Main Course
Cantonese cuisine is full of color and aroma, with the characteristics of clear, fresh, cool, tender and smooth.
Cantonese cuisine also includes:
"Five nourishments" - fragrant, crisp, soft, fat, thick
"Six flavors" - bitter, spicy, sour, sweet, salty, light
Cantonese cuisine originated from the Central Plains, and inherited the Central Plains food style advocated by Confucius, "Cuisines must be meticulous and intricately prepared". Therefore, Cantonese cuisine is more complicated and needs to be refined. Cantonese dim sum was originally introduced from the Central Plains to Guangdong and then evolved into today's Cantonese-style dim sum such as shrimp dumplings and siew mai.
Cantonese cuisine pays particular attention to how the food should look, smell and taste. The Cantonese brought the word taste (滋味 ZiWei) into a higher realm. Taste in broken down into 5 elements of taste and 6 elements of flavours. "5 tastes " - fragrant, crisp, soft, fat, thick. "6 flavours" - bitter, spicy, sour, sweet, salty, bland.
Famous Cantonese dishes include: Char Siew, Mantis Shrimp with Salt and Pepper, Poon Choi, Cantonese Morning Tea, Laohuo Soup, Luohanzhai, Claypot Rice, Steamed Pork Ribs in Soy Sauce, Sweet and Sour Pork with Pineapple, Sai Crab, Chicken with Rose Soy Sauce, Beef Offal, Shrimp Dumplings, Chee Cheong fun, Wonton noodles, Boat congee, Steamed lotus leaf glutinous rice, Shark fin soup, Custard buns, Pig trotter with ginger, Glutinous rice chicken, etc.
Soup (also known as Laohuo Soup) belongs to Cantonese cuisine, and has been the secret recipe for nourishment and health that Cantonese people have inherited for thousands of years. Cantonese soup is a nutritional soup, and the main ingredients used include traditional Chinese medicine, so it is also called "Leng Tong" (meaning the best soup). Due to the hot and humid climate in Guangzhou, Cantonese people have the habit of drinking soup before meals, and most Cantonese people are very good at making soup. As the saying goes, "rather to eat without vegetables than go without soup", which shows that drinking soup is a must-have cuisine.
Soup
Cantonese Soup emphasizes the "old fire" and the original flavor. The main ingredients used include black-bone chicken, squab, yam, red dates, and wolfberry. A mix and match of different ingredients yield different effects, including nourishing the stomach, ridding eczema or fungal infection symptoms, reducing heaty symptoms etc.
Preparation process:
Bring this soup to a boil, reduce to low heat and simmer for a few hours. This will let all the ingredients release their flavours and nutrients to form the authentic Laohuo soup.
References
Anonymous (date unknown). Old fire soup. Baidu Encyclopedia. Online date: January 20, 2022. Checked from: https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%80%81%E7%81%AB%E9%9D%93%E6%B1%A4/2736525
Guangzhou Municipal People's Government website (August 10, 2012). Old fire soup. People's Government of Guangdong Province. Online date: January 20, 2022. Checked from: http://www.gd.gov.cn/gdgk/lnms/201609/t20160918_236254.htm#:~:text=%E5%A5%B9%E6%98%AF%E5%B9%BF%E5 %BA%9C%E5%A5%B3%E4%BA%BA,%E2%80%9C%E5%96%9D%E6%B1%A4%E4%BA%86%E5%90%97%EF% BC%9F%E2%80%9D
Anonymous (date unknown). Cantonese cuisine. Baidu Encyclopedia. Online date: January 20, 2022. Checked from: https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%B2%A4%E8%8F%9C/306654