Hunan Cuisine

Hunan cuisine is one of the eight major cuisines with a long history since Han Dynasty. There are three local flavor representatives: Xiangjiang River area, Dongting Lake area and Xiangxi area.

Basic Flavor

Due to its geographical location and humid climate, people like to eat spicy food to refresh themselves and get rid of the dampness.

Xiangjiang River Area

Changsha, Hengyang, Xiangtan as the center area, is the main representative of Hunan cuisine. Its characteristics are heavy oil and sauce. The taste is spicy and sour. The main ways of cooking are stewing, pickling, steaming, frying, etc.

Recommendation: Steamed Sea Cucumber, Pungent and Spicy Chicken, Spicy Crayfish, etc.

Dongting Lake Area

It is good at cooking freshwater fishes, poultry and so on. The main cooking ways are braising, steaming, pickling. Its characteristics are heavy oil, spicy and salty.

Recommendation: Stewed Turtle and Pork, Braised Dongting Mandarin Fish, Stewed Lotus Seed with Crystal Sugar, etc.

Xiangxi Area

Xiangxi cuisine is good at cooking delicacies of every kind, taste is sour, spicy, salty, always use wood and charcoal as fuel when cooking.

Recommendation: Braised Fungus, Braised Chestnut with Vegetables, Xiangxi Sour Pork, etc.