Top photo credit: Seriouseats

China is the 4th largest country in the world with 8 unique gastronomic styles and flavours which represent the 23 different provinces of China. Hong Kong offers a range of cuisines from across the globe, including many of those found in our mainland counterpart. 

Here are some places to try:

Guangdong Province – Chuichow cuisine

 Photo credit: All About Dining  

The Guangdong province is the leader of the Chiu Chow cuisine; branching off to cities like Chaozhou, Shantou and Jieyang.

Some of the highlighted dishes include: seafood, goose, and duck, which are usually steamed, poached or braised. I would say that Chiu Chow maybe one of the healthiest cuisines as small amounts of oils are used. A few famous dishes to try are:

Chiu Chow Congee

Photo credit: Day Day Cook

Braised Goose

Photo credit: Hungry Hong Kong 

Oyster Omelet

Photo credit:  Alan C.

Where To Try:  Hung’s Delicacies 

                            Shop A, EGL Tower, No 83 Hung To Road, Kwun Tong 

                            觀塘鴻圖道83號東瀛遊廣場地下A舖

                            

Sichuan Province – Sichuan cuisine 

Photo Credits: Serious Eats

Sichuan is a province in southwest China where the capital is Chengdu.

The cuisine is known for their use of chilli peppers, tingly Sichuan peppercorns and garlic – the main elements that make up the Sichuan cuisine. Wrong. The cuisine uses a range of spices as well as the the ingredients named above, creating a harmonious and aromatic flavour for a sour, pungent, hot, sweet, bitter, aromatic, and salty dish. The dishes are usually prepared by pickling, drying and salting with heavy use of chilli oil to give you a true kick of Sichuan cuisine. 

Try some of their famous dishes:

Kung pao chicken – diced chicken with peppers and peanuts

Photo credit: Serious Eats

Twice-cooked pork

Photo credit:China Sichuan Food 

Ma po tofu

Photo credit: Pbs Food

Where To Eat: Yun Yan 

                          Shop 1001B, 10/F, Times Square, 1 Matheson Street,

                          Causeway Bay              

                          銅鑼灣勿地臣街1號時代廣場10樓1001B號舖

Northern Coastal Province – Shandong style 

Photo credit: ChnLoveBlog

Shandong cuisine is one the eight cuisines of China, and is the most influential within Chinese cuisine. It’s the head chef to most dishes in China as the cooking techniques were seen as the most important during the Qing Dynasty.

Located near the coast with mountainous regions along with plains – Shandong is a fertile land, providing an abundance of seafood, grains and sea salt. The prosperity of resources allowed the people to get creative, thus forming delicious dishes.  

The main cooking techniques often involve quick frying, stir-frying, braising and deep fat-frying, roasting, boiling, using sugar to make fruit, crystallising with honey and more. The Shandong cuisine was further divided into two other cuisines: Jiaodong, which involves light dishes like seafood (Eastern Shandong) and Jinan – dealing with soups in either clear or white varieties.

Here are some dishes to try:

Sweet and sour yellow river carp

Photo credit: Shandong On Internet

Roasted chicken 

Photo credit: Mmm-yoso!!!

Shredded pork with peking sauce

Photo credit: Liuzhou from eGForums

Where To Eat:   HuTong

                            28/F, 1 Peking Road, Tsim Sha Tsui 

                            尖沙咀北京道1號28樓

Fujian Province, Southeast China 

– Fujian cuisine

Located along the coast, Fujian has the advantage of the sea and the mountains, which allows them to obtain an abundance of local fish and woodland produce, like mushrooms and bamboo shoots.

The cuisine is light and flavourful which ultimately creates almost an umami flavour for each dish. However, the emphasis in Fujian cuisine is the soup, as most dishes are served in soup. Every ingredient is integral in the creation of a perfect broth for the food to rest in.

Seafood is predominantly served in Fujian cuisine, so the fish have to be cut in a certain way in order to infuse the flavours.

Fujian’s cuisine has four different styles: 

Fuzhou – famous for their soups with a mixed sweet and sour taste. 

Western Fujian – slightly spicy tastes from mustard and pepper.

Southern Fujian – Spicy and sweet tastes using an array of sauces

Quanzhou  – the least oily but the strongest taste/flavour of Fujian cuisine

Here are some dishes to try:

Bian rou  – Fujianese wonton soup

Photo credit: The Art of Cooking

Pan-fried yellow croakers

Photo credit: Putien

Braised bean curd with Chinese cabbage

Where To Eat:   Putien 

                            Shop A, 7/F,Lee Theatre Plaza, 99 Percival Street,

                            Causeway Bay 

                            銅鑼灣波斯富街99號利舞臺廣場7樓A舖

Hunan Province, South Central of China – Hunan cuisine 

Photo credit: New York Times

The literal meaning of Hunan is “south of the lake”. It is situated just south of Dongting Lake, which is the second largest fresh water lake in China.

Hunan cuisine can be easily mistaken for Sichuan cuisine, as both provinces share certain aspects to their food. However, they can be fairly easy to distinguish from one another – Hunan dishes have a hot, sour and salty flavour due to their use of vinegar-pickled chillies with salt. Hunan is much spicier as compared to Sichuan cuisine based on the fact that the dishes use more of the chillies and also stronger varieties. Sichuan cuisine uses peppercorns and chillies to create a numbing sensation, and it’s much oilier as well. 

Are you ready for a spicy kick in the palette, try some of these dishes:

Fried shrimp skewer

Photo credit: Dolly Ling

Sea snails in spicy wine

Photo credit: Jiahaofoods

Braised pork

Photo credit: FoodSpotting 

Where To Eat: Savoury Kitchen 

                           2/F-3/F, Weswick Commercial Building,147/149             

                           Queen’s Road East, Wan Chai 

                           灣仔皇后大道東147-149號威利商業大廈2-3樓