Guangzhou is universally known for its excellent food. Cantonese cuisine is one of the Famous Eight in China with different flavors and styles, by using diverse and delicate materials, exotic spices and various cooking skills. Cantonese cuisine, as epitome of Chinese food culture, is a mixture of tradition and modern, east and west. Basically, it is also a combination of local dishes from the different prefectures of Guangdong Province, or even from other provinces and abroad. Cantonese dishes are often characterized with various unusual ingredients and materials. Apart from seafood, animals, insects and worms, flowers and weeds are all made into dishes. There is a variety of Cantonese dim sum, sweet or salty. The delicious Cantonese-style dim sum served with tea offers a fresh flavor in leisure time. It is estimated that there are over 1000 ways of making desserts in Guangzhou. Most locals are gourmets and love varieties. Scattered all over the city there are over 5 000 restaurants, teahouses and snack eateries, offering service around the clock.
"It is not always possible to translate Chinese menus because many of the ingredients are either unknown or unmentionable to Western barbarians", a British magazine once commented on the Chinese dishes. If you want to enjoy authentic Cantonese dishes, you may visit any of the following traditional long-standing local restaurants (Laozihao in Chinese). They are popular for different sorts of Guangzhou dishes, which represent, probably, the essence of Cantonese cuisine:
A recent survey shows that there are now fewer than 50 famous old brand names with a history of over 50 years left in Guangzhou. The Laozihao constitute a crucial part of the city's unique history and Lingnan culture of the over 2200-year-old city. As part of the rescuing and protecting program of the city's historic and cultural relics, the municipal government of Guangzhou has certificated a first round of 27 "Laozihao" (Old Brand Names), in order to preserve the city's historic well-known brand names, buildings and trademarks. In this program, the "Laozihao" are seen as an integral part of the city's cultural heritage. The special craftsmanship and recipes, the brands and trademarks should be taken as valuable invisible assets.
The Cantonese also have a custom of drinking tea with dim sum in their leisure time or at business meetings. The tea drinking tradition can be traced back a hundred years to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). In those days, the Cantonese used to go to a nearby teahouse, like the popular "Two-Cent Teahouse", where they needed to pay only two cents for a pot of tea and some simple snacks. The customers were mostly temporary laborers who couldn't afford anything more expensive. By the later Qing period, teahouses in the true sense had emerged in Guangzhou. These were more expensive places offering much better tea with a variety of delicacies. The teahouse had become the best retreat for the professionals and businessmen as well as the ordinary people.
The Cantonese came to the teahouse for different reasons. The real tea-drinkers, for instance, preferred to kill time with one pot of fragrantly hot tea and two plates of snacks. Businessmen came here to exchange information as well as to enjoy life a little bit over a cup of tea with some snacks in the old days. But thousands of ordinary urbanites would rush to the teahouse in the early morning for a moment of relaxation before starting the daily routine work. Most would like to go to the same teahouse as usual, where they would take the same seat to meet with their friends and fellows, inform each other of community gossips, or just have small talk among themselves. Sometimes, they simply talked of the hard life they endured. With time passing by, teahouses have prospered ever since they appeared in Guangzhou. Drinking tea has become an inseparable part of the local life. Nowadays, life here starts with the morning tea for many Guangzhou urbanites. So, if you are staying in Guangzhou and want to know about the local customs, better join the Cantonese in their passion for morning tea. In the midst of the crowds of Cantonese teahouse goers, you may get a better idea of what life is like in Guangzhou. |
Asia Travel 
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