Chinese Culture Experiencing Lesson for International Students ——How to Make Cantonese Cuisine

China is well known for its wide variety of cuisines, among which Cantonese cuisine is a distinctive part. Being endowed with unique geographical advantages such as many rivers, Shunde District of Foshan City, Guangdong Province is a genuine land of abundance. Not surprisingly, Foshan becomes the birthplace of Cantonese cuisine.  There is a local saying “Guangzhou is the heaven for gourmets, Fengcheng is home to the best cook”, and “Fengcheng” here is actually another name of Shunde.

There is no doubt that Foshan cuisine is unmissable for international students of Foshan University.

On November 8th, the international students began their incredible journey of Cantonese cuisine at the kitchen .

This time, we invited Master Wu, chef of a five-star hotel, to give a lesson on how to cook simmering chicken hot pot, a classical Cantonese dish.

（Don’t lick the screen)

Master Wu began with a brief introduction on Cantonese cuisine, after which he explained the differences between Chinese cuisine and western cuisine. For instance, he explained that as sometimes Chinese people have to chop bones, kitchen knives in China are not as long as the ones used by westerners. With all the basic knowledge, the students immediately learned personally how sharp the China knife is.

(Be careful of your fingers )

Many international students wondered why Chinese people often cook with bones? “When you cook with both meat and bones, the dish will be more delicious,” said Master Wu.

 

 

Seasoning is key to a tasty dish. 12 kinds of seasoning are needed to cook simmering chicken hot pot, and the one produced by Foshan Haitian Flavoring and Food Co., Ltd. is a good choice. The international students cherished a strong passion for the seasoning and they just couldn’t wait to make sauce by themselves.

After the show-how of Master Wu, the international students tried to cook simmering chicken hot pot on their own.

This Cantonese cuisine activity is undoubtedly a very good cross-cultural experience for the international students through which they learned the cultural differences between China and the western countries as well as the charm of Foshan cuisine, and they hardly wait to take the next class.

 

Words from students

AmirSadra Iran

first of all i think chinis food are most famouse one in the world bc of the way of the mixing many flavour togther and useing various stuff in it . second i really liked it , that was my first experience that i had it perfectly and chinis chef was quite professional and compasionate .  cantonis foods are little bit flavoury totally in my idea but nevertheless those are healthy and yummy .  i have to appreciet it to gave us this opportunity last night . Thank you.

kelly  America

Yesterday, I attended a cooking class, my first cooking class in China. I was genuinely surprised by how easy and basic it was. I felt very confident through out the entire class, which I was very surprised by since I have little to no knowledge about how to cook. Everything was clean and organised, and it was incredibly encouraging to be with my fellow classmates learning a new skill. I definitely plan on using my first chinese cooking class experience in my daily life.

 (We hope that in addition to learning Chinese and specialized courses, the international students could, by taking part in more Chinese culture-experiencing lessons, have a deeper understanding of Foshan and China and help build a bridge between China and foreign countries.)