. It is inland, and big mountains such as the Yellow Mountains are the source of lots of different wild foods and herbs. It is basically a hearty mountain peasant food. Some of the best dishes incorporate wild food for an unusual taste. Some dishes are sweet from added sugar.

8. Shandong Cuisine/ Chinese: 鲁菜 Lǔcài

Main features - salty and crispy, favoring braising and seafood

Shandong was one of the first civilized areas, and it set the pattern for northern styles of cooking. With a long coast, seafood is its forte. 
They preserve the original taste of the seafood by using simple ingredients and braising, and they like vinegar and salt. Unlike southern cuisines, they serve much more wheat food, including their noodles.

Information sources
Wikipedia
ChinaHighlights