Cantonese cuisine is one of...
by zqboy
Cantonese cuisine is one of the four main cuisine in China. It has absorbed the strong points of other cuisine, diverse and delicate in material. The choice materials cover a wide range and the seasonings are varied and well coordinated. The dishes are prepared carefully and exquisitely. Quick-fried or stewed, they turn out to be fresh, crisp, tender, slippery and not salty with all flavors and tastes. They varies with the change of seasons, conforming to modern dietetics.
Guangzhou's catering industry ranks first in scale in the country. According to statistics, there are about ten thousand catering enterprises and restaurants with some 500,000 seats, of which quite a number are old name restaurants with a history of more than 100 years or newly-built famous ones. There are numerous well-known dishes, pastries, snacks and local-flavor food. Dishes renowned at home and abroad are the Complete Dinner of Manchu and Mandarin Dishes of Guangzhou Restaurant, The Refreshments Meal of Panxi Restaurant, Fish with Pine Nuts of Beiyuan Restaurant, Chaozhou Dishes of Nanyuan Restaurant, moon cake with lotus seed paste of Lian Xiang Lou, Tao Tao Ju Restaurant, stewed shark's fin in brown sauce of Da Sanyuan Restaurant, Jinpai roast suckling pig of Datong Restaurant, Dongjiang Kejia dishes of Dingjiang Restaurant, Shanshui Shahe rice starch noodles of Shahe Restaurant, Qingping chicken of Qingping Restaurant, Beijing and Tianjin dishes of Huabei (North China) Restaurant, Muslim dishes of Huimin Restaurant and snake dishes of Man, the Snake King's Restaurant, etc. Most restaurant in Guangzhou provide three teas, two meals and one night snack. Combining eating with entertainment, they usually open from 5:00 a.m to 12:00 at night. Some even provide 24-hour service.
People say that you are not counted as having been to Guangzhou if you haven't tasted the well-known dishes and pastries here.
Menu like a taxi meter
by TonyHorne about Xiangyuan
While staying at the Guangwu hotel I decieded to give their Xiangyuan restaurant a try as I was told that the roast duck was quite good. On my first visit the duck was not available and had beef instead. However on my second visit it was and immediatly ordered it, whereapon the waitress went to the page in the menue it was on to show me and immediatly wrote a new price over the old,raising it to Y46. I was not too upset by this however when my bill finally arrived the price had been jacked up once again and was now Y66.Now I went balistic. With nobody understanding each other in the furor a guest at the next table, who was from Hong Kong, offered to intervene and mediate onmy behalf. on explaining my story to him he spoke to them rather tersly and the bill was quickly rectified.
The result was that the Hong Kong chap and his Belgian guests, who like me were there for the Canton Fair invited me to join them on a trip to the lake for drinks.
Happy ending. The duck was nice but not spectacular however the "taxi meter" cost left a bad taste.
Yuexiu Park - Five Rams Statue
by Willettsworld
This statue, built in 1959 using 130 pieces of marble, is the most famous symbol of the city. According to legend from more than 1000 years ago, Guangzhou was a not a rich land; people during those days had to work very hard to make their earnings meet. Then one day, people heard a heavenly song and saw five fairies wearing colourful dress and riding five rams with each ram carrying six bundles of grains in their mouth. They gave the grains to the Guangzhou people and blessed the place forever with a good harvest and then the fairies left but the five rams were turned into stone. Since then, Guangzhou became a prosperous land and its people enjoyed a better life. This transforming legend was passed through the ages till today. That’s why Guangzhou is also called "five ram’s city" or "grain city".