Chinese Cuisine:
Chinese Cantonese Cuisine
Easily the most famous of the Chinese regional cuisines, Cantonese cuisine comes from the region around Canton in Southern China. Simple spices and a deep variety of foods used in cooking characterize Cantonese cuisine.
Of all the Chinese regions, Canton (Guangdong province) has the most available resources for food. Its proximity to the sea offers a veritable marine cornucopia to be added to its dishes, making possible such delicate combinations as Seven Happiness, a dish that includes shrimp, scallops, fish and lobster along with chicken, beef and pork. The light, delicate sauce, quick cooking, and subtle spicing allows the natural flavors of the seven animal protiens to shine through rather than being overwhelmed and blending together.
The spices used in Cantonese cooking tend to be light and simplistic: ginger, salt, soy sauce, white pepper, spring onion, and rice wine. For many who are used to the more rich, spicy, and complex flavors of Hunan and Szechwan cooking, Cantonese cooking may seem bland. But the subtle blends of flavor and aroma are created by the hand of a master chef, or the fast working knife of an Iron Chef.
Chinese cooking is a presentation of texture, color, shape, and aroma with even the name of the dish contributing to its overall presentation. In true Oriental fashion, a meal is poetry, with every part of the sum contributing to the overall effect. Traditional Chinese courtesy requires that a guest be treated with honor, and to present a guest with anything less than perfection is the height of rudeness.
To honor guests, freshness is one of the ultimate ingredients in Cantonese regional cooking. In some restaurants, guests can choose their meal from a seafood tank. It's not unheard of for a patron to be brought a live fish or crab at the table as proof of freshness of the meal about to be prepared. Vegetables are likewise fresh, crisp, and sweet, and the quick cooking methods preserve each flavor separately to play against the others.
Light sauces with subtle seasoning bring out the natural sweetness of seafood; however, the Cantonese chef will only use the very freshest seafood in those dishes. For so-called stale seafood, Cantonese cuisine offers thick, spicy sauces meant to mask the characteristic odor of fish. Pungent/sweet dishes like sweet and sour butterfly shrimp might be prepared this way.
There are few Cantonese desserts that are indigenous to the region, though many restaurants offer a mango based pudding or tapioca. Most meals are served with plain boiled rice, and they are accompanied by either tea or rice wine.
Wherever in the world you are, you're likely to find restaurants that serve Cantonese cuisine. It has been carried across the world by emigrants from the Quangdong province, and its light, delicate flavors are smooth and easy on the Western palate. To truly appreciate it, one must take more into account than the taste buds. Cantonese cuisine is a treat for the eyes and the nose as much as for the tongue and mouth. It is served to be appreciated.
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