Don’t know where to travel for the next trip? China could be the answer for you. Be ready to feel the cultural differences in the East Side, delicious food dishes, and some thrilling views.

Let’s start with food because why not? Chinese cuisine is extensive and profound due to differences in geography, climate, customs, and specialties, resulting in various dishes with their local characteristics. Among them, the most famous are eight kinds of cuisine methods: Sichuan cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, Fujian cuisine, Jiangsu cuisine, Zhejiang cuisine, Anhui cuisine, and Shandong cuisine, collectively known as the eight major cuisines.

Shandong Cuisine

Historical Facts

Shandong cuisine is the founding father of the eight major cuisines. It has the longest history, requires rich techniques, and is the most difficult and skillful. The cuisine method started around 2100 BC, developed around 770 – 476 BC, and gradually became the royal banquet in the Qing Dynasty. The raw materials are mostly livestock, poultry, seafood, and vegetables. Some cooking methods such as frying, simmering, grilling, roasting, potting, shredded, and honey sauce are used well, and the emphasis is placed on sauce, onion, and garlic for seasoning and to maintain freshness. Its uniqueness comes from having more than 30 cooking techniques, especially in frying and grilling. The blasting method pays attention to rapid fire and quick frying so that the finished product is neatly formed, the taste is strong, the quality is rotten, and the juice is rich and thick. The goal of the cuisine is to keep the original taste of the food and enhance it to a higher level.

Special features

The most frequently used seasonings are soup, scallion, ginger, and garlic. Clear and milk soups are always applied in cooking. The clear soup is usually made of chicken and duck while the milk soup is made of greasy meat such as pork knuckle and pig bones (Travel China Guide). Interestingly, these soups are not eaten directly but are used as a seasoning to freshen the dish. Scallion, ginger, and garlic are also used as a seasoning to freshen seafood dishes to remove undesirable fishy odors.

Some of the notable dishes:

• Braised Sea Cucumber with Scallion
• Dezhou Braised Chicken
• Steamed Stuffed Tofu

 

 

 

 

Sichuan Cuisine

Historical Facts

Sichuan cuisine is the most popular cuisine in China, also known as Chuan dishes (Sichuan is where my family is from- one of my favorite places in China). It originated in Sichuan and Chongqing where most dishes are featured with hot, spicy, and fish-flavored tastes, and colorful appearances using pepper and prickles ashes from various cooking methods. Its cooking methods were inspired by the Ba and Shu area dating back to the Qin dynasty around 265-420 AD. When pepper was introduced in China around the Qing dynasty, it was mainly used in Sichuan cuisine to enrich the flavor of spice. As more dishes are invented, more kinds of pepper are added to the cooking methods gradually forming the hot and spicy method of modern Sichuan cuisine. In total, it has formed into 24 flavors and can be further broken down into 3 major categories: hot and spicy, pungent and aromatic, lastly, sweet and sour.

Special Features

Hot and spicy features come from the use of many peppers such as hot pepper, hot peppercorn, Sichuan pepper, prickly ashes, and ginger and garlic (Travel China Guide). Among all hot and spice seasonings, brown bean paste is considered the soul of Chuan dishes. It gives a special pungent and spiciness to the dish so that when people eat it, the flavor dances around and lasts until the next meal. Almost all people in Sichuan can eat spicy meals and they will and need spice in each meal. It is because the location is very humid and eating pepper and chili, can help people with their blood flow in a short time. Some women in Sichuan also believe that eating peppers gives them better skin.

Some of the notable Chuan dishes:

• Sichuan Hot Pot
• Ma Po Tofu
• Kung Pao Chicken