Tianjin Cuisine

Tianjin Tianjin Cuisine or Jin cuisine is a member of the grand Chinese cuisine family having its own unique style and characteristics developing throughout history until the present day. With a long history of more than three hundred years, it has gone through generations of unremitting efforts, repeated practices, constant explorations and innovations and extensive cultural absorption. It consists of Han ethnic dishes, Islamic dishes, vegetable dishes and local snacks. Thousands of low, medium and high end dishes and more than three hundred local snacks have constituted the complete Jin Cuisine. Various types of local restaurants fully utilize Tianjin specialities and cooking techniques to meet the flavour of Tianjin people and make plenty of dish variations. The major characteristics are the skilful use of freshwater and seafood products, the adequate application of flavouring, the focus on cooking duration, the stress on texture and the use of starch. To sum up, the taste is primarily salty, light and fresh and takes a prominent place among China’s abundant cuisine.

Historically, Jin Cuisine originated from the old traditional customs and later benefited from the local urban development and rich natural resources of its geographical conditions. With such a short history it boasts a very unique flavour. All its features could be briefly classified into the following six aspects:

Jin Cuisine, with its complete and unique cooking techniques, is adept at frying, deep frying, boiling, quick-frying, braising, quick - boiling, sautéing and stewing. Stir-frying with a Tianjin cooking spoon, steaming, frying in vegetable oil, boiling in mixed cooking oil and water are the most distinctive techniques. In particular, stir-frying with a Tianjin cooking spoon, which is called Shao Ba in Chinese, is renowned as a superb Tianjin cooking skill.
A wide range of raw materials including seafood and freshwater products are used in Jin Cuisine for Tianjin is rich in local specialties and abundant in fish, shrimps and crabs. Thus, Tianjin chefs are refined in cooking dishes with freshwater and seafood products.
Jin dishes are rich in flavour and primarily salty, fresh and light, but there are still dozens of variations revolving around the sweet, sour and spicy flavours.
Jin Cuisine, which is primarily light and thick, is adept in the use of flavouring and evidently different from other cuisines in five aspects. First, soy sauce is seldom or never used in braising, stewing or simmering and sautéing food. Instead, sugar is added so that the finished dishes are rich in colour and their original tastes remain unchanged. Second, sweet soy sauce, fermented bean curd are added to braised, stewed, boiled and sautéed dishes to produce a unique and aromatic fragrance. Third, cooked sesame oil or pork fat is seldom used. Instead, the peppery oil fried with sesame oil is applied to eliminate the odour and improve the taste thus increasing the appetite with its burnt and pungent bouquet. Fourth, sliced onions, strips of ginger and diced garlic are mostly used to cook dishes that require a strong flavour, such as Braised Sweet and Sour Fish (Ao Yu, 熬鱼), in order to improve the unique local taste. Last of all, grated fresh ginger mixed with water and vinegar is used to cook fresh and light dishes (in particular using freshwater and seafood products as the raw materials) and is said to eliminate odour, alleviate oil and enhance the flavour. The secret lies in concealing the ginger so that the flavour is apparent but the ginger is unseen.
Jin Cuisine has given soup cooking a top priority over the past few years. Tianjin chefs have three basic skills, namely broth soup (Dun Tang, 蹲汤; made from light soup, beef tendon and chicken meat), soup preparation (Zhi Tang, 制汤; the soups vary with the raw materials applied), soup simmering (Kao Lu, 靠卤; simmered diced chicken or duck in boiled soup with sliced onions, crystal sugar, pepper and ginger) and caramelising. This shows just how important soup cooking is in Tianjin Cuisine.
Jin dishes emphasize the harmonious blend of colours and retain the original colour when cooked so that people can see the natural ingredients. The dishes cooked with multiple raw materials are balanced, the combination of colours is subtle coinciding with the meat and vegetables bringing people a sense of enjoyment.

Main Dishes

Famous Four Braised Dishes (Si Da Ba, 四大扒)

It is a set of side dishes that accompanies the feast and comprises Braised Whole Chicken (Ba Zheng Ji, 扒整鸡), Braised Whole Duck (Ba Zheng Ya, 扒整鸭), Braised Pork Joints (Ba Zhouzi, 扒肘子), Braised Diced Streaky Pork (Ba Fangrou, 扒方肉), Braised Sea Cucumbers (Ba Haishen, 扒海参), Braised Wheat Gluten Puff (Ba Mianjin, 扒面筋), Braised Fish (Ba Yu, 扒鱼) and many others. Four Delicacies Served in Winter (Dongling Sizhen, 冬令四珍) comprises sparrows, whitebait, mitten crabs and hotbed tuber onion.

Meanwhile, there are two types of Braised Eight-bowl Feast (Ba Dawan, 八大碗), refined and unrefined.

Unrefined Braised Eight-bowl Feast (Cu Badawan, 粗八大碗)

It comprises Braised Fillet (Liu Yupian, 熘鱼片), Braised Peeled Prawns (Hui Xiaren, 烩虾仁), Braised Sea Cucumbers and Fish Maws (Quan Jia Fu, 全家福), Braised Sturgeon Bones and Eggs (Guihua Yugu, 桂花鱼骨), Deep Fried Carp with Assorted Flavoured Sauce (Hui Huayu, 烩滑鱼), Braised (Du Mianjin, 独面筋), Stir Fried Pork Slices (Chuan Rousi, 川肉丝), Meat Balls, Chuanda Style (Chuanda Wanzi, 川大丸子), Steamed Streaky Pork (Shao Rou, 烧肉) and Deep Fried Minced Beef (Song Rou, 松肉).

Refined Braised Eight-bowl Feast (Xi Badawan, 细八大碗)

It comprises Stir-fried Peeled Shrimps (Chao Qing Xiaren, 炒青虾仁), Stewed Sliced Chicken (Hui Jisi, 烩鸡丝), Assorted Stew (Quan Dun, 全炖), Steamed Crab Yolk and Egg (Dangeng Xiehuang, 蛋羹蟹黄), Sea Cucumber Meat Balls (Haishen Wanzi, 海参丸子), Braised Streaky Pork with Egg (Yuanbao Rou, 元宝肉), Chicken Soup (Qingtang Ji, 清汤鸡), Braised Chicken with Potato (Chaihui Ji, 拆烩鸡) and Sautéed Carp (Jiachang Shao Liyu, 家常烧鲤鱼).

Four Delicacies Served in Winter (Dongling Sizhen, 冬令四珍)

The four delicacies comprise sparrows, whitebait, mitten crabs and hotbed tuber onion. Hotbed tuber onion is a common vegetable and Fried Egg with Hotbed Tuber Onion is one of TianJin’s popular household dishes. Sparrows are deep fried and served with wine. Whitebait is a special local product of northeast China and when deep fried with egg white it produces an aromatic and delicious taste. Mitten crabs are as small as coins but very tasty and are very nourishing during winter.