Fujian food taste

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Cooking Techniques

Fujian cuisine employs various traditional cooking methods that have been refined over centuries, each technique chosen to bring out the best in the ingredients.

Mastering these techniques takes practice, but the results are incredibly rewarding.

They are boiled or fried before eating.

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Oyster Omelette

This Fujian cuisine recipe is frying eggs together with the paste of oysters and potato flour. When applied artistically, the various colors and herbs can also make a beautiful presentation.

  • Salty seasonings: sea salt, shrimp sauce, shrimp oil, and soy sauce.
  • Sour seasonings: white vinegar and qiaotou (a vegetable similar to green onion.
  • Sweet seasonings: brown sugar, anise, and cassia cinnamon.
  • Hot seasonings: pepper, mustard, and shacha sauce.

Their Favorite Cooking Methods

Their chefs have developed numerous ways to cook food perhaps reflecting the history of the province.

Our Xiamen tours combine seeing attractions around Xiamen with meals in carefully selected restaurants.

To taste delicious Chinese foods when traveling in China, have a look at our Chinese Food Tours.

Recommended Chinese Food Tours

12-Day Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Guilin, and Hong Kong Cuisine tour — This tour explores the most popular destinations in China and savors five different regional cuisines, and could be extended to Fujian.

Not a few Fujian dishes are soups, and Boiled Sea Clam with Chicken Soup is the representative.

Recommendations:

Shuyou Seafood Grand Restaurant

The restaurant is known for the wide variety of seafood.

  • Chinese name: 舒友海鲜大酒楼 Shuyou Haixian Da Jiulou /shu-yoh heye-sshyen daa jyoh-loh/
  • Average price per person: 153 yuan
  • Address: 97 Hubin North Road, Siming District (思明区湖滨北路97)

Little Glass Food Stall

The prices are affordable, and the restaurant is popular.

From the late Western Jin Dynasty (265 - 316 AD) to Five Dynasties and Ten States (907 - 960 AD), especially after the Min State (909 – 945 AD) was founded in Fuzhou, many people from the central plain migrated to Fujian and Fujian cuisine had a rudiment in this formative stage.

As there were more than one important harbors for international trade and Quanzhou in Fujian became the starting point of Maritime Silk Road in Song Dynasty (960 - 1279 AD), Fujian food, absorbing the cooking techniques of other places, developed quickly.

fujian food taste

The oversea trade also introduced some new seasonings to Fujian dishes, like satay, mustard and curry, which became important condiments of Min cuisine later.

In late Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911 AD), featured restaurants and skilled chiefs mushroomed in Fujian. The region was a haven for refugees from the large Western Xia Empire and the Tang Empire.

In addition, pickling with red vinasee is the distinctive cooking technique of Fujian cuisine, such as Steamed Fish in Red Vinasse, the fish is pickled with red vinasse and then steamed.

Chiefs attaches great importance to cutting techniques as well. Fried food are crispy, and various delicacies frequently used makes Fujian cuisine gamey of food from land and sea.
 

Special Cooking Techniques

The mostly used cooking techniques include steaming, pan-frying, frying, quick-frying, steam stewing, deep-frying and simmering.

In a result, a lot of delicacies from both land and sea become Fujian cuisine ingredients, such as mushrooms, bamboo shoots, rice, cane sugar, vegetables, fruits, freshwater turtles from land, and fishes, shrimps, clams from sea, etc.
 

Condiments Used in Fujian Cuisine – Red Vinasse, Sugar & Vinegar

As for the condiments, red vinasse, sugar and vinegar are the mostly used condiments in Fujian cuisine recipes.

The position on the coast meant they had contact with Japanese and people from Southeast Asia too.

They use numerous methods to cook: pan-frying, deep-frying, boiling, baking, stewing, mixing, sautéing with wine, stewing in gravy, grilling, cooking with red rice wine, simmering, stir-frying, smoking, braising and salting.

Red rice wine: Their most peculiar method of cooking is cooking with red rice wine.

Soup will often mean the main beverage or only beverage at a meal.

Their Daily Staple Food

Daily staples: The area is in the subtropical rice growing area of China, so white rice is the main staple cereal. Selections include: Sleeve-fish cooked with soy sauce (酱油水鱿鱼), solen (竹蛭), clam (花蛤), sea cucumber (海瓜子), steamed crab (清蒸蟹), fried rice-flour noodles (炒米粉), shrimps (沙虾) and steamed sleeve-fish (清蒸鱿鱼).

  • Chinese name:: 小眼镜大排档 Xiao Yanjing Da Paidang /sshaoww yen-jing daa peye-dung/
  • Average price per person: 62 yuan
  • Open: 11am–2pm and 4:30pm–10pm (from Monday to Friday); 10:30am–2:30pm and 4:30pm–11:30pm (during weekends)
  • Address: 7 Hubin Middle Road, Siming District (思明区湖滨中路7号)

Min Cuisine Menu

EnglishChinesePronunciationCharacters
Stewed Chicken with Three Cups Saucesān bēi jīSann bay jee三杯鸡
Steamed Chicken in Red Fermented Ricezuì zāo jīDzway dzaoww jee醉糟鸡
Sliced Chicken in Red Fermented Riceshāo piàn zāo jīShaoww pyen dzaoww jee烧片糟鸡
Buddha Jumping Wall (Sea Food and Poultry Casserole)fú tiào qiángFor tyaoww chyang佛跳墙
Steamed Strengthening Fishqīngzhēng jiā lì yúChing-jnng jyaa lee yoo清蒸加力鱼
Tai Chi Prawnstàijí míng xiāTeye-jee ming sshyaa太极明虾
Hot and Sour Squidsuān là làn yóuyúSwann laa lan yoh-yoo酸辣烂鱿鱼
Sweet and Sour Litchislìzhī ròuLee-jrr roh荔枝肉

Travel with China Highlights and Taste Authentic Fujian Cuisine

Our customers are enjoying their dinner with our colleague Kim at a restaurant in Guilin.

If you want to try authentic Fujian Cuisine, our tours can take you to authentic local restaurants.

Soups are frequently seen Fujian cuisine dishes like Boiled Sea Clam with Chicken Soup. Other unique seasonings, like shrimp sauce, satay, chili sauce and Worcestershire sauce are also used.

 

Flavors of Fujian Cuisine – Light, Sweet and Sour

Soups play a vitally important role in Fujian cuisine, which are generally light.

Remember, authentic Chinese food is about balance—balancing flavors, textures, and ingredients to create a harmonious dining experience.

Explore More Chinese Cuisine

Ready to discover more? At China Food Show, we celebrate the rich culinary heritage of Fujian cuisine and help American food lovers discover authentic flavors.

The food culture of Fujian is deeply connected to the region’s history, geography, and way of life.

They brought with them their cooking styles. It is a special local food in Fujian that is crisp, tender and refreshing with appealing appearance.

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Fuzhou Fish Balls

Minced pork or shrimp is wrapped into the dough of the mixture of potato flour and minced eel, shark or mackerel to make the fish balls.

Red vinasse is the vinasse of rice wine or yellow wine fermented with red yeast, which is highly nutritive. Thus Fujian food receive a good reputation of sweet but not cloying, and light but not tasteless. Satay, mustard, orange juice, Chinese medicine, fruits could also be added into dishes, which makes Southern Fujian cuisine unique.

As sugar and vinegar are the daily seasonings, many Fujian dishes tastes sweet and sour.