Traditional Cantonese dishes
A number of dishes have been a part of the Cantonese cuisine collection since the earliest territorial establishments of Guangdong province. While many of these are on the menus of typical Cantonese restaurants, some are more commonly found among Chinese homes due to their simplicity. Home-made Cantonese dishes are usually served with plain white rice.
[edit]Deep fried dishes
There are a small selection of deep fried dishes in Cantonese cuisine, and can often be found as street food. They have been extensively documented throughout Colonial Hong Kong records in the 19th to 20th century. A few are synonymously associated with Cantonese breakfast and lunch.[3] Though these are also expected to be part of other cuisines.
[edit]Slow cooked soup
Another notable Cantonese speciality is slow-cooked soup, or lo foh tong (老火湯) in the Cantonese dialect (literally meaning old fire-cooked soup). The soup is usually a clear broth prepared by simmering meat and other ingredients under low heat for several hours. Chinese herbs or medicine are often used as ingredients. Slow-cooked soup is a regular dish in Cantonese families as most believe in its ability to heal and strengthens one's health.
Due to long preparation hours of slow cooked soup, soup chain stores or delivery outlets became popular in Cantonese dominated cities like Hong Kong.
[edit]Seafood
Due to Guangdong's location on the southern coast of China, fresh live seafood is a specialty in Cantonese cuisine. Many authentic restaurants maintain live seafood tanks. From the Cantonese perspective, strong spices are added only to stale seafood to cover the rotting odor. The freshest seafood is odorless, and in Cantonese culinary arts, it is best cooked by steaming. For instance, in some recipes, only a small amount of soy sauce,ginger, and spring onion is added to steamed fish. Apparently, the light seasoning is used only to bring out the natural sweetness of the seafood. However, most restaurants would gladly get rid of their stale seafood inventory by offering dishes loaded with garlic and spices. As a rule of thumb in Cantonese dining, the spiciness of a dish is usually inversely proportional to the freshness of the ingredients.
[edit]Noodle dishes
Noodles are either in soup broth or fried. Some noodle dishes are Cantonized. These are available as home-cooked meals, on dim sum side menus, or as street food at dai pai dong, where it can be served with a variety of accompaniments such as fish balls, beef balls, or fish slices.
Hong Kong-style chow mein is made from pan-fried thin crispy noodles
[edit]Siu mei
Siu mei is essentially the Chinese rotisserie style of cooking. Unlike most other Cantonese dishes, Siu mei consists only of meat, with no vegetables. It creates a unique, deep barbecue flavor that is usually enhanced by a flavorful sauce, a different sauce is used for each meat.
[edit]Lou mei
Lou mei is the name given to dishes made out of internal organs, entrails and left-over parts of animals. It is grouped under Siu laap (燒臘) as part of Cantonese cuisine. It is widely available in Southern Chinese regions.
English |
Chinese |
|---|
Beef entrails |
牛雜 |
Beef stew |
牛腩 |
Chicken scraps |
鸡巴 |
Duck gizzard |
鴨腎 |
Pig tongue |
豬脷 |
[edit]Siu laap
Just about all the Cantonese-style cooked meat including siu mei, lou mei and preserved meat can be mixed together under the generic name (燒臘, Siu laap). Siu laap also includes foods such as:
A typical dish may consist of some organs and half an order of multiple varieties of roasted meat. A large majority of siu laap consists strictly of white.
[edit]Little pan rice
Little pan rice (煲仔飯, bou1 zai2 faan6) are dishes that are cooked and served in a flat-bottomed pan (as opposed to a round-bottomed wok). Usually it is a saucepan or braising pan. Such dishes are cooked by covering and steaming, making the rice and ingredients very hot and soft. Usually the ingredients are layered on top of the rice with little to no mixing in between. Quite a number of ingredients are used with many standard combinations.
English |
Chinese |
|---|
Layered egg and beef over rice |
窩蛋牛肉飯 |
Minced beef patty over rice |
肉餅煲仔飯 |
Pork spare ribs over rice |
排骨煲仔飯 |
Steamed chicken over rice |
蒸雞肉煲仔飯 |
Preserved chinese sausage over rice |
蠟味煲仔飯 |
[edit]Banquet/night dishes
There are a number of dishes that are often served in Cantonese restaurants exclusively during dinner. Traditionally dim sum restaurants stop serving bamboo basket-dishes after yum cha hour and begin offering an entirely different menu in the evening. Some dishes are more standard while others are quite regional. Some are customized for special purposes like Chinese marriages or banquets. Salt and pepper dishes are one of the few spicy dishes.
[edit]Dessert
After a night meal or dish, Cantonese restaurants usually offer tong sui, or sweet soups [literally meaning sugar water]. Many of the varieties are shared between Cantonese and other Chinese cuisines. Some desserts are more traditional, while others are more recent. Higher end restaurants usually offer their own blend and customization of desserts.
[edit]Delicacies
There are some dishes that are prized within the culture. These dishes range from being relatively affordable to very expensive. Most of these have been around in the Far East for a long time, while some are becoming available around the world. Many of these prized animals have serious animal rights controversial issues such as finning of Shark cartilages.
Famous Hakka dishes
- Dung Gong Yam Guk Gai - Salt baked chicken (東江鹽焗雞) [tuŋ44 kɔŋ44 jam11 kuk5 kai44] - originally baked inside a heap of hot salt, but today many restaurants simply cook in brine, or cover it with a salty mixture before steaming it or baking it in an oven. [1]
- Noh Mi Ap - Duck stuffed with rice (糯米鴨) [nɔ53 mi31 ap1]- a whole duck is de-boned while maintaining the shape of the bird, the cavities being filled with seasoned sticky rice.
- Beef meatball soup - very simple clear broth with lettuce and beef meat balls.
- Fried pork with fermented tofu: this is a popular Chinese New Year offering which involves two stages of cooking. As previously mentioned, fresh food was at a premium in Hakka areas, so the marinated pork was deep fried to remove the moisture in order to preserve it. When a meal of pork was desired, the fried pork was then stewed with water and wood's ear fungus. It is a Hakka equivalent tocanned soup.
- Ngiong Tew Foo (釀豆腐, [ɲjɔŋ55 tʰɛu55 fu53] stuffed tofu cube or Dung Gong Ngiong Tew Fu Bao - 東江釀豆腐煲): one of the more popular foods that originated from deep Hakka roots, it consists of tofu cubes heaped with minced meat (usually pork) and herbs, then fried till golden brown, or sometimes braised. Variations include usage of various oddments including eggplants, shiitake mushrooms, andbitter melon stuffed with the same meat paste. Traditionally, Ngiong tew foo is served in a clear yellow bean stew along with the bitter melon and shiitake variants. Modern variations that are more commonly seen sold in foodstalls are made by stuffing the tofu with solely fish paste. Usage of oddments to replace the tofu are more noticeable in this version, ranging from fried fish maw slices and okra to chili peppers.
- Kiu nyuk (扣肉 [kʰju53 ɲjuk1], There are two versions of Kiu Nyuk, the most common consists of sliced pork with preserved mustard greens): thick slices of pork belly, with a layer of preserved mustard greens between each slice, are cooked and served in a dark sauce made up of soy sauce andsugar. The other version is cooked with yam or taro. Usually pork belly are used, for its layers of fat and meat. The yam and pork are shallow fried until browned before being steamed with five spice. A variation of the recipe on Wikibooks Cookbook is available here.
- Lei cha or Pounded Tea (擂茶) [lui11 tsʰa11] : A consortment of tea leaves (usually green tea),peanuts, mint leaves, sesame seeds, mung beans and other herbs, which are pounded or ground into a fine powder which is mixed as a drink, or as a dietary brew to be taken with rice and other vegetarian side dishes such as greens, tofu, and pickled radish.
- Poon Choi (盆菜) [pʰun11 tsʰɔj53]: A variety of ingredients served in a basin.
- Sohn Pan Tzai (算盘子) [sɔn53 pʰan11 tsai31] or Àbacus Beads: Made of dough formed of tapioca and yam, cut intoabacus-bead shapes, which when cooked, are soft on the outside and a chewy on the inside. The dish may be cooked with minced chicken or pork, dried shrimps, mushrooms and various other vegetables.
The dish is stir-fried, seasoned with light soy sauce, salt, sugar and sometimes rice wine or vinegar (depending on taste).
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Bringing:-
tunghoon fried with dried shrimp & cucumber-tracy
Àbacus Beads- Linda :)
Or Heart 
