Fujian (Min) Cuisine

Fujian Cuisine has long been well known for its four distinctive styles: Fuzhou, Western, Southern and Quanzhou. In particular Fujian Cuisine is famed for its use of seafood, its soups and stews, and for the stunning visual presentation of its dishes.

Fuzhou cuisine is light compared to the other styles, often with a mixed sweet and sour taste. Emphasis is on utilizing soup in a variety of styles; Western Fujian cuisine often has a spicy taste and the cooking methods used are often steaming and the well known stir-fry method; In the Southern style of Fujian cuisine frequently there is a mix of tastes in spicy and sweet flavors with an elaborate selection of sauces to provide the diner with a seemingly unending number of choice options; Quanzhou cuisine is the least oily among all the Fujian styles of cuisine but with the strongest taste/flavor.  It also puts a great deal of emphasis on the shape of the material for each dish.

Major seasonings used include shrimp sauce and shrimp oil and soy sauce for the salty dishes and white vinegar and Qiaotou (a vegetable similar to green onions and garlic) are often used in the sour dishes. The sweet ones include brown and crystal sugar while the spicy ones include pepper and mustard. Wine lees from the production of rice wine and the red yeast rice are commonly used in all aspects of the region's cuisine.

Representative dishes:
    Buddha jumps over the wall
    Lychee crispy pork
    Red yeast rice chicken
    Snails cooked with wine lees
    Clams cooked in chicken stock
    Fried fish filled yuba skin
    Radish steamed with conpoy and Chinese ham
    Wine marinade pork ribs
    Meat filled longan fruit
    Wine braised frog