Cantonese cuisine is one of the four main cuisines in China. It ranks first in Chinafor its characteristics of catering market, skill, convenience in and the number of restaurants and tea-houses in the country. Cantonese cuisine is good in color, fragrance, taste and presentation. In addition, the delicate Cantonese pastry is also well-known for its wide range of varieties, delicious flavor and beautiful color.
The Chinese saying "Born in Suzhou, eat in Guangzhouand die in Liuzhou" vividly describe the wealth of great food available here. Eating is certainly the main pleasure for the local residents here and there are about ten thousand catering enterprises and restaurants with some 500,000 seats serving up authentic Cantonese cuisine. The atmosphere in many of these places is great, lively, friendly and very noisy.
Guangzhoudishes are among the most famous in China. This fame derives partly from the excellent resources and fertile land surrounding the area and partly from the scarcity of money in the city. Guangzhouis situated close to the sea and fresh sea food is readily available. The land here is also very fertile and a wide range of vegetables and fruits are grown.
The dishes are prepared carefully and exquisitely. Quick-fried or stewed, they turn out to be fresh, crisp, tender, slippery and not salty with all flavors and tastes. They vary with the change of seasons, conforming to modern dietetics. The cooking skill pays priority to light, fresh, clear, slippery, and tender and nutrition, which also change with the seasons. From morning till night, there are the morning tea, lunch, night snack of different taste. The "morning tea", which becomes popular all of China, has delicate and tasty dim sum. Guangzhouflavor snack has large variety and diversity, such as the inexpensive and tasty radish cake, rice noodle, steamed zongzi (rice wrapped in leaves), fried river snail, cattle entrails, Shahe rice noodle, wonton with noodle, skinned milk, stewed stuff, boat porridge, jidi porridge and pot rice.
Guangzhouconcentrates the dishes of all of China. You could find local food and food from outside.People could taste Chinese royal dishes of Qing dynasty, full Man and Han ethnic dishes, Beijing roasted duck, Yunnan Guoqiao rice noodle, Shanghai Longxiang steamed bun, Tianjin Goubuli steamed bun, xi'an royal court dumpling, Chongqing chafing dish, Lanzhou beef noodle, Chaozhou snack and Shanxi chopped noodle.
The European influence in the area can also be seen and fruit such as lychee and Portuguese oranges are commonly served up- an effect of the areas proximity to Macau. Guangzhouhas a few good European style restaurants scattered about the town including Kathleen's. Most of these places are concentrated on Shamian Island. There are numerous cafes and bars here serving up adequate western style cuisine and the big hotels such as the White Swan also feature some nice international restaurants for those who need a break from Canton cuisine.
Nowadays, catering industry not only reflects the new situation of the reform and opening up of Guangzhou, but also one of the pillar industries for enlarging internal demand and increasing the economic development. The businessvalue of the catering industry in 1998 reached RMB 15.838 billion, increasing by 25.7% annually in the past 20 years, 18.48% over the average increasing rate in the 29 years before reform and opening up.
All kinds of restaurants cover every street and commercial area, no matter it is a well known one or a snack bar. In recent years, dining out has become an indispensable activity of people in the daily life and catering industry has attracted more investors to join in. Therefore, the number of restaurant increased tremendously, the competition methods are diversified, which takes on flourishing phenomena.
Most restaurants in Guangzhouprovide three teas, two meals and one night snack. Combining eating with entertainment, they usually open from 5:00 a.m. to 12:00 at night. Some even provide 24-hour service. There are numerous well-known dishes, pastries, snacks and local-flavour food. The best Cantonese restaurants in town feature both traditional dim sum feasts- a selection of steamed delicacies- and bigger dishes.
A good place to try exquisite dim sum is the Banxi Restaurant. Dim sum is best eaten with lots of friends. Traditionally the dishes are served in small baskets and in groups of four. For those seeking a more formal atmosphere, the Guangzhou Restaurant prepare wonderful palatial style banquets.
Dishes renowned at home and abroad are the Complete dinner of Manchu and Mandarin Dishes of Guangzhou Restaurant, the Refreshments Meal of Panxi Restaurant, Fish with Pine Nuts of Beiyuan Restaurant, Chaozhou Dishes of Nanyuan Restaurant, moon cake with lotus seed paste of Lian Xiang lou, Taotao chicken with ginger and shallot of Tao Tao Ju Restaurant, stewed shark's fin in brown sauce of Da Sanyuan Restaurant, Jinpai roast *ling pig of Datong Restaurant, Dongjiang Kejia dishes of Dongjiang Restaurant, Shanshui Shahe rice starch noodles of Shahe Restaurant, Qingping chicken of Qingping Restaurant, Beijing and Tianjin dishes of Huabei (North China) Restaurant, Muslim dishes of Huimin Restaurant and snake dishes of Man, the Snake King's Restaurant, etc. The tasty dish of the world are brought to Guangzhou, including the French raw oyster, Japanese sushi, sashimi, Thai potted fish and chicken claw, Korean BBQ, Indian fried curry chicken, Vietnamese grilled gold edge fish and cuisine from Nepal, Middle East, Italy, U.S.A. and South East Asia.
You can't say having been to Guangzhou if you haven't tasted the well-known dishes and pastries there.From morning till night, you can enjoy the morning tea, lunch, night snack of different taste.There are popular snacks like fried river snails and varied Guangzhou pastry.
Dining out has become an indispensable activity of people in the daily life and catering industry has attracted more investors to join in. Therefore, the number of restaurant increased tremendously, the competition method are diversified, which takes on a flourishing phenomena.
