Hunan Cuisine (Xiang Cuisine)

The cooking skills employed in the Hunan cuisine reached a high standard as early as the Western Han Dynasty, giving it a history of more than 2,100 years. Hunan is located in southeastern China along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, north of the Five Ridges. It contains rivers, lakes, mountains, rolling hills, plains, and pools, which provide abundant delicacies, such as game, fish, shrimp, crab, and turtle. Making full use of these rich resources, local people created a wide variety of delicacies. Hunan cuisine consists of more than 4,000 dishes, among which more than 300 are very famous. Hunan food is characterized by its hot and sour flavor, fresh aroma, greasiness, deep color, and the prominence of the main flavor in each dish. It consists of regional cuisines from the Xiangjiang River Valley, the Tongting Lake region, and the western mountainous area.

Human food is hot because the air is very humid, which makes it difficult for the human body to eliminate moisture. The local people eat hot peppers to help remove dampness and cold.

Hunan Cuisine has three characteristics:

1. Skilful use of a kitchen knife, a delicious taste and a beautiful shape.
2. Known for sour and spicy dishes by adding various kinds of seasonings.
3. Adopting a wide variety of techniques.

Famous dishes: Spicy Young Chicken, Fried Fish Slices, Steamed Soft-Shell Turtle, Steamed Cured Meat, Huofang Whitebait, Dongting Fat Fish Maw, Jishou Sour Meat, Oily and Spicy Tender Bamboo Shoots, and Chinese Chestnuts and Hearts of Cabbages.

Well-known Snacks: Huogongdian Fried, Fermented Bean Curd, Sisters¡® Glutinous Rice Balls, Xiangtan Roll, Hengyang Pailou Tangyuan (stuffed balls made of glutinous rice flour served in soup), Shrimp Cake, Rice Tea, etc.

Welcome to China2Go, the talking Chinese phrase book for Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Palm OS. Featuring crystal clear voice recorded by a real person, this product is a great travel companion and an ideal tool to learn Chinese! With our cutting edge voice compression technology, this product includes more than 1000 phrases, their Chinese translation, and the voice in only a few megabytes. Supports all Windows Mobile Pocket PCs. H&H China2Go Talking Phrase Book for Windows Mobile