Huaiyang cuisine is a bit of a mystery. Said to be the cuisine of poets and scholars, and a cuisine which demands meticulous knife skills and elaborate presentations, the cuisine appears to be a personification of the teachings of Confucius. The creative presentation of skillfully combined ingredients expresses the four most important elements in the art of Chinese cooking; color, aroma, flavor and texture. This type of cuisine is refined and delicate, and a far cry from what most North Americans think of coming out of a takeout container! All of this is incredibly enticing, so why then is Huaiyang cuisine so little enjoyed or understood in North America?
What is Northeastern cuisine and what makes it so distinctly different? A huge part of North America has more in common with the weather and agriculture of the northeastern area of China so surely this cuisine would be more prevalent here. But Christine has learned that immigration is everything when it comes to portable cuisines. And, as China is so large and the northeast so remote, it turns out that even the Cantonese might not know Northeastern (or Dongbei) cuisine.