Shandong Cuisine
By admin on 2014-12-17

Shandong Cuisine

As an essential component of Chinese culinary arts, Shandong cuisine, also known as Lu Cai for short, boasts a prolonged history and far-reaching influence. Shandong cuisine can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period (770-221BC). It was quickly developed in the South and North Dynasty (960-1279), and was recognized as an important style of cooking in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Shangdong cuisine is a representative of northern China's cooking and its techniques have been widely accepted in northeast China.

The cuisine consists of two major styles. Jiaodong style encompasses dishes from eastern Shandong like Fushan, Qingdao, Yantai and surrounding regions, characterized by seafood cooking, with light tastes. Jinan style includes dishes from Jinan, Dezhou, Tai'an and surrounding regions, famed for its soup and utilizing soups in its dishes.

Created during the Yuan Dynasty and gradually spreading to Beijing, Tianjin, Northeast China, and the palace where it influenced the imperial food, the cuisine is considered the most influential in Chinese cuisine, with majority of the culinary styles in China having developed from it. Modern day schools of cuisine in North China, such as those of Beijing, Tianjin and Northeast, are all branches of the cuisine. Also, the typical dishes in most North China households' meals are prepared in simplified Shandong methods.

Though modern transportation methods have greatly increased the availability of ingredients throughout China, the cuisine remains rooted in its ancient traditions. Most notable is the staggering array of seafood, including scallops, prawns, clams, sea cucumbers and squids, all of which are well-known in Shandong as local ingredients of exemplary quality.

Shandong is a large peninsula surrounded by the sea, with the Yellow River meandering through the center. As a result, seafood is a major component of the cuisine. The most famous dish is the sweet and sour carp. A truly authentic sweet and sour carp must come from the Yellow River. In addition to sweet and sour carp, typical courses in the cuisine include braised abalone with shells, fried sea cucumber with fistulous onion, fragrant calamus in milk soup, quick-fried double fats (a very traditional dish consisting of pork tripe and chicken gizzards), and Dezhou stewed chicken, known throughout the country. The chicken is so well cooked that the meat easily separates from the bone although the shape of the chicken is preserved.

Beyond the use of seafood, Shandong is somewhat unique for its wide use of corn, a local cash crop that is not widely cultivated elsewhere. Unlike the sweet corn of North America, Shandong corn is chewy and starchy, often with a grassy aroma. It is often served simply as steamed or boiled cobs, or removed from the cob and lightly fried.

Shandong is also well known for its peanut crops, which are fragrant and naturally sweet. It is common at meals in Shandong, both formal and casual, to see large platters of peanuts, either roasted in the shell, or shelled and stir-fried with salt. Peanuts are also served raw in a number of cold dishes that hail from the region.

Shandong is also distinct from most of China's other culinary traditions in its wide use of a variety of small grains. Millet, wheat, oat and barley can be found in the local diet, often eaten as porridge, or milled and cooked into one of the many varieties of steamed, baked and fried breads or buns, pancakes, crisp cakes, and big cakes stuffed with minced meats.

Despite its rich agricultural output, Shandong has not traditionally used the wide variety of vegetables seen in many southern styles of Chinese cooking. Potatoes, tomatoes, cabbages, mushrooms, onions, garlic and eggplants make up the staple vegetables in the Shandong diet. Grassy greens, sea grasses, and bell peppers are also not uncommon. The large, sweet cabbages grown in central Shandong are renowned for their delicate flavor and hardiness. As has been the case for generations, these cabbages are a staple of the winter diet throughout much of the province, and are featured in a great number of dishes.

Possibly Shandong's greatest contribution to Chinese cuisine has been in the area of brewing vinegars. Hundreds of years of experience combined with unique local methods have led to Shandong's prominence as one of the premier regions for vinegar production in China. Unlike the lighter flavored, sharper vinegars popular in the southern regions, Shandong vinegar has a rich, complex flavor which, among some connoisseurs, is considered fine enough to be enjoyed on its own merits.