Cantonese Cuisine – Most Popular Chinese Cuisine around the World

Cantonese cuisine, also called Yue cuisine or Guangdong cuisine is one of the eight major cuisines with a long history of about 2,000 years. It is featured with widely use of materials and rich cooking methods. Cantonese dishes taste mild, fresh and natural. The most famous include White Cut Chicken, Cantonese Roasted Goose and Roasted Suckling Pig. 

Most of the Chinese restaurants abroad are Cantonese restaurants, making Cantonese cuisine the most popular Chinese cuisine around the world and the representative of Chinese cuisines in the world. It consists of three branches: Guangzhou dishes, Chaozhou dishes and Dongjiang dishes, and each has its own characteristics.

Chinese Name: 粤菜 yuè cài
English Names: Cantonese cuisine, Yue cuisine, Guangdong cuisine
Popular in: Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau and overseas countries
Time of Origin: Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD)
Flavors: mild, fresh, natural, and sweet
Famous Cantonese Dishes: White Cut Chicken, Cantonese Roasted Goose, Roasted Suckling Pig, Char Siu
Famous Snacks: Steamed Vermicelli Roll, Shrimp Dumpling, Water Chestnut Cake, Steamed Bun Stuffed with Char Siu, Siu Mai
 

 

Cantonese cuisine has a long history and its origin can be traced back to 2,000 years ago in early Han Dynasty. Chefs at that time have been already good at cooking different materials by particular cooking methods. After the capital was moved from north to the south in Southern Song Dynasty (1127 - 1279 AD), many skillful chefs gathered in Guangzhou, contributing to the development of Cantonese cuisine and Cantonese cooking skills became mature and forms some of its own characteristics. In Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644 AD) and Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911 AD), Cantonese cuisine had become systematic and Guangzhou was full of tea houses, hotels, restaurants and snack shops. In early 19 century, a number of Guangdong people went to North America, they ran many Cantonese cuisine restaurants and gradually Cantonese food became the most popular Chinese food around the world. Now, it is also the most popular Chinese cuisine overseas.
 

Cantonese chefs pay attention to the quality and natural taste of food materials. Most Cantonese food tastes fresh, natural, and mild. In order to show the original flavor of the main ingredient, Cantonese chefs are very cautious about seasonings. The seasonings are to bring out or highlight the original taste of the ingredient, not to make it. Less spicy ingredients such as peppers, chili, ginger and garlic are used. With the seasonal changes, dishes in summer and autumn are light, in winter and spring are a little bit heavier.
 

There is a stereotype in Chinese that Guangdong people eat everything and that is not groundless. Cantonese cuisine is famous for the rich food materials which include poultries, birds, sea food, woodland delicacies, various vegetables and fruits and often the best part of them are selected for cooking. Cantonese people prefer seasonal food. For instance, they eat perches in middle winter and shrimps in April when they are fattest and tasty. The rich seasonings are mild and mellow which contain aniseed, coriander leaves, rice vinegar, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, honey and sugar.
 

Cantonese chefs prefer cooking techniques like stir-frying, boiling, steaming, baking, braising, sautéing, shallow frying, deep frying and roasting. Most of them can preserve the natural and original flavor of food materials. Cantonese chefs are especially good at controlling heat of fire and dish decorating, and dishes they cooked is not only tasty but appealing in both appearance and smell.
 

Read More: 15 Best Cantonese Foods You Must Try
 

 

 Bingsheng Restaurant
Chinese name: 炳胜品味 bǐng shèng pǐn wèi
Address: No. 33, Dongxiao Road, Haizhu District, Guangzhou

 Guangzhou Restaurant
Chinese name: 广州酒家 guǎng zhōu jiǔ jiā
Address: No. 47, Gongyi Road, Huadu District, Guangzhou

 Fanlou Restaurant
Chinese name: 蘩楼 fán lóu
Address: No. 2078, Baoan South Road, Luohu District, Shenzhen

 Cuiyuan Restaurant
Chinese name: 翠园 Cuì yuán
Address: Wangfujing, Dongcheng District, Beijing
See more Cantonese Restaurants in Beijing

 Huishijia Restaurant
Chinese name: 惠食佳 Huì shí jiā
Address: No. 396, Yanan West Road, Jingan District, Shanghai
See more Cantonese Restaurants in Shanghai
 

Yue cuisine contains three styles: Guangzhou style, Chaoshan style and Dongjiang style. Guangzhou cuisine tastes particularly fresh, tender and smooth; the chefs are good at stir-frying, controlling fire heat and some cooking methods from western countries. Chaoshan cuisine, or Teochew Cuisine dishes originate in Chaoshan, Guangdong and specialize in cooking sea food, soup, desert and vegetables. Dongjiang dishes actually belong to the Hakka cuisine and originate in Dongjiang, Guangdong; the chefs are especially skilled in cooking meat and casserole dishes.