Home Epicurean Tasting GUANGZHOU: Room Epicurean Traveler CHINA'S CAPITAL OF GASTRONOMY Discussion Resources Text and photos by Lucy Gordan Contact Us Site Map Media Kit Rome, September 18th, 2006 Bay Area Wine Writers Links To write an article about Guangzhou and Cantonese gastronomy for a e-zine published in California and in the Bay-area no less may seem like carrying coals to Newcastle, but even some Epicurean Travelers may Ads by Google be going to China for the first time as I have just done, whether it be for pleasure, business or adoptions. Dim Sum China Alibaba B2B online China is like Italy when it comes to food. The repeated famines and poverty of the past leading to mass marketplace. "Best of the emigration, combined with a national passion for preparing meals and offering hospitality, have turned Web" 6 years in a row! eating into a national pastime for the Chinese abroad and at home. www.Alibaba.com Although I may be oversimplifying the cooking methods of 1.3 billion people not including the ex-pats and their descendants, Chinese cuisine can divided into eight styles and four tastes. These are based on Chinese Food Menu location, climate, and which food products are available locally and seasonally. Jiangsu, Anhui, and Recipes and online Shangdong dishes in the north, considered China's least imaginative cuisine if you omit Beijing, are often culinary videos from world salty and grain-based; Sichuan and Hunan cuisines in the west are renown worldwide for being hot and famous chef Martin Yan. spicy; Fujian and Zhejiang in the east for their wide-variety of soups and fish; while Guangdong in the www.chefs.com south is well-known for shao: its ingredients first boiled and then stir-fried, or bao: its ingredients either boiled or steamed. InterContinental Hotel Luxury accommodations Unlike Italy, where many regions are appreciated for their individualistic cuisines, in China the in the heart of Lujiazui. Guangdong region is universally considered the best. Beijing may be the political capital of China, but Official site. Guangdong's capital city Guangzhou is hands down "China's Capital of Gastronomy,” the most deserved www.InterContinental.com of its nicknames. Others include: "The City of Five Rams,” .”..of the Goat,” .”..of Flowers,” .”..of Grain,” .”..of Wooden Wool" after the magnificent scarlet flowers of a beautiful local tree. With almost 13 million inhabitants, Guangzhou, better known worldwide by its westernized name of Canton (a French transliteration of the city's name in Cantonese), is the fifth largest city in China after Chongqing, Guangzhou Shanghai, Beijing, and Tianjin. Like many other port cities (Los Angeles, Vancouver, Sydney, Bari, Learn How to Double Durban, and Bristol), it is also known as "The Gateway to China" because it was the final destination of Your Money in China Without Buying Chinese the southern branch of the Silk Road; the first Chinese port opened by the Portuguese in 1511 to Stocks European merchants; and, lastly when speaking chronologically, the 19th-century departure point of www.DailyWealth.com millions of emigrants leaving for Europe (Liverpool is home to Europe's first Chinatown, now almost non- existent) and North America. Discount Guangzhou Hotels But to get back to food, why "China's Capital of Gastronomy"? The reasons are fourfold: Guangzhou's Discount hotels in Guangzhou, Hotels proximity to a fish-abundant sea and to Macau and Hong Kong (only a two-hour trip by fast train); its Reservation For Canton sub-tropical climate; the nearby fertile coastal plains which produce an infinite variety of fresh fruits and Fair vegetables; and the population's affinity for trade, in tea, porcelain, and silk -- at first with the Arabs, www.86hotels.com Persians, and Indians, dating to the Tang Dynasty (618-609 BC), so over 2,000 years before the Portuguese arrived in Macau. Advertise on this site http://www.epicurean-traveler.com/articles/Guangzhou/Guangzhou.html 1 In the 17th century the British, closely followed by the Dutch and the French, broke the Portuguese trade monopoly, and, after 1760, all foreign trade was restricted to the city of Guangzhou. In 1842 the Treaty of Nanking opened up foreign trade to Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningo, and Shanghai as well, but Guangzhou received the duty-free status it still enjoys today. In fact, Prime Minister Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms of the 1970s singled out Guangzhou as the vanguard of Chinese modernization and capitalism giving the city and its province a net advantage over the rest of the nation. Today catering is the leading industry here with annual increases of 25.7% every year over the last twenty years. For example, at the impressive catering center of my host, China Southern Airlines, which in 2007 will become a partner of Skyteam Alliance with KLM, Air France, Alitalia, and Delta, to name a few, I watched the chefs and assembly lines producing 50,000 meals a day. China Southern Airlines Catering Center Even the legend about how Guangzhou came to be founded has a food-connection. Supposedly five gods descended from heaven riding on goats and bringing with them five ears of corn to appease the population's hunger. Historically-speaking the first documents concerning Cantonese cuisine go far back in time: dating to the Dynasties of the South and of the North (220-589 AD). Chinese proverbs also always connect Guangzhou to food. One says: It's best to be born or find a spouse in Suzhou (considered the birthplace of the best-looking Chinese), to live in Hanzhou because of its beautiful views, to eat in Guangzhou, and to die in Liuzhou (because coffins made from local "lammu" wood preserve the cadaver the longest). Another goes: "Go to Beijing for business, Shanghai for shopping, and Guangzhou for food.” Favorite local sayings are: "Whatever walks, swims, crawls, or flies is edible in Guangzhou" or " On earth the only four-legged things that the Cantonese don't eat are tables and chairs; in the sky are airplanes.” http://www.epicurean-traveler.com/articles/Guangzhou/Guangzhou.html 2 limits to squeamish stomachs and to vegetarians, Qingping Market is one of China's largest and most famous markets. In the stalls and along the curbs of its narrow labyrinthine alleys, I probably saw every possible ingredient of Cantonese cuisine and medicinal plants, spices and species of mushrooms elsewhere unavailable, a veritable Noah's Ark of exotic creatures, both alive and dead, including deer's horn, bear paws, unrecognizable tendons, seahorses, starfish, and dried snakes. Dried Snakes Speaking of snakes, I didn't have the courage to accompany one of my colleagues to Snake Restaurant at no. 20 Jiangla Road. It's the largest of the few restaurants left in China (it's forbidden in many regions) to have a thick menu of snake dishes. According to Martin, the house specialty is a soup called "Chrysanthemum-dragon-tiger-phoenix"! I didn't ask for the recipe. Probably not without reason a writer for a British travel magazine recently commented: "It's not always possible to translate Chinese menus because many of the ingredients are either unknown or unmentionable to Western barbarians,” but, similarly to Venice, which has the unfair reputation as the only city in Italy where you eat badly, it's absolutely not true that in Guangzhou you are obligated to eat stewed dog, fried scorpions, and snakes on a spit. Dried Seahorses, Dried Starfish and Mushrooms, Qingping Market In this bustling city on the delta of the Pearl River, there are over 18,000 restaurants, teahouses, and snackbars for a total seating capacity of 500,000. Most restaurants serve three teas, two meals, and an evening snack called yexiao every day and are open from 5 AM to midnight, although some stay open 24 hours. http://www.epicurean-traveler.com/articles/Guangzhou/Guangzhou.html 3 A recent survey showed that of the restaurants which still serve "Laozihao,” the Cantonese name for traditional local dishes, fewer than 50 have been in existence for more than 50 years. Guaranteed by the municipal government, the best of these 50 are: Beiyuan Restaurant at no. 202 Xiaobei for its oiled shelled shrimps, sweet-scented balls of roasted goose, fish with pinenuts, and pastries; Lianxiang Lou at no. 67 Dishipu Jie for its mooncakes filled with lotus-seed paste; Taotao House at no. 20 Dishpiu Jie for its chicken with ginger and chives; Nanguo Restaurant at no. 899 North Jiefang Lu for its gow or dumplings filled with lotus seed, stewed wild goose, and its country-style cooking; Datong Restaurant at no. 63 Western Yanijang Lu for its roast suckling pig and home-made custard tart; and ranked as the city's very best Guangzhou Restaurant at no. 2 South Wenchang Lu and Panxi Restaurant at no. 151 Western Longjing for their magnificent gardens and for their more than 1,000 different dim sum snacks. Dim sum, which derives from yat dim sum yi or "little token,” literally translated as "dot heart" or "order heart,” means "order to your heart's content.” It can also signify "touch the heart,” "dotted heart" or "snack.” I won't have to explain to San Franciscans that dim sum is the no. 1 gastronomic specialty of the more than 2,000 different dishes and snacks of Cantonese cuisine or yue cai. To tell the truth, dim sum is not a meal; it's an event, a party. When you order dim sum, you don't get a menu; waiters pass between the tables or the guests with carts or trays piled high with temptations to choose from. Because of all the chattering, the clatter of plates, and the vast choice, a non-habitué may not notice that there is a definite order to what's being served.