第1个回答 2006-12-24
Cantonese Cuisine
For many of us, our first introduction to Chinese food came through dining at a restaurant featuring Cantonese cuisine. It's hardly surprising that Cantonese cooking was the first Chinese regional cuisine to take hold in the United States. After all, the original Chinese immigrants were mainly Cantonese coming to work on the railroads in the 1800's.
When it comes to ingredients, Cantonese cooks are fortunate to live in an area with abundant rainfall and a tropical climate. The province of Guangdong is a major agricultural area, while Guangzhou city, known in the west as Canton, is a major Chinese seaport located on the Pearl River. Lush rice paddies abound throughout the Pearl River Delta. There are also several pig and poultry farms throughout the area.
However, the Cantonese are also very inventive, and happy to incorporate non-native ingredients in their cooking. Coconut milk, rice noodles and curry powder, staples of Thai and Indian cuisine, show up in several Cantonese dishes.
The popular regional dishes are as follows. Beef with Oyster Sauce is a typical Cantonese dish, as are Fried Rice and Steamed Chicken. Steamed sea bass, stir-fried garoupa, and Lobster Cantonese are all well-known Cantonese dishes. Shark's fin soup is a local delicacy. Curry chicken, made by simmering chicken, curry powder and vegetables in coconut milk, shows the influence of Southeast Asian cuisine on Chinese cooking. Vegetable dishes reflect the wide variety and seasonality of what is available.
In conclusion, along with freshness and quality, artistic presentation of the food and garnishing are also very important in Cantonese cuisine.