Explore

Every kitchen on the shelf, where it cooks.
Cooked hereWaiting for its first cookEach shape is its balance — salt, acid, heat, savoury, fat, sweet, clockwise from the top.
IndiaIndonesiaFranceSpainThaiVietnameseMalaysianFilipinoJapaneseKoreanSri LankanLevantinePersianTurkishGeorgianMoroccanEthiopianNigerianCape MalayItalianGreekPolishNordic and Baltic ryeMexicanCreole and CajunJamaicanPeruvianBrazilianThe cocktail barCantoneseTeochewHunanShandongHuaiyangShanghaineseZhejiangFujianAnhuiBeijingYunnanUyghur and XinjiangSichuanChaozhouShantouPuningNan'ao island
4 places in Teochew — touch one for what it's known for.
Chaoshan, the far east of Guangdong, southern China · its own page

Teochew

Also Chaozhou, Chiuchow, Chaoshan
One of Chinese cooking's regional kitchens · all 13 side by side

The cooking of Chaozhou and Shantou on the coast of eastern Guangdong: seafood, clear broths and slow master-stock braises, each dish with its own little dip.

Where it comes from

Chaoshan — the country round Chaozhou, Shantou and Jieyang — sits on the coast where Guangdong meets Fujian, and its people speak Teochew, a Min language closer to Hokkien than to Cantonese. The cooking leans that way too: seafood above all, light clear soups, fish sauce, and braises in a spiced soy stock that is kept going for years. Almost every dish comes with its own dip, and meals end with tiny cups of strong tea.

From the nineteenth century, and especially after Shantou opened as a treaty port in 1860, many Teochew left by sea for Siam, Singapore, Malaya, Cambodia and Vietnam. Bangkok's Chinatown is largely Teochew, and in Singapore and Malaysia Teochew porridge, kway chap, fish ball noodles and fried carrot cake are everyday hawker food. Hong Kong's Chiuchow restaurants kept the braised goose and the cold crab.

Where in it

  1. ChaozhouThe old walled city on the Han river, which gives the cooking its name: known for its snacks and porridge shops, lou-braised meats and gongfu tea drunk everywhere.Teochew porridgeKway chapTeochew braised goose
  2. ShantouThe port city, opened to foreign trade in 1860 and the door the emigrants left by: known for beef hotpot, fish balls and seafood, and for Chenghai's big lion-head geese nearby.Teochew beef hotpotTeochew fish balls
  3. PuningAn inland market town of Jieyang, known for its fried tofu, crisp outside and soft within, and for its fermented bean sauce, used across Chaoshan in braises and dips.
  4. Nan'ao islandAn island off the Shantou coast, Guangdong's easternmost county, with fishing villages known for crab, prawns and shellfish — the seafood the cold dishes are made from.Teochew cold crab

How it cooks

Lou
Braising in a master stock of soy, galangal, spices and rock sugar, topped up and kept going for years — for goose, duck, pork, tofu and eggs.
Dong
Seafood steamed or boiled, then left to go cold, so the sweetness of the flesh leads: crab, prawns, fish.
Gongfu tea
Strong oolong brewed in a tiny pot and poured into thimble-sized cups, again and again — before, after and between meals.
Dips
A different small sauce for each dish: garlic vinegar for goose, shacha for beef, plum sauce for fried things, fish sauce for seafood.

Always in the kitchen

fish saucelight soydark soyshacha saucegalangalstar aniserock sugargarliccorianderpreserved radishsalted mustard greensricerice vinegardancong oolong

Cook from it

Tonight, with what's good in October

Its classics

TeochewTeochew braised gooseA whole goose simmered in a dark, spiced master stock of soy, galangal and rock sugar, sliced thin and served with garlic vinegar.No one here has made it yetTeochewTeochew beef hotpotVery fresh beef, cut to order by the part, dipped for seconds in a clear broth and eaten with shacha sauce.No one here has made it yetTeochewTeochew fish ballsWhite, bouncy balls of fish paste beaten by hand, cooked in simmering water and served in clear soup or with noodles.No one here has made it yetTeochewTeochew porridgeRice cooked in plenty of water only until the grains are soft but whole, eaten with a spread of small salty dishes.No one here has made it yetTeochewFried carrot cakeSteamed white radish and rice-flour cake, cut into cubes and fried with egg, garlic and preserved radish — 'white', or 'black' with sweet soy.No one here has made it yetTeochewKway chapWide, flat rice sheets in a dark soy broth, with a plate of braised pork, offal, tofu and eggs from the lou pot.No one here has made it yetTeochewTeochew cold crabA whole crab steamed, then left to go cold, and eaten plain with a dip of ginger in rice vinegar.No one here has made it yet

Cooked here

No one here has cooked Teochew yet.