Cantonese cuisine | |||||||||||||||
Chefs cook with a wok
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Traditional Chinese | 廣東菜 | ||||||||||||||
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Simplified Chinese | 广东菜 | ||||||||||||||
Hanyu Pinyin | Guǎngdōngcài | ||||||||||||||
Cantonese Yale | Gwóng dūng choi | ||||||||||||||
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Yue cuisine | |||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 粵菜 | ||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 粤菜 | ||||||||||||||
Hanyu Pinyin | Yuècài | ||||||||||||||
Cantonese Yale | Yuht choi | ||||||||||||||
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Cantonese cuisine (廣東菜), also known as Yue cuisine or Guangdong cuisine, refers to the cuisine of China's Guangdong Province, particularly the provincial capital, Guangzhou (Canton). It is one of the Eight Culinary Traditions of Chinese cuisine. Its prominence outside China is due to the large number of emigrants from Guangdong. Chefs trained in Cantonese cuisine are highly sought after throughout China. Formerly, most Chinese restaurants in the West served largely Cantonese dishes.
Guangzhou (Canton), the capital of Guangdong Province, has long been a trading port and many imported foods and ingredients are used in Cantonese cuisine. Besides pork, beef and chicken, Cantonese cuisine incorporates almost all edible meats, including offal, chicken feet, duck's tongue, frog legs, snake and snail. However, lamb and goat are rarely eaten, unlike in the cuisines of northern or western China. Many cooking methods are used, with steaming and stir frying being the most favoured due to their convenience and rapidity. Other techniques include shallow frying, double steaming, braising and deep frying.
For many traditional Cantonese cooks, the flavours of a dish should be well balanced and not greasy. Apart from that, spices should be used in modest amounts to avoid overwhelming the flavours of the primary ingredients, and these ingredients in turn should be at the peak of their freshness and quality. There is no widespread use of fresh herbs in Cantonese cooking, in contrast with their liberal use in other cuisines such as Sichuan, European, Thai or Vietnamese. Garlic chives and coriander leaves are notable exceptions, although the former are often used as a vegetable and the latter are usually used as mere garnish in most dishes.