Delicacies

Hebei cuisine

(Great Wall Vacation)
Updated: 2011-02-17 15:41

Being the leading agricultural province in China (mainly wheat, cotton and sunflower oil), eating in Hebei is never a problem. There are many local specialties waiting for you as well as various other provincial and imperial cuisines.

Hebei Cuisine

The Hebei Cuisine (also known as Ji Cuisine) Family has three branches, Middle and South Hebei Cuisine, Chengde Summer Resort Royal Cuisine and East Beijing Seafood Cuisine.

Middle and South Hebei Cuisine is the most typical cuisine of Hebei and is primarily based upon Baoding dishes. It features a wide selection of raw materials and utilizes mountainous wild game, fish from Baiyangdian, shrimps and crabs. The dishes taste strong and savory and are always served with soup.

Chengde Summer Resort Royal Cuisine is based on Chengde dishes.

East Beijing Seafood Cuisine is based on Tangshan dishes and is renowned for using fresh seafood as its basic ingredients. It features refined cutting skills with a light and fresh taste which stresses the spraying of starch on to dishes cooked with light oil (such oil is pure and clean and not mixed with starch or any other flavorings) and its dishes are uniquely displayed in fine Tangshan porcelain trays.

Ji Cuisine excels with the use of various seafood, poultries and livestock, emphasizing the balance between color, smell, fragrance, shape, quality and presentation. The selection of raw ingredients is very strict and the cutting skills are very refined requiring the chefs to cut various patterns and slice the meat into very thin pieces.

Ji Cuisine pays special attention to the cooking time, focusing on fresh, salty and delicate flavors. Its dishes taste salty but slightly sweet, tender and crispy.

Various cooking techniques are employed, such as stir-frying, quick-frying, sautéing, braising, stewing, baking, steaming and caramelizing. The braised and fried dishes use pure and light oil to spray onto the finished dishes, whereas the baked and quick-fried dishes use cooked oil (such oil mixed with starch and fat could make the finished dish more colorful and delicious). The cooking techniques are refined and the appearance of the dishes looks nice and fresh, rich in color and savory.

Typical Ji dishes are Sautéed Tender Chicken Breast, Sautéed Chicken Breast with Green Peppers and Carrots, Braised Chinese Cabbage with Chestnuts, Sautéed Pork Kidneys, Deep Fried Prawns, Braised Plaice, Braised Chub with Fermented Bean Curd, Chang Style Prawns, Chicken Stewed with Chestnuts, Sautéed Shredded Pork, Tofu Stewed with Bean Sprout, Deep Fried Pancake Made with Green Bean, Deep Fried Chicken Legs and Quick-fried Crabs.