Guangzhou Dining

Guangzhou is honored as "the paradise of food" in China. There is a saying in China that "Cantonese eat everything with four legs and in the sky except the plane and table." Cantonese food is served everywhere in the city. It is one of the eight cuisines in China. Other cuisines like Sichuan Cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Shandong Cuisine can also easily be found in Guangzhou.

Guangzhou Featured Cuisine
Cantonese Cuisine
Famous for its fresh, Cantonese cuisine is formed by Guangzhou dish, Chaozhou dish and Dongjiang dish in which Guangzhou dish is the representative of them. Comparing with other Chinese cuisines, Guangzhou dishes use few thick spicy dressings in order to keep from masking the original taste of the food. Some representative dishes are Roast Suckling Pig, Wenchang Braised Chicken, Salt roasted chicken, and Kylin Weever.

Yum-cha
Yum cha is a term in Cantonese which means "drinking tea". It now refers to the dining experience of eating small servings of different foods like dim sum, while sipping Chinese tea. It is an integral part of the culinary culture of Guangdong Province. Yum cha is a tradition on weekend mornings for the locals, and it is an opportunity for families gathers to chat and eat dim sum and drink Chinese tea. Yum cha is also a morning ritual for the elderly to spend a good part of the morning after early morning exercise of tai chi or a walk. The tea is important, for it is said to help digest the rich foods. In the past, people went to a teahouse to yum cha, but now people yum cha mostly at a Dim sum restaurant. There are some traditional dim-sums in tea houses and Cantonese restaurants which are the must-eat dim-sums in Yum cha. Shrimp dumplings, Chicken Feet, small steamed dumplings, steamed pork dumplings, and steamed vermicelli roll are popular in the traditional Cantonese restaurants.

Other Cuisines
With more and more immigrants from other places to Guangzhou, other cuisines are now developing in fast speed in the city, representing by Sichuan Cuisine, Hunan cuisine and Muslim food.

Sichuan Cuisine
Different from Cantonese cuisines, Sichuan Cuisine is famous for its spicy dishes. It is now popular in Guangzhou. The representatives are Spicy Boiled Fish, Duck blood in chili sauce and Kungbao chicken.

Hunan Cuisine
Hunan Cuisine is also famous for its spicy but different from Sichuan Cuisine. Some typical dishes are Stir fry fish head with chopped hot chili and Fired Sliced Cabbages.

Muslim food
Combined with Islam culture and Chinese cuisines style, Muslim food is popular in China. Now more and more Muslim restaurants serving Muslim food are opened in Guangzhou. One representative dish is Hand-grasping sheep meat.