Cuisine of Hunan and Anhui
2 min readHunan Cuisine（also called Xiang Cuisine）is based on the local cuisine of the Hsiang-Kiang basin，Dong Ting lake area and Mountainous Region of west Hunan，which are separately centered by Changsha，Hengyang and Xiangtan.
Xiang Cuisine is good at cooking skills such as preserving，smoking，steaming，stewing，braising and deep-frying，and its ingredients are mainly chili and preserved food.It features more oil，deeper color，more crispiness，a sour spiciness and more tenderness.Xiang Cuisine spotlights cutting skills，such as Shredded tripe being thin as hair，and Quick-fried beef tenderloin being as thin as Xiang Cuisine is characterized by spiciness，which is classified into tingling spicy，fragrant spicy，oily spicy and brittle spicy.Hunan is humid and warm，whichis suitable for growing chili.Since chili can extract heat，remove moisture，cure rheumatism and is appetizing，it is very popular in Hunan.As time passes，spice became a local culinary custom.However，the spicy taste in Hunan is different from the spicy food in Sichuan:Sichuan spicy taste is mainly tingling spicy，while Hunan spicy is sour spicy，and lack the sweet spicy taste.The representative dishes of Hunan cuisine are Dong anzi chicken，Braised shark’s fin in brown sauce，Steamedpreserved pork，Chicken and carp，Bamboo shoots with spicy，Roasted chestnuts and cabbage，Five elements immortal chicken，Jishou sour meat and Preserved meat with red chili.
Anhui Cuisine consists of the Cuisine of South Anhui，the Cuisine of the Yangtze River coastal region and the Cuisine of the Huai River coastal region，but the Cuisine of South Anhui is most representative.
Anhui Cuisine underlines these cooking techniques:roasting，stewing，steaming and deep frying，and is famous for cooking wild vegetables，game and fresh water fish.As early as the South Song Dynasty，”Horse-hoop shaped turtle in sandy land” and”Ox tail fox in snow”were famous Anhui dishes.Anhui Cuisine prefers origina ingredient taste and features much starch，much oil，deeper color and a long time cooking.Many dishes need to simmer over low heat for a long time，and the soup becomes pure，mellow and thick.Anhui Cuisine uses ham as seasoning，crystal sugarto refresh the taste and cooking wine to remove fishiness.It emphasizes keeping healthly through diet.The representatives dishes are Steamed horse-hoop shaped turtle，Braised head and tail in brown sauce，Stewed huang mountain chicken，Preserved mandarin fish，Smoked hilsa herring with maofeng，Red-cooked chicken，Fuliji style，Stewed fish in milk and Grape fish.
