Roots of Greatness of Cantonese Cuisine 广府菜

What makes 粤菜, the cuisine of Guangdong Province, one of the Eight Great Cuisines of China?

The one word answer is diversity.

Guangdong has diversity of food ingredients and a melting pot of many different culinary traditions.

*Guangdong cuisine 粤菜 is the cuisine of Guangdong Province which includes Cantonese cuisine, Hakka cuisine and the cuisine of Chaoshan (Teochew), etc. This article is about Cantonese cuisine 广府菜, the cuisine of the Pearl River Delta which includes the cities of Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau.

To understand Guangdong cuisine 粤菜 (and therefore Cantonese cuisine 广府菜), we start with its geography and history.

Guangdong Province is blessed in the south, with China's longest coastline, and in the north it is ringed by a forested mountain range with five peaks. With its sub-tropical climate Guangdong is richly blessed with numerous species of wildlife, plant life and marine life.

The Pearl River floods and deposits its rich sediment that nourishes the animal, plant and water life in the Delta since time immemorial. The Pearl River Delta is the home of Cantonese cuisine 广府菜.

There's a saying that Cantonese people "eat anything with its back to the sun". Another say Cantonese "eat anything with four legs except tables and chairs". Hence, don't be surprised that when you go to a market in Guangzhou, you will see live frogs, tortoises, snakes, etc sold as food.

With abundance of fresh ingredients, Cantonese cuisine 广府菜 is built on a foundation of simplicity and fast cooking methods to capitalise on the quality of ingredients.

Hence, the fundamental techniques are stir fry, sautéed, blanch, steam, poach, boil and grill / roast.

Cantonese cuisine 广府菜 prioritises the original natural taste of fresh and quality ingredients, using light seasoning to highlight natural flavours without overpowering them. Hence, strong ingredients like chili pepper are used very sparingly or not at all.

The main flavours of Cantonese cuisine are well balanced savoury, umami and sweet.

Steamed Fish with Ginger and Scallion is quintessentially Cantonese and a good example of fresh, quality ingredients prepared with elegant simplicity.

Minimal oil and emphasis on steaming / poaching make Cantonese cuisine lighter than other regional cuisines thus appealing to health conscious diners. But for me, it is the ability to taste the natural flavours of the fresh ingredients that make Cantonese cuisine so attractive.

Ingredients are, of course seasonal, but availability of food is secure all year round - just different ingredients during different seasons. So, taking advantage of seasonality is a characteristic of Cantonese cuisine. Chefs emphasise seasonal produce when they are at their best.

The Cantonese treasure wok hei which is a smokey, toasty taste and aroma created by skilful handling of the wok and control of heat. The smokey taste of wok hei is pleasant and does not compromise the natural taste of fresh ingredients - it is not the burnt ashy taste of char!

Also due to all year abundance, there is relatively less emphasis on preservation techniques such as fermentation and pickling.

The fundamentals of great ingredients and simplicity of technique are enough to make Cantonese cuisine great, but Cantonese cuisine is even more than that. It is obvious to even casual diners that there's more to Cantonese cuisine than blanch, steam, stir fry, boil, and roast.

On the foundation of abundance, there's the overlay of other culinary traditions and techniques brought into Guangdong by trade and migration.

The history of Guangdong Province and Cantonese cuisine is the history of trade and migration in a territory well blessed with abundance from the land and sea.

Soon after Emperor Shih Huang Di founded the Qin Dynasty (221 - 206 BC), the first unified empire of China, he set his sights on the south and brought it into the fold.

When the Qin Dynasty fell in 206 BC, Zhao Tuo the Qin-assigned general commanding Guangdong established his own kingdom and declared himself emperor. He called his kingdom Nan Yue.

Nan Yue's capital Panyu 番禺区 is today a district of today's Guangzhou city in the Pearl River Delta.

During the Nan Yue years, the territory of Guangdong was garrisoned by 500,000 soldiers of the former Qin Dynasty. These renegades loyal to Zhao Tuo, not returning to the Central Plains intermarried local Yue people and thus their northern culinary cultures integrated with existing Yue foundations.

This brought new cooking techniques and new dishes into Cantonese cuisine. One example is yusheng or raw fish.

The renegade kingdom of Nan Yue (204 BC - 111 BC) lasted nearly 100 years before it was subdued by the Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD). Nan Yue became a part of China (again) and remained to this day.

Since its inception, the agricultural Middle Kingdom of China had to fend off marauding nomadic nations from the north. Twice, the nomads ruled China, the Mongolian Yuan (1271 - 1368) and Manchurian Qing (1636 - 1912).

The chaotic, alternating periods of peace and war over 2,000 years created five major waves of mass migrations from the Central Plains to the edge of the sea in the south i.e. Guangdong (and also Fujian) province.

These migrants brought their culinary culture to Guangdong, enriching the culinary melting pot.

The Nan Yue locals called northern migrants Hakka 客家 or "guest people". The Hakka people brought their own culinary traditions to Guangdong. These Hakka traditions are unique and distinct from Nan Yue customs, but influenced Cantonese cuisine as well.

While the Cantonese originally used mainly fresh ingredients, the northern migrants brought preserved dishes to the table.

南乳卤鸡翼 chicken & pork cooked in fermented bean curd

For example, the northern migrants brought fermented bean curd to Guangdong which later found its way into Cantonese cuisine.

The roast duck came to Guangdong with migrants escaping the advancing Mongols during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127 - 1279). But, there weren't as many ducks in Guangdong, so chefs substituted goose. Hence, the iconic Cantonese Roasted Goose 广式烧鹅 was created. Cantonese roast goose is prized for its golden brown crispy skin, succulent meat, marinated with honey and spices.

Since the Han Dynasty, Guangzhou was made the southern terminal of both the overland caravan Silk Road and Maritime Silk Road. This brought trading communities from Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Middle East to Guangdong - the world meets in Guangzhou. They left their imprint on Cantonese cuisine making it a unique blend of local, all of China and international flavours.

When you come to Guangzhou, you will encounter dace fish and dace fish products such as fish balls, raw fish slices, fried stuffed dace fish, etc frequently.

Dace fish is deeply embedded in Cantonese culture, including its diaspora (canned dace fish go everywhere Cantonese people go).

The Mulberry Dyke Fish Pond ecosystem was created during the Spring and Autumn Era (770 BC - 221 BC). Mulberry trees were planted on dykes around dace fish ponds. The faeces of dace fish were used to fertilise the Mulberry trees. Silk worms fed on the Mulberry leaves and their faeces fell into the dace fish pond. Dace fish fed on silk worm waste. Dace fish was a major source of protein for Cantonese people. This formed a closed loop, self sustaining eco-system.

During the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), silk production was consolidated in Guangzhou, the main port of China. Hence, there are many Mulberry Dyke Fish Ponds which still exist today, and dace fish is still an icon of Cantonese cuisine.

The Portuguese egg tart inspired the Cantonese egg tart which is now considered an essential dim sum item in yum cha teahouses. Along with siew mai (pork dumpling), char siew bao (roast pork bun), and har gao (shrimp dumpling), the egg tart is considered one of the Four Heavenly Kings of dim sum - not bad for a dish that came much later - it reflects the open mindedness of Cantonese chefs and public.

Among Chinese cuisines, Cantonese is the most well travelled, planting seeds near and far. Since the Han dynasty, traders from Guangzhou fanned out to Southeast Asia to tap on trading opportunities, for example in the Malay Archipelago.

Bombardment of Guangzhou

After the first Opium War (1839 - 1842), many impoverished people from Guangdong moved to British Malaya, the Dutch East Indies and further afield to California, USA.

These migrants from Guangzhou spawned local cuisines like American Chinese food, Singapore and Malaysian food with a Cantonese core.

Bugis Street Singapore in the 1960s

Cantonese staples like wanton noodle, rice rolls (chee cheong fun), congee, yam cake, Cantonese roasts (pork & chicken), roast suckling pig, etc., are ubiquitous in Singapore and Malaysia (former British Malaya).

Take Cantonese White Cut Chicken 白切鸡. Tender succulent poached chicken served with ginger-scallion dip and rice boiled in chicken stock. A variant known as Singapore Hainanese chicken rice is an unofficial national dish of Singapore.

Eating raw fish evolved into Lou Hei Yee Sang in Singapore and Malaysia, adding a celebratory touch to the dish by cheering out loud auspicious sayings represented by ingredients specially chosen for their symbolism.

In Malaysia, they like to douse curry sauce over their rice rolls or chee cheong fun.

Will chefs in Guangzhou or anywhere in Guangdong be pulling out their hair by this seeming culinary "blasphemy"?

I feel, that is unlikely because Cantonese chefs are used to embracing diversity. Not many will bat an eyelid as they themselves have been adopting and adapting external customs and practices into their own food culture. And therein, lies the root of Cantonese cuisine's greatness.

It is made up of many customs that pass through Guangzhou and the movement of many Cantonese people around the world in the long river of time of, at least 2,500 years. Cantonese cuisine is the sum of all these parts, no, it is greater than the sum of these parts.

Long live 广府菜 Cantonese cuisine.

Image credit

Map of Guangdong, map of Pearl River Delta, sea food market, map of Qin Dynasty, map of Nanyue, Panyu district, Bugis Street Singapore, map of Silk Road, Nom Wah restaurant, Opium War,

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