Eastern flavor
        The eastern style of cuisine developed from China's lower Chang Jiang (Yangzi River) and along the mainland's eastern seaboard is usually referred to as the cuisine of Zhejiang, Fujian, and Jiangsu. The main menu here comprises seafood, such as fresh water fish and mollusk, and is cooked with rich spices and sauces, which make the dishes sweet. Eastern style cuisine can be found almost anywhere in the big towns of Taiwan as most of the mainland immigrants originated from Shanghai and the Fujian coast.

Northern flavor
        If you are a carefree individual who does not fret too much about cholesterol and unhealthy eating, then you should have a go at the delectable northern dishes that tend to be oily, enhanced with flavors of vinegar, soy sauce and garlic, but are less spicy. Areas like Beijing, Tientsin, and Shangtung are perhaps the finest areas for northern cuisine. Noodles, pasta, steamed buns, baked breads, stuffed dumplings and pancakes made from wheat and flour, are the basics of the northern cooking. Lamb is a favorite meat in northern China because of the Mongol and Muslim influence. The northern style of cooking is heartier and more filling as it combines relatively traditional seasonings and ingredients.

Southern flavor
        The southern approach of cuisine is grounded on the culinary heritage of Guangzhou (Canton). Rice is the staple diet for the Cantonese. Cantonese cuisine is not only abundant with variety, but it is also colorful and unique. Cantonese chefs take pride in their cooking. Fresh ingredients are used daily to retain the unique flavor and texture of each dish, which is only lightly cooked. Guangzhou's most omnipresent specialties are Dim Sum (snack). Often eaten at breakfast or lunch, dim sum are savory dumplings stuffed with prawns, beef, pork, and other surprises the chefs can think of. Cantonese people would often hound the restaurants or coffeeshops early in the morning for their daily dim sum meal. Trolleys laden with steaming dim sum are wheeled through dining rooms so that you can glimpse and choose. Some restaurants have a menu for dim sum. But the fun of eating dim sum is when you get to delight yourself with the wonderful colors and smells of the various         choices of dim sum and choose according to your stomach's desire. While other parts of China also produce dumplings, the Cantonese style transcends all in variety and delicacy. Besides dim sum, there are other equally inviting Cantonese dishes. To name a few are Roast Duck, Barbecued Pork, Poached Chicken with Scallion Oil, Roast Suckling Pig, Roasted Pigeon, Steamed Fish and Greens with Oyster Sauce, and Shark's Fin Soup with Boiled Abalone being the most expensive dish. Fine southern-style eateries can be found easily in Taipei.

Western flavor
         The modish form of Chinese cooking these days is western cuisine. Representing this region is the Szechuan and Hunan cuisine. Both cuisine are popular for their liberal use of red chilies, fresh ginger roots, garlic, scallions, and pungently-fermented sauces. Westerners may think that Szechuan and Hunan cuisine are too spicy for their liking, but the flavors are strong and not necessarily spicy hot. Szechuan cooking is the most prevailing style of Chinese cooking in humid Taipei. This was probably the result of traditional Chinese medical theories, which states that garlic and ginger have extraordinary antiseptic and cleansing effects and that they prod excessive dampness from the human system. Palatable representatives of the Szechuan and Hunan cuisine include Beggar's Chicken, Honey Ham, Steamed Mince Pigeon in Bamboo Cups, Steamed Whole Pomfret, Frog Legs in Hot Chili Sauce, Duck Smoked with Camphor and Tea, Chicken Baked in Salt, Flah-Fried Shrimp, Eggpl        ant in Soy Sauce, and Szechuan-style Beancurd. A note of warning, Hunan food is cooked with copious amounts of oils, and dishes are usually spicy with a dash of sweet, sour, and salty feeling.

Chiu Chow

        Chiu Chow cuisine, also known as Swatow food, originated from the city of Swatow in the coastal region of Guangdong. Seafood, goose, and duck are eminent features of this cuisine. The Chiu Chow people have a unique method of harvesting oysters by pushing bamboo sticks into oyster beds. They then wait for the sticks to encrust with mollusks. After that, the oysters are made edible and tasty just by grilling the oysters in their shells over a fire. In restaurants, however, oysters are fried in egg batter and clams served in a spicy sauce of black beans and chilies. Gray mullet is a popular cold dish, and pomfret fish smoked over tea leaves, along with fresh-water eel stewed in brown sauce are other highly recommended dishes.

        Sauces are often sweet, using tangerine or sweet beans for flavor. Chiu Chow chefs are particularly skilled in carving raw vegetables into floral designs, thus bringing forth Hong Kong's most artistic dishes. Two of the most expensive Chinese delicacies - shark's fin and bird's nest - are the pride of Chiu Chow cuisine. The dried saliva, which lines the edible swiftlet's nest, provides the magic base for the famous birds nest soup. This nourishing saliva is said to rejuvenate the old and can be eaten together with coconut milk or almonds. The finest birds nest is claimed by a Hong Kong restaurateur who rents a mountain in Thailand, which he believes harbors the finest set of swiftlet nests in Southeast Asia.

        Other equally tasty Chiu Chow specialties are the baked rice birds, which are seasonal fowl dishes stuffed with chicken liver and served by the dozens, as well as minced pigeon cooked with water chestnuts and eaten wrapped in crispy lettuce leaves spiked with a smack of plum sauce. A Chiu Chow meal ends with desserts made from taro, water chestnuts, and sugar-syrup, which are then washed down with cups of strong 'kungfu' tea. A simply extraordinary meal!

Hakka

        Hakka settlers mainly dwell in Hong Kong's New Territories. When they migrated from the northern regions of China to Hong Kong, they brought along their own traditional cooking. Their main dishes are stuffed duck and salt-baked chicken. Preparation of the stuffed duck requires some amount of time. The bird has to be deboned through a hole in the neck and then stuffed with a rich assortment of glutinous rice, chopped meats, and lotus seeds. Hakka cooking also makes do with unusual food sources, such as braised chicken's blood or pig's brain stewed in Chinese wine. These may seem repulsive to most foreigners, but to the Chinese, they make tasty delicacies that are good for one's health.

Peking

        Originating from the imperial courts of northern China, Peking food is extremely rich and strongly spiced with coriander, peppers, and garlic. Noodles, dumplings, and breads are the features of this region's cuisine. The most popular world-wide dish is the Peking Duck. The duck's crispy skin is wrapped in thin pancakes with spring onions, cucumber, and plum sauce, and is well liked by both Chinese and foreigners alike. In some restaurants, diners will be regaled by the waiter who demonstrates how the skin is cut to perfectly lean slices and enveloped in smooth, white-colored pancakes, along with other ingredients. The leftover duck meat is then brought into the kitchen to be stir-fried or cooked to the diners' liking.

        Another popular dish is the Beggar's chicken, which is stuffed with vegetables and herbs and sealed with clay before being cooked slowly. The guest of honor is usually invited to break open the chicken with a mallet.

        If one is lucky enough, chefs at Peking restaurants display a 'noodle show' where they exhibit their expertise in tossing lumps of dough into the air until it turns into strands of noodles to be cooked.

Shanghainese

        Shanghai cuisine is typically heavier and oilier than other Chinese food. The foods are seasoned with sugar, soy sauce, and Shaoxing wine, thus producing a sweet and zesty combination. Dishes are served in big portions and in thick sauces. Steamed dumplings and hairy crabs are features of this cuisine.

        Hairy crabs are mostly eaten in late autumn when these freshwater crabs are sent from mainland China. This is a rather sought after steamed dish in Hong Kong. The best months to try hairy crabs are in September and October. Other year-round Shanghainese favorites include hot-and sour-soup, drunken chicken, yellow fish, and braised eel.

Szechuan

        Bursting with flavor, Szechuan food is one of the spiciest cuisine in China. Some restaurants in Hong Kong often combine Peking and Szechuan dishes together so that people can taste the differences between the two. Szechuan chefs often add rich spices into their dishes. The spices include star anise, fennel seed, chili, coriander, and garlic. Common methods of cooking are smoking and shimmering that will give the fragrant seasonings time to infuse the food with mouth-watering tastes and aromas. It is not necessary for all the dishes of this cuisine to be hot and spicy. The crispy beef deep-fried with tangy kumquat peel, and smoked duck in camphor wood and tea leaves are favorites on the table. Unlike the northern preference for rice, Szechuan cuisine features a variety of noodles and steamed bread.