15 Best Cantonese Foods You Must Try

Cantonese cuisine is the most popular Chinese cuisine in the world. It tastes fresh, natural, and mild and is extremely rich in ingredients. The following are 15 best Cantonese foods you must try.
 

 Chinese Name: 阿一鲍鱼 ā yī bào yú
 Flavor: fresh, tender
 Cooking Method: braise, simmer
It is one of the best Cantonese dishes created by Yang Guanyi who is considered the “king of abalone”. The dried abalones are simply cooked with only the soup-stock without any seasonings for over 10 hours, which preserves the original flavor best.

Ah Yat Abalone

Roasted Suckling Pig

 Chinese Name: 烤乳猪 kǎo rǔ zhū
 Flavor: crispy, salty and fresh
 Cooking Method: roast
This is a special Guangzhou food that works as the sacrifice to the ancestors. 1-month old suckling pigs weighing 3 - 4 kg are the best ingredients. The color is often golden or brownish red and the pig skin tastes crispy, while the pork inside is fresh and can easily melt in your mouth.
 

 Chinese Name: 白切鸡 bái qiē jī
 Flavor: fresh, moderately salty, tender and mild
 Cooking Method: soft boil
White Cut Chicken originates in Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911 AD). The cockerel is softly boiled over low heat to retain the fresh flavor of chicken without any seasonings then cut into pieces. Customers often eat it together with sauce made of soy sauce, white sugar and so on.

White Cut Chicken

Cantonese Roasted Goose

 

 Chinese Name: 广式烧鹅 guǎng shì shāo é
 Flavor: slightly sweet, moderately salty
 Cooking Method: roast
The goose is roasted as a whole. The cleaned goose is brew up and sewed up, then quick boiled in hot water. Before roasting, the goose is soused with seasonings to add flavor. It tastes crispy outside and tender inside. It is often eaten with the dipping sauce cranberry sauce.
 

 Chinese Name: 广州文昌鸡 guǎng zhōu wén chāng jī
 Flavor: fresh and salty
 Cooking Method: boil, steam
The main ingredients of this Cantonese food is chicken from Wenchang in Hainan Island, ham and chicken livers. The Wenchang chicken and chicken livers are soft-boiled, which is the similar way to cook White Cut Chicken. Then the boiled chicken and chicken livers are carefully cut into similar size pieces, steamed together with ham, and finally topped with sauce made of soup-stock, Chinese cooking wine and starch.
 

 Chinese Name: 上汤焗龙虾 shàng tāng jú long xiā
 Flavor: fresh, fishy
 Cooking Method: fry, braise
The lobster must be big and fresh. It is firstly fried and then braised with chicken soup and seasonings. This is a nourishing dish with umami taste, high protein content, low fat content and rich nutrition.
 

 Chinese Name: 生拆蟹肉烩海虎翅 shēng chāi xiè ròu huì hǎi hǔ chì
 Flavor: fresh, tender
 Cooking Method: braise
It is one of the top 10 classic Cantonese dishes and is a very expensive one. The making process is complex. The fin is first steamed with chicken soup and then quick-boiled, while the crab meat is flash-fried. Then the fin and crab meat is braised together with chicken soup. The finished soup is transparent and taste extremely fresh and tender.
 

 Chinese Name: 干炒牛河  gān chǎo niú hé
 Flavor: salty and fresh
 Cooking Method: fry
Beef Ho Fun is a staple Cantonese food. The beef is flash-fried prior and then stir fried with rice noodles, green onion, onion, mung bean sprout and hotbed chives. When you finish the dish, there is no liquor left in the plate.

Beef Chow Fun

Clay Pot Rice

 Chinese Name: 煲仔饭 bāo zaǐ fàn
 Flavor: fresh and chewy
 Cooking Method: stew
This Cantonese food recipe is that put rice in the clay pot, cover with Cantonese roasted meat, sausage, vegetables or other meat or vegetarian ingredients, add in water and seasonings, and then stewed. When done, the rice on the bottom of clay pot becomes crispy, in the middle chewy and on the top with the fragrance of meat, sausage or other ingredients.
 

 Chinese Name: 肠粉 cháng fěn
 Flavor: fresh, sweet and tender
 Cooking Method: steam
Rice Noodle Rolls is a popular snack in Guangdong. People often have it for breakfast. The main ingredients are rice milk, egg, green vegetables, shrimp meat and pork. It is often seasoned with soy sauce, peanut butter, sesame paste, sesame oil or lard oil.
 

 Chinese Name: 糖醋咕噜肉 táng cù gū lū ròu
 Flavor: sweet and sour
 Cooking Method: fry, stir fry
It is also one of the famous Cantonese dishes originated in Qing Dynasty. It is cooked with sweet and sour sauce and pork. The color is bright orange and it tastes crispy and slightly spicy, slightly sweet and sour.
 

 Chinese Name: 八宝冬瓜盅 bā bǎo dōng guā zhōng
 Flavor: fresh and moderately salty
 Cooking Method: steam
This is a seasonal soup dish in summer. The main ingredients are winter melon, lean meat, chicken, ham, prawns, mushrooms, magnolia, scallops, and lotus seed. The winter melon works as a containers of the eight ingredients. After being steamed, the fresh flavor of winter melon penetrates into the ingredients and make the dish tasty and refreshing.
 

 Chinese Name: 蜜汁叉烧 mì zhī chā shāo
 Flavor: slightly sweet
 Cooking Method: braise and roast
It is a traditional dish in Guangdong, mainly made of lean pork, soy sauce, honey, sugar and peanut oil. The color is bright red and its nutritional value is high. In addition to eating directly, it can be eaten with rice or stuffed into steamed buns. The stuffing of the famous dim sum, Cha Siu Bao is made of it.

Char Siu

Slow-cooked Soup

 Chinese Name: 潮州卤菜 cháo zhōu lǔ cài
 Flavor: salty
 Cooking Method: brine
This is a dish in Chaoshan cuisine, a branch of Cantonese cuisine. The quality and taste of meat is decided by the brine soup which is strewed with dozens of ingredients, such as pork bones, soy sauce, ginger, clove, dried orange peel, Shaoxing cooking wine, turmeric and so on. The meat need to be boiled in the brine soup for several hours, which make the meat a rich flavor.
 

 Chinese Name: 老火靓汤 lǎo huǒ liàng tāng
 Flavor: sweet and fresh
 Cooking Method: simmer
Slow-cooked Soup is also known as Guangfu soup. It takes a long time to make this Cantonese food over low-fire. There are many kinds of slow-cooked soups. The common ones are black chicken soup with gelatin and red dates, pigeon soup with Chinese yam and so on.