What are the four major cuisines in China?

China is a big country in food culture. For a long time, due to the influence of geographical environment, climate products, cultural traditions and national customs, a well-known local flavor school with certain kinship, similar flavor and high popularity has been formed in a certain area, which is called cuisine. Among them, Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Jiangsu cuisine and Guangdong cuisine are called the "four major cuisines", and Zhejiang cuisine, Fujian cuisine, Anhui cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Beijing cuisine and Hubei cuisine are the "ten major cuisines". This paper focuses on the development and evolution of "Four Major Cuisine in China" as a food culture, as well as its characteristics, superb skills and famous representative dishes.

Key words: cooking, unique flavor, five flavors, exquisite craftsmanship, comprehensive techniques and extensive materials.

Shandong cuisine has a long history and wide influence, and is an important part of China's food culture. As one of the four major cuisines in China, it is famous at home and abroad for its salty, fresh, crisp, tender, unique flavor and fine production. As the old saying goes, "The territory of the East is also the birthplace of heaven and earth." Qilu is rich in natural products and developed in economy, which provides good conditions for the development of food culture and the formation of Shandong cuisine. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Qi Huangong's favorite minister, Yi Ya, was once a famous chef who was famous for his "good taste". During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Jia Sixie, the prefect of Levin, systematically summarized the cooking skills in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in Qi Yao Min Shu, and recorded many famous dishes, reflecting the superb skills of Shandong cuisine development at that time. People from Duan Wenchang and Linzi in Tang Dynasty. Mu Zong is a prime minister, good at food, and has written 50 volumes of food classics, which has become an anecdote in history. In the Song Dynasty, the "water cage" called by the capital of song dynasty, another name for Shandong cuisine, had taken shape. Both Ming and Qing dynasties called themselves cuisines. From Lu Yu to Gyeonggi, from Neiguan to Waiguan, the influence has reached the Yellow River Basin. Northeast China has a broad diet mass base. Shandong was the state of Qilu in ancient times. Seafood, aquatic animals, grain, oil, livestock, vegetables, fruits and insects provided rich material conditions for cooking. The exquisite cooking skills of Shandong cuisine have also been widely promoted. Shandong cuisine has a unique flavor and distinctive personality, and its flavor and skills run through the north and south, especially the north. The rich flavor of Shandong cuisine lies in the extensive use of materials, exquisite selection of materials, meticulous knife work, proper preparation, contribution to cooking and comprehensive cooking skills. Especially when frying, frying, roasting, frying, sliding, steaming, roasting and pasting, its flavor is salty and palatable, its fragrance is crisp and tender, and its soup is pure and mellow, which is unique and adaptable. Shandong cuisine has accumulated a set of cooking techniques in the long-term development process, among which stir-frying is the most famous. The "explosion" method of Shandong cuisine can be divided into oil explosion, soup explosion, onion explosion, sauce explosion and thermal explosion. "Fried" vegetables need to be cooked quickly, so one of the best cooking techniques to protect food nutrients, especially fried vegetables, must be fried quickly, continuously and in an instant. Cooking wine is oily and juicy, and the juice is evenly hung. There is juice, but there is no juice. The dishes are polished. It tastes tender, crisp, refreshing and not greasy. "Crash" is a unique cooking quality in Shandong. The main ingredients of the boiled vegetables should be marinated with seasoning in advance, tasted or sandwiched in the stuffing, and then stained with powder or hung with egg paste. When both sides collapse to golden yellow, add seasoning and clear soup, and collapse the soup with slow fire to soak it in the main material to increase flavor. "Fish belly with pot collapse" and "Yellow croaker with pot collapse", which are widely circulated in Shandong, are traditional dishes that people have long loved. Shandong cuisine takes soup as the source of all kinds of fresh food, pays attention to the use of soup, and is good at making soup, especially paying attention to the preparation of "clear soup" and "milk soup". Light and clear, take it fresh. There are many dishes made from clear soup and milk soup, including willow leaf bird's nest clear soup and family portrait clear soup. Inside and outside are the delicacies of high-end banquets. Shandong cuisine is also unique in cooking seafood. Especially seafood and little seafood cooking is a must. In Shandong, most seafood, whether ginseng, wing, swallow, shell, scale, shrimp and crab, has become a delicate and delicious home cooking for local chefs. Only the rich marine fish along the coast of Jiaodong can cook hundreds of dishes with various knife methods and different production methods. Color, fragrance, taste and shape have their own characteristics, and all kinds of ingenious changes are in one fish. Little seafood fried double flowers, braised conch, fried oyster sauce yellow, fried cuttlefish with leek, fried mullet strips with onion, hibiscus chrysanthemum crab, shark's fin with crab yellow, abalone with original shell, scallop with rusty pearl, abalone with sesame sauce and fish bones with chicken paste are all unique seafood treasures. Shandong cuisine is good at seasoning with onions. In the main process of cooking, whether it is frying, frying, burning, sliding or making soup, it is all fried with onions. Even steamed, roasted, fried and roasted dishes are seasoned with onions. For example, roast duck, roast suckling pig, pot-cooked elbow, fried fat cover and so on all belong to it. Due to the development of science and technology, vegetable oil has been widely used, and gradually evolved into cooking onions in dishes with oil, such as frying, sliding, micro-frying, frying and so on. This method not only improves the flavor of onion, but also exerts its effects of dredging orifices and smoothing qi, expelling wind and relieving exterior syndrome, promoting digestion and removing greasy food, inhibiting bacteria and invigorating stomach, which is widely used by modern people. Quancheng Jinan has not been under provincial control since the Jin Dynasty. The cooking government in Jinan has made full use of rich resources, comprehensively inherited traditional skills, extensively absorbed foreign experience, and integrated the cooking skills of Fushan East Road, Jining South Road, Qufu and other places, pushing the cooking skills of various places to a state of perfection. Jinan cuisine has a wide variety of ingredients, ranging from delicacies to pumpkin vegetables. Even common cattail, coriander, tofu and internal organs of livestock can be made into delicious food. Yantai and Qingdao are located in the beautiful Jiaodong Peninsula and are good at cooking. Poultry and egg dishes in western Shandong and northern Shandong; Vegetarian dishes with bean products as the main raw materials and vegetarian fish dishes left over from Lu Zhongqi have their own characteristics. Shandong cuisine brings together the cooking skills from all over Shandong, and develops and sublimates it with local flavor as its feature. It has experienced a long historical evolution.

Cantonese cuisine, also called "Cantonese cuisine", is one of the four major cuisines in China, which was recorded in the Western Han Dynasty. Under the influence of Yangcheng Imperial Chef, Bao Zongshi developed rapidly in Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the 20th century, as foreign communicators absorbed some skills of western food, Cantonese cuisine was introduced to all parts of the world, and there were thousands of Cantonese restaurants in new york alone. Cantonese cuisine is represented by Guangzhou cuisine, Chaozhou cuisine and Dongjiang cuisine. The dishes have a wide range of materials, diverse colors, novel shapes, good at change and exquisite freshness. Generally, summer and autumn are light, winter is rich, and Cantonese cuisine is rich and colorful. Excellent cooking skills, and is famous for its rich materials. It is roughly estimated that there are thousands of materials used in Cantonese cuisine. For example, livestock, Shui Ze fish and shrimp, Cantonese cuisine are used everywhere, while snakes, rats, cats, dogs and delicious food that is not used everywhere are the ancestors of Cantonese cuisine. As early as the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhou Qingfei's "Takeaway Answer Record" had an incisive record: "It is broad and profound, and people must eat it, regardless of birds, animals, snakes and insects. In the meantime, there are good and ugly games. There are turtles in the mountains, which are cooked by pigs, and the lips of sturgeon are alive, which is called the soul of fish. This is also precious. When you meet a snake, you must catch it, no matter how long it is; Catching rats, big or small. Bats are hateful, clams are terrible, locusts are microscopic, and they are eaten as soon as they are taken; The poison of the hive, the filth of the hemp insect, is cooked and eaten; The eggs of locusts and the wings of shrimps are cooked and eaten. " The mixed style of Cantonese cuisine often makes some foreigners stunned. When Han Yu was relegated to Chaozhou in the Tang Dynasty, he was greatly surprised when he saw that the local people were addicted to dozens of foreign objects such as turtles, snakes, octopus and frogs. He was so scared that he was "ashamed and smelly, and his face was sweaty." Today, abalone, ginseng, wings, belly and delicacies are still unique delicacies and medicinal diets in Cantonese cuisine. According to modern scientific tests, all kinds of game often contain essential nutrients that ordinary livestock do not have. For example, "Insect snakes contain a lot of essential amino acids. Snake oil contains linoleic acid, which can prevent arteriosclerosis. " Therefore, Chinese medicine has always regarded snake meat as an important drug for expelling wind and activating blood, dispelling cold and removing dampness. Cantonese cuisine is characterized by extensive and miscellaneous materials, which can make full use of food resources and benefit mankind. For example, the bubble, steak and Sichuan cuisine in Cantonese cuisine are transplanted from the explosion, steak and stir-frying in northern cuisine; The new cooking, frying and frying methods originated from western methods. Through extensive reading and extensive selection, the cooking methods of Cantonese cuisine have become perfect and diverse. Stir-fry, fry, steam, stew, stew, etc. They are all commonly used in local cuisine and Cantonese cuisine. However, many local dishes do not need to be boiled, soft fried or soft fried. While Cantonese cuisine has unique attainments. Therefore, there are many varieties of Cantonese cuisine. Cantonese cuisine is characterized by lightness. Seasoning can be divided into five flavors (fragrant, loose, smelly, fat and strong) and six flavors (sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, salty and fresh). His cooking is good at frying, frying, stewing, stewing and frying. The dishes are rich in color but not greasy. Especially famous for cooking snakes, cats, dogs, monkeys, rats and other wild animals. The famous dishes are: Dragon and Tiger Stewed Three Snakes, Five Snakes Soup, Beef with Snake Oil, Roasted Suckling Pig, Dry Fried Prawns and Winter Melon Cup.

Sichuan, the land of abundance, formed and developed one of the main cuisines in China with its unique products-Sichuan cuisine. Sichuan cuisine began to take shape in the late Qin and early Han dynasties. It developed rapidly in the Tang and Song Dynasties and became famous in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Today, Sichuan restaurants are all over the world. Authentic Sichuan cuisine is represented by Sichuan Chengdu and Chongqing cuisine. After the long-term actual combat, accumulation, summary and development of the broad masses of working people and famous chefs of past dynasties, Sichuan cuisine is not only rich in nutrition, but also contains beautiful and moving stories in its name and production. For example, "boiled beef", the waiter was eliminated in the Northern Song Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, when Fushun and Chaxian were well introduced to the East. Salt makers often use salt and pepper as seasoning to cook beef. After continuous improvement by chefs, it has now become a traditional dish in Sichuan cuisine. Another example is "Mapo Tofu", which was created 100 years ago by a slightly numb woman in a small restaurant in Wanfuqiao outside the north gate of Chengdu. Her husband's surname is Chen. The production method is a folk method. After cooking, it has the characteristics of hemp, spicy, spicy, crisp, fresh, tender and shapeless, which is not well-known at home and abroad and is widely spread. Up to now, Chengdu seems to have "Chen Mapo Tofu Skill", and customers are crowded and packed. On the basis of summing up its own experience, Sichuan cuisine has absorbed the cooking skills of northwest cuisine and the advantages of official and commercial banquet dishes, and made extensive hunting to learn from each other's strengths. The so-called northern Sichuan cuisine, southern Sichuan cuisine. In the cooking methods of shark's fin and sea cucumber, Sichuan cuisine often uses dry frying to collect juice. For example, "dry grilled shark's fin" and "home-cooked sea cucumber" are all added with minced meat and Pixian watercress, which are cooked slowly on low heat to collect juice and bright oil. The color of the dish is red, bright and mellow. Take both the advantages of southern cuisine and the disadvantages of southern cuisine. The "hairy belly hot pot" of Sichuan cuisine has its own flavor in materials, seasonings and hot pot. It is not only spicy and delicious, but also popular all year round, whether in cold winter or hot summer, which makes it one of the best dishes in Sichuan cuisine. A high-class banquet in Sichuan cuisine. Four kinds of dishes, ordinary banquet, popular simple meal and homely flavor, have their own styles and cooperate with each other. Sichuan cuisine pays attention to color, aroma, taste, shape and utensils, and has the advantages of both north and south. It is particularly prominent in taste and so on. , and is famous for its wealth, breadth and thickness. As early as the Western Han Dynasty, there was a saying that Shu people were "spicy". Commonly used flavors are salty, sweet, fishy, douban, homely, red oil, spicy, pepper, hemp, salt and pepper, strange flavor, ginger juice, garlic paste, hot sauce, sweet and sour, fragrant grain, mustard, litchi, sesame sauce and scallion oil. The deployment is changeable and the adaptability is extremely wide. Its banquet dishes are mainly beautiful. Popular simple meals are home-cooked and full of flavor. In 1000 dishes, only one or two dishes are spicy and thick. Popular simple meals and home-style dishes are good at spicy food. Especially in the use of spicy taste, it emphasizes diversity and is particularly fine. Seasoning is flexible and unique. Pepper is a common condiment, which is used all over the country. But the use of Chili peppers by Sichuan cuisine chefs is unique. Not only can it be divided into green pepper, red pepper, fresh pepper, pickled pepper, spicy douban, spicy noodles, pepper and so on. , but it can be paired with pepper, ginger, onion, garlic, vinegar, sugar and so on. And cooked into thousands of kinds of compound delicacies, forming a very rich special flavor type such as spicy, red oil, paste, douban, strange taste, fish flavor and homely. According to different thick materials, we can apply art according to their materials. Therefore, according to personal value, we should take color, shape and taste, cooperate skillfully and cook into dishes. In the cooking method of Sichuan cuisine, we pay attention to knife work, temperature and variety. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Li Diaoyuan, a native of Luojiang County, Sichuan Province, wrote a letter to the sea. There are 38 cooking methods for Sichuan cuisine. Some people have already answered biographies because of the change of time. However, due to the inheritance and development of chefs in the whole province, there are still popular frying, frying, pickling, smoking, soaking, steaming, sliding, simmering, boiling, stewing, rolling, frying, frying, stewing, roasting, Mongolian, paste, brewing, crisp and rotten. It is characterized by paying attention to steaming, specifications, distinguishing primary and secondary colors and side dishes, and being harmonious and bright. Sour, sweet, hemp, spicy, fragrant, heavy and rich in oil, three peppers (that is, pepper and pepper) and fresh ginger are indispensable for seasoning. Known for its spicy, sour and spicy taste, it is a small province of other local dishes, forming a unique flavor of Sichuan cuisine and enjoying the honor of "one dish tastes blindly and all dishes are fragrant". Cooking methods are good at roasting, roasting, dry frying and steaming. Sichuan cuisine is good at comprehensive taste and strong juice. On the basis of salty, sweet, hemp, spicy and sour flavors, various seasonings are added to cooperate with each other to form various compound flavors. Such as home-cooked flavor, salty flavor, fish flavor, litchi flavor, strange flavor and so on. Representative dishes are "Dried Silk in Large Boiled Water", "Braised Monopterus albus", "Strange Chicken Pieces" and "Mapo Tofu".

Huaiyang cuisine is represented by the local dishes along the Yangtze River, Huaihe River and Weizhou. It is characterized by simple selection of materials, emphasis on pyrotechnics, heavy oil color, mellow taste and original flavor. China's food culture has a long history. As one of the four major cuisines in China, Huaiyang cuisine is famous for its unique historical style and unique flavor. Huaiyang cuisine is famous for cooking Shan Ye seafood. As early as the Southern Song Dynasty, "horseshoe turtle in the river and oxtail fox in the snow" was a famous dish at that time. Huaiyang cuisine takes the lead among the four major cuisines in China because of its fine selection of materials, exquisite craftsmanship, exquisite modeling and rich cultural connotation. In terms of material selection, Huaiyang cuisine pays attention to a wide range of materials, nutrition collocation, grading materials and teaching students in accordance with their aptitude, which embodies a strong scientific nature; Pay attention to cooking fireworks in terms of technology. Knife method is changeable, good at burning, stewing and stewing; In modeling, pay attention to the organic combination of color vessels, showing superb artistry; It can be said that the taste of Huaiyang is unique. * * * The same characteristics are: the raw materials are mainly fresh water, which combines the specialties of Jianghuai and Hunan, and often supplies eggs and vegetables all the year round; Fine knife work, pay attention to heat, good at stewing, stewing and simmering; Pursue the original flavor, fresh and peaceful, and moderate salty and sweet. Wide range of application, elegant style of dishes, good shape and quality, crisp and boneless without losing shape. Smooth, tender and crisp, showing its taste. Jiangsu is known as the fish head, which is also the benefit of all kinds of seafood. Huainan cuisine is rich in food resources, light and delicious. Among them, Yangzhou cuisine is famous for its colorful diet, exquisite production and various products on the market, and enjoys the reputation of Jiang Ke. Well-known dishes include braised roast chicken, stewed turtle with ham, pickled fresh mandarin fish, stewed whip bamboo shoots with ham, roasted pheasant with winter snow, braised civet cats, abalone with orchid, roasted pig's head, the first ball in the world, mandarin fish with horseshoe and colorful fish.

With the development of China economy, China cuisine will continue to develop, innovate and grow.

Eight Cuisines

Hunan cuisine Hunan cuisine is developed from the local dishes in Xiangjiang river basin, Dongting lake area and Xiangxi mountain area. Its taste focuses on fresh, spicy and sour; Most of the materials are pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, seafood and lake products; Cooking methods mainly include simmering, stewing, waxing, steaming, frying, smoking and stewing.

Famous dishes include: spicy chicken, braised shark's fin, rock sugar lotus fragrance, money fish and so on.

Cantonese cuisine Cantonese cuisine consists of three local cuisines, namely Guangzhou cuisine, Chaozhou cuisine and Dongjiang cuisine. It absorbs the essence of Sichuan cuisine, Shandong cuisine and Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine, and has a unique style. Pay attention to freshness, tenderness, smoothness and crispness, and be good at frying, frying, roasting, stewing and roasting. It likes to season with oyster sauce, shrimp sauce, plum sauce, sand tea, red vinegar and fish sauce. The dishes are rich in color, smooth but not greasy. Especially famous for cooking snakes, raccoons, cats, dogs, monkeys, rats and other wild animals.

Famous dishes are: "Baked chicken with salt", white gourd cup, Wenchang chicken, roast suckling pig and so on.

Fujian cuisine originated in Minhou County, Fujian Province. It is developed with the dishes of Fuzhou, Quanzhou and Xiamen as the representatives. It is characterized by beautiful color and fresh taste. Cooking methods are good at frying, rolling, frying and simmering, among which "bad" is the most distinctive. Because Fujian is located in the southeast coast, it is rich in all kinds of seafood, such as sea eel, squid, yellow croaker and sea cucumber. So many dishes are cooked with seafood as raw material.

Famous dishes include: Buddha jumping over the wall, drunken chicken, sour squid and so on.

Sichuan cuisine is authentic in Chengdu cuisine, including Chongqing cuisine, Dongshan cuisine, Jiangjin cuisine, Zigong cuisine and Hechuan cuisine. With a strong local flavor, it is famous for its wide, strong and strong flavor, and has the reputation of "one dish is unique and all colors are delicious". Cooking pays special attention to heat, and is good at stir-frying, stir-frying, dry-burning and dry-frying. Three peppers and fresh ginger are used more, so they taste hot and sour.

Sichuan style pork, kung pao chicken, Mapo tofu, etc.

Shandong cuisine Shandong cuisine consists of local dishes in Jinan and Jiaodong. Its cooking methods are good at frying, burning, frying and frying. Cuisine is famous for its freshness, crispness and tenderness.

Famous dishes include: Jiuzhuan large intestine, Dezhou braised chicken and so on.

Anhui cuisine consists of local dishes along the Yangtze River, Huaihe River and Huizhou Island. It is characterized by simple selection of materials, emphasis on firepower, heavy oil color, mellow taste and original flavor. Anhui cuisine is famous for cooking Shan Ye seafood. As early as the Southern Song Dynasty, "horseshoe turtle in the sand and oxtail fox in the snow" was a famous dish at that time. Its cooking methods are good at burning, stewing and stewing.

Famous dishes include: Fuliji roast chicken, pheasant roasted in ice and snow, and masked civet in brown sauce.

Zhejiang cuisine Zhejiang cuisine is represented by Hangzhou cuisine, Ningbo cuisine, Shaoxing cuisine and Wenzhou cuisine. Its characteristics are clear, fragrant, crisp, tender, refreshing and fresh. Cooking is good at frying, frying, stewing, sliding, steaming and burning.

Famous dishes are: Huatuo chicken, Dongpo meat, West Lake vinegar fish and so on.

Jiangsu cuisine began in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and was called "Southern Cuisine" with Zhejiang cuisine after the Tang and Song Dynasties. Jiangsu cuisine is represented by Suzhou, Yangzhou, Nanjing and Zhenjiang. It is characterized by thick and light, fresh, crisp and rotten, thick and not greasy in raw juice and soup, mild in taste and sweet in salty. His cooking skills are good at stewing, stewing, burning, simmering and frying. When cooking, the materials are rigorous and pay attention to color matching and modeling. Suzhou cuisine is good at cooking fish, shrimp, fruits and vegetables. Good at cooking, strong color and salty taste. Onions, ginger, garlic and pepper are often used as condiments. Yangzhou cuisine is light and palatable, with prominent main ingredients, fine knife work and mellow taste; The dishes in Nanjing and Zhenjiang are delicious and mellow, especially the roast duck.

Famous dishes include: salted duck, sweet and sour mandarin fish, stewed turtle and so on.