Chinese cooking seasons mainly with ginger, garlic, spring onion and fermented sauces, reserving dried spices for braises and roasts, with vast differences between regions.
Overview¶
China's cooking is conventionally divided into eight great traditions — Cantonese (Yue), Sichuan (Chuan), Hunan (Xiang), Shandong (Lu), Jiangsu (Su), Zhejiang (Zhe), Fujian (Min) and Anhui (Hui) — and even that leaves out the food of Beijing, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Guizhou, the north-east and the Hakka. Generalising across a population larger than Europe's is risky, but some habits run widely: flavour is built from fresh aromatics and fermented products more than from dried spices; texture matters as much as taste; and balance across a meal of several dishes counts for more than intensity in any one.
The fundamental seasoning trio is ginger, garlic and spring onion. Add soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, black vinegar, sesame oil and fermented beans, and a great deal of Chinese cooking is covered without a single dried spice.
The core palette¶
- Aromatics: ginger, garlic, spring onion, and in some regions garlic chives and coriander (widely used as a garnish in the north and south-west).
- Warm spices for braising: star anise, cassia bark (Chinese cinnamon, rougui), fennel, cloves, black cardamom (caoguo is a related species), dried tangerine peel, and bay. These make up master stocks and lu braising liquids.
- Sichuan pepper (huajiao), used far beyond Sichuan, and white pepper, the everyday pepper of Cantonese and northern soups.
- Five-spice powder: usually star anise, cassia, fennel, cloves and Sichuan pepper, for roast meats and marinades.
- Chillies: dried whole chillies (often facing-heaven, chaotian jiao), flakes for chilli oil, and fermented chilli bean paste (doubanjiang).
- Fermented flavourings: soy sauces, fermented black beans (douchi), sweet bean paste, fermented tofu, oyster sauce.
- sesame: toasted sesame oil and paste; and cumin in the north-west.
Regional differences¶
- Cantonese (Guangdong, Hong Kong): prizes freshness and wok hei, the breath of the wok. Seasoning is light — ginger, spring onion, soy, white pepper — so the main ingredient shows. Char siu, roast goose and soy-braised meats use five-spice and master stocks.
- Sichuan and Chongqing: bold, layered and famous for mala, the numbing heat of Sichuan pepper and chilli. See sichuan-cuisine.
- Hunan: hotter than Sichuan in raw chilli terms, without the numbing; fresh, pickled and smoked chillies, and smoked cured pork.
- Jiangsu and Zhejiang (Shanghai region): sweet-savoury red-braising with soy and rock sugar, Shaoxing wine, and Zhenjiang black vinegar; dongpo pork, drunken chicken.
- Shandong and the north: wheat rather than rice, leeks and garlic, and robust braises. Beijing gives Peking duck.
- Fujian: soups and broths, red fermented rice (hongqu), and seafood.
- Xinjiang: the Uyghur kitchen uses cumin and chilli flakes heavily on lamb skewers and noodles, a palette closer to Central Asia.
- Yunnan: mint, coriander, fermented and wild ingredients, and a strong Southeast Asian influence.
Key techniques¶
- Stir-frying: aromatics hit very hot oil for seconds before the main ingredients. The high heat is why ginger and garlic are cut small and added first.
- Red-braising: meat is browned, then braised with soy, rock sugar, Shaoxing wine, star anise, cassia and ginger until glossy.
- Master stock (lushui): a spiced soy braising liquid kept and reused for years in some kitchens, topped up each time.
- Chilli oil: hot oil poured over flakes, Sichuan pepper and spices. See making-chilli-oil and chilli-crisp.
💡 Go easy on the star anise
Star anise is potent: one or two points of a star can be enough for a small braise. Too much turns a dish medicinal. The same goes for cloves in five-spice.
Landmark dishes¶
Cantonese char siu and steamed fish with ginger and spring onion; Sichuan mapo tofu and kung pao chicken; Hunan steamed fish head with chopped chillies; Shanghai red-braised pork belly; Peking duck; Xinjiang cumin lamb; Beijing zhajiangmian; and Yunnan crossing-the-bridge noodles. Five-spice roast pork belly and tea eggs simmered with star anise are widely made at home.
Stocking the cupboard¶
- Fresh ginger, garlic and spring onions
- Star anise and cassia bark
- Sichuan pepper — buy red, whole, and fragrant; see sanshool-and-tingling
- Ground white pepper
- Dried red chillies and chilli flakes
- Five-spice powder (small jar; it fades)
- Light and dark soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, Chinkiang black vinegar, toasted sesame oil
- A jar of chilli crisp or homemade chilli oil