Shandong Cuisine or Lu Cuisine has a long history and has accomplished a global influence. As one of the eight major Chinese cuisines, it is an indispensable part of Chinese dietary culture. Lu dishes are unique and flavoursome and well-known both at home and abroad due to its fine cooking skills. In ancient times, Shandong was home to Qi and Lu kingdoms. It is located beside the Jiaodong peninsular and faces the sea in three directions having plains and hills in the centre, a moderate climate and four entirely different seasons. Shandong has an abundance of sea food and freshwater river products, crops, poultry and livestock, oils, vegetables, fruits, insects and wild game. These provide excellent and favourable physical conditions for the development of Shandong Cuisine.
The cooking techniques of Lu cuisine are complete and comprehensive. Lu Cuisine focuses on the use of raw materials and flavouring and is uniquely adept at quick-frying, stir-frying, stewing and braising. Braising is a distinct Shandong cooking method which uses marinated raw materials stuffed or coated with starch or flour, and fried until golden. Flavouring or light soup are then put in and simmered over a moderate fire until the soup is absorbed improving the flavour and freshness.
Braised Deep-fried Tofu with Minced Meat (Guota Doufu, 锅塌豆腐) and Braised Deep-fried Spinach with Egg (Guota Bocai, 锅塌菠菜) are very famous traditional Shandong dishes. Lu chefs are particularly adept at cooking soup. There are two types of soup: light soup and milky soup. It is recorded in the historical agriculture book, Encyclopedia of Qi People, that light soup was used as the flavouring. This might be a record of how extracted flavouring was used before monosodium glutamate was invented. Traditionally, people say that the chef’s soup resembles the dramatic musical melody of a stage performer. It is widely known that Lu dishes uses fat chicken, duck and pork joints as the main raw materials to make the soup, which are boiled using various degrees of temperature. The soup is light and clear and extremely delicious whereas the milky white soup is ivory in appearance. There are dozens of dishes cooked with light and milky soup that are now listed as Royal dishes served at either a banquet or feast.
Lu dishes made with sea food are truly unique. Lu chefs are well-known for their skills in cooking rare and choice seafood. In Shandong, local chefs are extremely good at cooking exquisite and flavoursome dishes using sea cucumbers, shark fins, bird’s nests, shells, crabs, prawns and fish. Take the flatfish produced off the shores of Jiaodong peninsular for example. Such flatfish could be made into a dozen or so excellent dishes using different cutting and cooking skills, which are especially varied and delightful in colour, smell, shape and fragrance. Famous dishes made with normal sea foods are Quick-fried Pork Kidney and Squid with Bamboo Shoots and Black Fungus (Youbao Shuanghua, 油爆双花), Braised Whelk (Hongshao Hailuo, 红烧海螺) and Deep Fried Oyster (Zha Lihuang, 炸蛎黄). Well-known dishes cooked with rare sea foods are Braised Shark Fin with Crab Yolk (Xiehuang Yuchi, 蟹黄鱼翅), Braised Abalone with Diced Ham and Mushrooms (Ba Yuanke Baoyu, 扒原壳鲍鱼) and Braised Minced Scallop Meat Balls with Sliced Bamboo Shoots, Ham and Mushrooms (Xiuqiu Ganbei, 绣球干贝). All these dishes are very distinct.
Shallots are widely used in Lu dishes. The sliced or minced shallot is stir-fried to improve the fragrance of the braised, fried, stewed or simmered dishes or soup. Steamed, deep-fried, baked or sautéed dishes also uses sliced shallots as flavouring. Typical dishes cooked in this way are Baked Duck (Kao Ya, 烤鸭), Roasted Suckling Pig (Kao Ruzhu, 烤乳猪), Braised Pork Joints (Guoshao Zhouzi, 锅烧时子) and Deep Fried Lamb with Sesame Sauce (Zha Zhigai, 炸脂盖).
Main Dishes
Deep Fried Yellow River Carp with Sweet and Sour Sauce (Tangcu Huanghe Liyu, 糖醋黄河鲤鱼)
The carp is deep fried in hot oil and coated with sweet and sour sauce made with sugar and vinegar. The dish is lively and vivid, crispy outside and tender inside, bright red, delicious, sweet and sour, salty and fragrant being one of Lu’s typical dishes.
Braised Pork Intestines (Jiuzhuan Dachang, 九转大肠)
Pork intestines are shredded, sautéed, deep-fried, stir-fried and braised culminating in a bright red dish that is soft and tender. It has a combined taste of five flavours namely sweet and sour, salty, spicy and hot. This dish was created by Jiuhualou Restaurant of Jinan in the years of Guangxu Emperor of Qing Dynasty. It is renowned for being repeatedly cooked and having refined cooking methods.
Deep Fried Swimming Crabs (Xueli Daxie, 雪丽大蟹)
The rear legs of swimming crabs are marinated then coated with the batter made from egg white and flour, deep fried and then placed on to a tray and covered by the remaining pieces to resemble a complete crab. The finished dish is red and white, delicious and spicy, rich in colour, crispy and tender and could be served along with ginger juice to enhance the flavour of the crab.
Steamed Apple Stuffed with Minced Chicken, Mushrooms and Ham (Pingguo Ji, 苹果鸡)
The hollowed out apple is stuffed with minced chicken, mushrooms and ham then steamed until cooked. The shape is unique. The stuffing is tender, fresh and aromatic.
Steamed Eight Delicacies (Baxian Guohai Nao Luohan, 八仙过海闹罗汉)
Eight delicacies, namely shark fin, abalone, sea cucumbers, fish maw, fish bones, prawns, chicken breast and mandarin fish are boiled, steamed or marinated until cooked. They are then placed in separate segments using a special tray with coin-shaped chicken cakes in the centre, steamed and served with soup. Previously, it was the first main course served in the ceremonious events held inside Confucius’s Residence. After the dish was brought to the guests, a drama or stage show would be performed. Thus, an idiom from Chinese ancient legend is used to name this dish. It is exquisite in shape, uses the finest raw materials and superior cooking techniques which are both attractive and delicious.
Assorted Dish, Confucius’s Residence Style (Kongfu Yipin Guo, 孔府一品锅)
The dish is also called Assorted Dish, Royal Court Style (Dangchao Yipin Guo, 当朝一品锅). Previously, it referred to a round double-layered large-sized silver utensil that had four peach-shaped sections and was coated with bronze and tin. The button on the lid resembles two peaches bonded together and the lid is carved with four Chinese characters “Dang Chao Yi Pin“ (“当朝一品”). Hot water is put between the layers to prevent the food from going cold. This utensil was granted by Qianlong Emperor of Qing Dynasty. Boiled sliced chicken breast, fish maw, prawns, sea cucumber and other side ingredients are boiled in hot soup and consecutively placed into the utensil and covered with bird’s nests. Finally, the hot sauce is poured onto the dish before being served.
Steamed Meat Balls with Shrimps and Cabbage (Shandong Zheng Wan, 山东蒸丸)
Pork fat, dried shrimps, caraway, cabbage, ginger and shallots are mashed together and made into little balls and steamed until cooked then served with hot sauce on top. The finished dish is delicious, sour, salty, spicy and tasty.
Steamed Apples Stuffed with Eight Delicacies (Babao Pingguo, 八宝苹果)
This dish is also nicknamed as “Sweeties” (Tiantian Mimi, 甜甜蜜蜜). Eight apples are carved on the skin with the pattern of “Eight Delicacies” (Ba Bao, 八宝). The core of the apple’s are hollowed out and the seeds and flesh are removed to allow for the filling. The apples are then stuffed with glutinous rice, honey, white sugar, peanuts, sesame seeds, dates and sun flower seeds and sealed with the covers. Then the apples are deep fried and steamed. The finished dish is sweet and aromatic and delicate in shape.
Snacks
Drinks
Tsingtao Beer (青岛啤酒)
Qingdao is known as “the city of beer” in China. Its hugely-successful local product, Tsingtao Beer, has had a century-long history since first being produced in 1903. Tsingtao Beer arrived in the US market in 1978, and quickly became a popular foreign beer import for Americans. Now Tsingtao Beer exports to more than 70 countries across the world, making up more than a half of all
Chinese beer exports yearly. In 1991, the city of Qingdao set up an international beer festival, and named it after its famous Tsingtao Beer. The two-week-long Tsingtao Beer Festival is now held from the second week of August each year.
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