Jun 10

Jun 10 Must Try Local Dishes in Guangzhou

For me, the best part of visiting a new place is trying new foods. Guangzhou is the home of Cantonese food and it will not disappoint. That being said, if you want the true local experience, you will most likely run into a language barrier. While larger restaurants may have an English menu, many classic Cantonese dishes are dished out of small food stalls and “hole-in-the-walls”. The easy way around this is to have the name of the dish you want to try saved in Chinese and simply show the name to the staff. They will make the necessary adjustments to ensure you get your food.

One thing you will notice is the use of the wok. If you have a chance to talk to the locals, they will often comment on whether the dish had enough wok air. For those who are curious, wok air, a.k.a breath of the wok (镬气) has a similar principle to those who swear that food cooked by cast iron pans taste better because the essence of the previous dishes are imparted on the current one. The only difference for wok air is that this is only achieved when your wok is at the correct temperature. Wok air is one of the most important things to look for in Cantonese stir fry.

Fresh steamed rice roll/Cheung Fun/肠粉

You’ve most likely encountered a version of this dish if you’ve ever had dim sum. But in Guangzhou, this dish is taken to a whole new level. While you can also get cheung fun at dim sum in Guangzhou, you must have it at one of the cheung fun stalls around the city for the freshest and best noodles. At these stalls, you will order and pay a staff near the front of the store. They’re usually the person sitting in front of a small wooden side table. There, you will place your order of topping for your cheung fun. Typical toppings are beef and pork. You can have both and add an egg for good measure. The character for beef is 牛 , pork is 猪 and to “add egg” is 加蛋. This dish is often considered a go to for a quick breakfast or for late night after a round of karaoke or foot massage.

Typical cheung fun and congee restaurant/stall

Congee/Rice Porridge/粥

Congee is a hot dish where rice is put into a large pot of boiling water for a length of time until the rice has broken down and thicken into a rice porridge. Similar to cheung fun, congee has many toppings and are typically eaten for breakfast and late night. Not surprisingly, you will find most cheung fun joints will also serve fresh congee. Some of the traditional toppings include beef (牛), pork (猪), fish (鱼), chicken (鸡), innards (内脏) and liver (肝). After you ordered your congee, the staff will most likely give you a token. Give your token to the staff member standing in front of a giant vat of bubbling congee. The colour of the token will inform the staff of the type of congee you ordered. The staff will then ladle some congee into a smaller pot and add your topping of choice into the same pot. After a few minutes, your congee is done.

My favourite congee is pork and century egg or 皮蛋猪肉粥.

Pan Fried Beef Noodle/干炒牛河

Pan Fried Beef Noodle might as well be the official dish of Guangzhou. Translated as dry stir fry beef noodle, this dish is eaten during dim sum, lunch, dinner and late night. My family and friends order this at every meal and it can be found in most non specialized restaurant with a wok (don’t try to order this at cheung fun stand) and it is in fact my favourite Cantonese dish. This dish is made by throwing flat rice noodle, beef, bean sprouts and some soy sauce in a insanely hot wok. If the wok is hot enough, it result of this is a noodle that is not oily, but instead is slightly chewy with the feel of “wok air”. If your noodles ever come out cold or feel soggy, the chef does not know what he’s doing. A variation of this dish, wet stir fry beef noodle(湿炒牛河) is when the beef and the noodles are stir fried but then topped with a gravy on top. Instead of bean sprouts, this dish typically use gai lan or choi sum instead.

Roasted Squab/红烧乳鸽

Roasted squab or pigeon is available in most larger restaurants in Guangzhou. To make this dish, the bird is marinated and then bathed in hot sizzling oil, resulting in a crispy skin and juicy inside. A variation on the roasted squab is soy sauce marinated squab. Like the name suggest, instead of roasting the squab, the squab is marinated and then boiled in soy sauce and various spices to give it a rich and savoury flavour. I prefer roasted squab because I love the crispy skin. Regardless of the type of squab, it is normally served with the entire bird cut into 5 pieces. It is customary to serve a whole animal, with both the head and the tail. This is both to show the customer that they were not given random parts from various animals, but also stem from the Chinese proverb of “having head and having tail”, meaning to be a whole or well rounded person. You are not required to eat the head but the brain is quite creamy.