Chinese cuisines...

[jpinmaryland]

I have a working knowledge of chinese dishes but I am not really sure what characterizes the differenent cuisines from one another.

For example Cantonese, what makes a dish typical Cantonese? The type of seafood? dont they use a lot of wine in stuff? or is yellow bean paste a characteristic ?

Szechewan I understand is hot and spicy; have seen enuf of Chen Kinichi to sort of have an idea. What about Pekinese? What characterizes Pekinese?

anyone have some quick explanations?

 

[Lugaru]

From my 1968 time life series of cookbooks:

In the north, Peking, the capital of china for many centuries, was the birthplace of such dishes as Peking duck, reflecting the fact that the emperor and his courtiers recruited the best chefs in China and encouraged them to develop new dishes. Fukien province in the coastal region was almost inevitably the home of excellent fish dishes but in addition developed renown soups, clear and savory. A Chinese gourmet has recalled meals at which hosts of this area, proud of their famous soups, have served 3 different kinds in a banquet of only 12 dishes- a proportion he found excessive. Canton, in the south, has perhaps the most varied cuisine in China, partly because of its abundant natural resources and partly because at the overthrow of the Ming Dynasty in 1644 many of the chefs of peking's imperial household fled to canton. On their way south they acquired excellent recipes in each neighborhood which later introduced to the kitchens of Canton. The chefs of Szechwan, a province in the inland area, perhaps because of their penchant for more highly seasoned food, developed a distinctive dish called Szechwan duck, whose mouth tingling delight comes from liberal use of the Szchezwan pepper that has given the region's dishes a fiery reputation.