Discerning diners
While Cantonese cuisine has many world-famous dishes, the key to its salivating success has been its adaptability. In the past year, social and economic changes in Guangzhou are being reflected in southern China's most worshipped pastime; eating, and this is causing many Chinese cooks to respond in kind.
Previously, Cantonese chefs only needed to concern themselves with how to prepare dishes that were handed down through generations. Nowadays, Guangzhou's chefs are more market sensitive and agree that to survive in the competitive restaurant business, they have to be sensitive to new eating trends.
Some of the city's best-known chefs agree that thanks to a string of pandemic annoyances like Sars and bird flu, big spenders who used to eat whatever pleased their palate are now more discerning.
'Now, more people want smaller portions, and also what is healthy and delicious,' says Gao Xu Lian, head chef at the Imperial Palace at the Guangdong Foreign Businessmen's Club hotel. 'My customers want to be guided on what kinds of food are most suitable for them without paying too much.'
The latest 'New-Style Cantonese' food combines healthy and imported ingredients, including parsley, cheese and olive oil. 'This adds a lot more flavour and variety to Cantonese cuisine,' says Chen Su Xin, who heads the kitchen staff at Xin Li Zhi Wan Jiu Lou, in the Electronic Plaza on Huanshi Dong Lu.
One example of the new style of cooking features braised lobster. Onions and green and yellow bell pepper slices are lightly fried and brushed with a soy and huang dou sauce which covers chunks of lobster.
Red wine and green teas, known for their medicinal properties, are also cropping up in a number of local dishes. Mr Gao's soft-shell crab creation qing ke xie includes an ensemble of ginger, garlic, green tea and Coca-Cola cooked in a light oil (tiao he you).
'In Guangzhou, many people drink Coca-Cola and ginger to fight off a cold, so this dish has some health benefits,' he says.
'Nowadays a good chef can't just be a good cook, he has to do a lot of things,' adds Gao, who not only heads the cooking staff at Imperial Palace but is also responsible for the restaurant's business development.
His clients include some of the city's more successful businessmen. Some of the country's top leaders, such as Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, have also sampled his work.
Most Cantonese are still very particular when it comes to the taste of their food, and some dishes, such as cholesterol-filled cha shao will always have their place in the hearts and stomachs of Guangzhou eaters.
It is hard to say if this new eating fad will spread to the locals' flair for eating wild animals, but at least it shows that when faced with certain social and economic conditions, eating habits can and do change.
