Chinese Cooking Styles

Chinese cooking is one of the most popular styles of ethic cooking around the world. If you’ve never prepared traditional home made Chinese cuisine; however, you may be surprised to learn that Chinese cooking styles and technique can vary greatly from one region of China to the next. Due to the fact that China is such a vast country, many different cooking styles have emerged. Some of them are quite different from one another.

In some cases, depending on the geographic area, Chinese cooking techniques can actually be broken down even further, to encompass eight or more different styles of regional cuisine.

The five basic styles of Chinese cuisine are named for five specific regions in the country. They include Guangdong, Beijing, Sichuan, Shanghai and Taiwan. Many of the recipes and techniques featured in these styles are unique to these regions.

Beyond the five different styles of Chinese cuisine, eight different cooking techniques are typically used in Chinese cooking. These methods include simmering, stewing, hotpot boiling, roasting, deep frying, steaming, stir fry and cold dish.

The Beijing style of Chinese cuisine tends to be quite diverse. Traditionally, the dishes performed in this style were meant to serve a very large number of people. They were frequently used for banquets and royal parties.

The Guangdong style of cooking incorporates many different styles of Chinese cooking techniques. One of the Guangdong dishes easily recognized by most people is Beef Lo Mein.

The Sichuan style of Chinese cooking is well known for its sweet and sour as well as spicy flavor. This style of cooking has become very popular in many Western countries. One of the most typical dishes is hot and sour soup.

Taiwan style cooking generally includes many different types of seafood; usually including fish and shrimp. Many different cooking techniques are commonly used in this style of cooking.

Shanghai cooking is quite delicate, featuring many steamed and stewed dishes. Won ton soup is an example of Shanghai style cooking.

Cantonese is also considered to be a style of Chinese cooking. This style features sauces and a wide diversity of cooking methods and ingredients. Steaming, roasting and stir-frying are typically included in this style of cooking.

In many cases the regional climate affected the type of food that was traditionally served in certain regions of China. This has proven to be true in the northern regions, where the typical climate of hot and dry summers with very cold winters dictated very solid dishes. As a result, dishes such as pancakes, steamed dumplings and noodle dishes developed.

 
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