Shandong Cuisine

Introduction

Represented by the cooking of Jinan and the Jiaodong coast, strong in quick-fire and braising methods, with stock-making as its hallmark.

Shandong cuisine, also called Lu cuisine, is the regional cooking of Shandong. It is commonly divided into branches such as the cooking of Jinan and that of the Jiaodong coast, and the Confucius Mansion cooking of Qufu is often counted within it. Cooks are known for quick-fire methods such as bao and ba, use inland meat and poultry beside seafood from the coast, and distinguish clear stock from milky stock. The Qi Min Yao Shu, written in the Northern Wei by Jia Sixie, a native of Shouguang in Shandong, records many methods of northern cooking and food processing. Well-known dishes include nine-turn braised intestines, scallion-braised sea cucumber and sweet-and-sour carp. The grouping known as the eight cuisines is a later one, and the usage found so far goes back to a 1980 People's Daily article, with Shandong cuisine as one of its members.