Chinese Culinary Fundamentals: Regional Cuisines, Flavour Profiles, Ingredient Knowledge
This domain tests whether you can place a dish inside China's regional system and justify every seasoning decision with an ingredient fact rather than habit.
The eight regional anchors
- 川菜 (Sichuan): 麻辣、鱼香、怪味、糊辣, built on 郫县豆瓣、汉源花椒、泡椒. Sichuan cooking formally recognises 24 复合味型, not just 麻辣.
- 鲁菜 (Shandong): 咸鲜、葱烧; 清汤 and 奶汤 are the signature techniques, with 爆 and 扒.
- 粤菜 (Cantonese): 清鲜本味, 白灼 and 蒸; seasoning restrained so the ingredient reads.
- 苏菜 (Jiangsu): 甜咸醇和, 炖焖; 镇江香醋 supplies aroma.
- 浙菜 (Zhejiang): 清爽, 醉 and 糟.
- 闽菜 (Fujian): 汤菜见长, 红糟 gives colour and ferment.
- 湘菜 (Hunan): 酸辣、腊香, 剁椒.
- 徽菜 (Anhui): 重油重色, 火腿与山珍.
Seasoning logic
生抽 supplies salt and 豉香; 老抽 supplies colour only; 绍兴黄酒 volatilises 腥味; 冰糖 rounds 咸味 and gives 亮芡; 香醋 is volatile and goes in off the heat.
Worked example
鱼香肉丝. The 鱼香 profile is 泡椒's lactic heat plus a sweet-sour base plus 葱姜蒜 aroma - no fish is involved. A workable 碗芡 per 200 g pork: 糖 15 g, 香醋 18 g, 生抽 10 g, 料酒 8 g, 淀粉 5 g, 汤 20 g. Reasoning: sugar held slightly below vinegar keeps it 甜酸 rather than cloying; starch at roughly 10% of liquid gives a 二流芡 that clings without pooling.
Traps that cost marks
- Explaining 鱼香 as "fish-flavoured" and adding seafood.
- Using 老抽 as a seasoning - it darkens the dish and flattens the sauce.
- Reducing Sichuan cuisine to 麻辣 and missing 荔枝味 or 家常味 questions.
- Citing a regional style for a dish without naming the technique that defines it.