Cuisine

Taste

A pot of chilli oil, a roast duck, a steamer of dumplings. A place shows its character first on the tongue.

In this volume

13 pieces

Cuisine · Guangzhou / Hong Kong / Shenzhen

Cantonese Dim Sum

A feast that starts in the morning

Cuisine · Shanghai / Jiangsu

Jiangnan Xiaolongbao

The first bite is about not getting burnt

Cuisine · Beijing

Peking Duck

The ritual of one bird

Cuisine · Chengdu / Chongqing

Sichuan Hotpot

A thermometer for a table of people

Food

Sichuan

A stack of bamboo steamer baskets with the top lid lifted, dumplings translucent in heavy steam

Food

Cantonese

Clear amber stock in a white bowl with a single curl of scallion

Food

Shandong

Hair-thin shredded tofu floating apart in clear soup, shot macro

Food

Jiangsu

Dark glossy braised pork belly squares tied with straw in a shallow dish

Food

Zhejiang

A dark ceramic pot with the lid just lifted, steam obscuring the contents

Food

Fujian

A whole steamed fish head under a mound of red chopped chillies

Food

Hunan

Bamboo shoots and dried mushrooms on a rough wooden board in cool daylight

Food

Anhui

Youtiao and a bowl of soy milk steaming on a steel street-stall counter at dawn

Food

Breakfast

The eight-cuisine scheme is a Qing-era classification and it leaves things out — Yunnan, Xinjiang, Northeast and Tibetan cooking are all absent from it and all worth a trip on their own. Treat it as the map most Chinese people carry, not as the territory.

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