Family Menus In Guangzhou

1) Tofu Stuffed With Meat

It is a traditional Hakka dish. Shape a piece of Tofu(bean curd) in cube, then empty the inside, (careful not to dig it through). At the same time make the fillings ready: pork, shrimp, mushroom and salty fish. Mix the filling with pepper powder, glutamate, sesame oil, salt and eggs, then put the mixture in the bean curd and make the fillings a little higher than the bean curd. Then put the bean curd in the boiling hot oil, the filling side down. Then fry it with slow fire till it is 70% done. Then stew the bean curd with earthen pot together with some vegetables. And serve it with the pot. This dish is rich, salty and hot. It will be excellent if it is served with chili sauce.

2) Dinghu Vegetarian Food

As one of the famous vegetarian food in China, the Caigenxiang restaurant improves the cooking style which is famous in Xiyuan restaurant. The original dish is cooked with soup and the taste is very good. It tastes like meat even though there isn't any meat inside. The raw material includes: mushroom, winter mushroom, white mushroom, winter bamboo shoot, ginger, spring onion, salt, glutamate, oyster oil, sugar, wine, peanut oil, and starch. Heat the pot and put the ingredients in to simmer it for some time, then put all the other raw materials in. After this, add some starch to make the soup thick, then it is ready to be served.

3) Pig Hoof

Wrap the pork with pig hoof skin, bamboo board and grass string tightly and make it in the shape of the hoof. Then simmer with soy sauce, Chinese wine, sugar, ginger, anise, cassia, licorice root and chicken soup. It is served in sliced pieces, tight and tasty.

4) Cantonese Soup

The Cantonese soup refers to the soup that is cooked for a long time and tasty. It is usually cooked with the clay pot. The method is to put the raw materials in when the water is boiling, then put the fire down and cook it with slow fire for 2-4 hours. There are hundreds of recipes of the soup. The turtle soup, pigeon soup, shark's fin soup, the abalone soup and some others are popular ones. The usual ones are the vegetables and bones. Other ingredients include ginger, dates and other herbal medicine. Since 1990s, all the restaurants of Guangzhou serve good soup. Some of the restaurants offer telephone-reserve service.

5) Perch in Soup

Choose the perch which are around 500-700g, then boil the soup and cool it down to around 70-85" C, then cook it to about 50% done, then put it to cold soup to make the flesh sturdy. Then put it back to the hot soup till it is 100% done. It is served with Soya sauce, peanut oil, pepper powder and sesame. The dish tastes tender and crisp.

6) Boiled Snail Slice

This dish has a history of about 100 years. The snail slice are sliced into thin pieces from the sea snails that are over 1.5kg. Then put oil, ginger, spring onion, soup and wine into the pot and put the slice in. Fry it very quickly. After that, boil some oil and put the snails back again. It 's served with shrimp sauce and oyster oil. The dish tastes very soft and nice.

7) Eels With Black Bean Sauce

The eels are from the border area of the Pearl River and sea. Cut the eel every 3cm on the back, then use black bean, salt and glutamate to make it even, then put it in the plate to make it in the shape of a snake. Then put it in the steamer for some time and it is served with pepper powder, hot peanut oil and coriander. 

8) Steamed Red Ointment Crab

In the joint of the Pearl River and the sea, there are many water crab. After they are mature, the male ones are called "meat crab' the female one are called "ointment crab". The female crab is better in taste. The way to cook is to take the crab yellow out and mix it with peanut oil, the smash the crab, and make several pieces of it. Then put some ginger and spring onions in and steam it with very strong fire for 10 minutes. Then remove the ginger, spring onion and water and put the yellow on the shell, and steam it for 2 minutes again. It is served with smashed ginger and vinegar.

9) Shrimps Soaked in Oil

Usually the shrimps are selected from those in Beijiang River and Xijiang River. First mix the shrimps with soda powder, starch and egg white, and then put the mixture in the fridge for 2 hours. Heat the pot and 1kg of pig oil and put the mixture in till the mixture is 70% done (stir the shrimps from time to time so as to avoid the shrimps stick to the bottom of the pot). Then take out the mixture and use another pot to put some spring onion, and olive, shrimps, soup and starch and fry it fast. The dish is beautiful and delicious.

10) Braised Shark's Fin

This dish is the high class dish in high class banquets. It is made from the best shark fin and soup boiled with various types of meat. In the 1930's, a famous chief named Wu Luan in Dasayuan restaurant developed this dish. The dish is chewy but crisp; the soup is rich, but not greasy. It is regarded the best of all shark fin dishes, and is welcome by the customers.

11) Steamed Spot Fish

Steamed fish is steamed thoroughly without any other condiments to keep its original flavor. Clean the fish and get the entrails out, then remove the water. Put some salt inside and outside of the fish and put it on the oval plate, under it put some spring onion, ginger slice and some oil. When the water in the wok is boiling, steam it with slow fire for 10-15 minutes. Get rid of the spring onion and water in the plate, and put some ginger, spring onion slice, cooked oil, and Soya sauce on the top of the fish.

12) Turtle Soaked in Small Pot

Clean the turtle and get rid of the blood and guts, and cut it into small pieces. Heat the small pot and boil the soup together with some Chinese herbal medicine, such as dates, Huaishan, Longan, Gouji till it is done. Then put the turtle in and boil it as soon as it is cooked. This dish is served with garlic smash, spring onion, MSG, salt and cooked oil. This dish belongs to the Mongolian hot pot.