- Names: Shandong food, Lu cuisine
- Location: northern east-coast China — Qingdao, Jinan, Qufu, Mount Tai
- Distinctives: salty and crispy, favouring braising and seafood
Shandong cuisine, referred to as Lu cuisine or Lu Cai, boasts a long history in China that dates back as early as 220 B.C.E. Shandong cuisine was recognized as an important style of Chinese cuisine under the Qing Dynasty (1644 to 1911 A.C.E.).
Shandong cuisine is most representative of Northern China, but has also been inherited by North eastern China. Shandong was one of the first civilized regions in China and an early cultural centre, so its cooking tradition set the style for the regions around it, especially to the north in Beijing and north eastern China. Shandong is a peninsula, and given its location, fish is a main ingredient in Shandong cuisine. The most notable and most famous dish in Shandong cuisine is the “sweet and sour carp,” which must come from the Yellow River that flows into the seas surrounding Shandong.
In addition to seafood, other ingredients used in Shandong cuisine include corn, peanuts, small grains such as millet, wheat, oat and barley, and staple vegetables of Shandong province including potatoes, tomatoes, cabbages, mushrooms, onions, garlic, and eggplants. Some of the typical cooking methods used with Shandong cuisine are flash frying (bao), quick frying with corn flour (lui), stewing (pa), roasting, and boiling.
Seasonings Used
Shandong people like spices in the onion family such as green onions and garlic, and this is reflected in Shandong cuisine. They include onions in many dishes. Ginger is also commonly used along with a little red pepper. But spice is less heavily applied than in Sichuan cuisine. It is meant to accentuate the flavour of the food. Vinegar is heavily used and so is lots of salt. The province is known for its fine dark connoisseur kinds of vinegar.
Special Cooking Techniques
The special and outstanding cooking technique is flash frying, called “Bao” in Chinese. The flash frying skills contains frying with oil, frying with sauce, frying with green onion, and frying with soup. The heat is precisely controlled when flash frying. This cooking method can best keep the original taste of the material.
Since the main aim is to preserve the cut, colour, and taste, the style of cooking preserves the nutritive value of the food. So the cuisine is generally healthy providing you eat wisely and don’t overindulge in any particular food such as pork dishes or lobster.
Shandong Cuisine: Staple Dishes
Sweet and Sour Fish. Sweet and sour carp is bright red and tastes sweet, sour and crispy outside. It seems that the carp is splashing higher, which is an auspicious sign in China.
Braised Sea Cucumber with Scallion. Sea cucumber is one of Shandong specialties. Scallion can effectively help to release the fishy smell of the sea cucumbers and add a special flavour.
Braised Intestines in Brown Sauce. The pork intestine is quick boiled in water, then stuffed with over ten kinds of ingredients and braised with seasonings over low fire. The taste is soft.
Braised Prawns in Oil. The main ingredients are the large prawns from the Bohai Bay in Shandong. Prawns are stir-fried with seasonings like soy sauce and cooking wine. It tastes fresh, sweet and salty.
Steamed Stuffed Tofu. The diced tofu is stuffed with various chopped vegetables and cooked with soup. It is snow white in color and tastes extremely smooth, umami and tender.
Dezhou Braised Chicken. The whole chicken is retained without any bones. The chicken is fried and then braised with various spices. It is tasty and convenient to eat since it has no bones.
