Guangxi Cuisine

Formation and Characteristics of Guangxi Cuisine

Guangxi located in the southern border area of China, Guangxi is on the north of the Beibu Bay of the South China Sea. With many mountains and a few plains, Guangxi boasts many scenic places and plenty of natural resources. Guangxi is home to several ethnic minorities, who have invented various rich and colorful folk dishes. Since Guangxi is adjacent to Guangdong province, many people from Guangdong live there. Therefore, Guangdong Cuisine has exerted a great influence on the local cuisine of Guangxi. Although influenced by Guangdong cuisine, Guangxi people still create many dishes that reflect their way of life.

Guangxi Cuisine is light, delicious, crisp, tender, smooth, salty and slightly spicy, with strong adaptability. 

Famous Dishes and Snacks of Some Cities in Guangxi

(1). Nanning

Nanning, the capital of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is one of the most beautiful cities in the south of China.

Stewed Pseudo-Ginseng and Duck—田七炖蚬鸭

With a duck as the main ingredient, and pseudo-ginsengs as the supplement material, plus a wide variety of seasonings, this dish is palatable, nutritious and tonic.

Wushi Qichang Fish—五世起昌鱼

With Mandarin fish, lard, winter mushrooms, winter bamboo shoots and broth as the raw materials, this dish is prepared through many procedures. With floating fish and vegetables, it is very delicious.

Huadiao Drunken Chicken—花雕醉鸡 (Chicken Cooked with famous Huadiao Wine)

Beef Balls Punched with Hand—手捶牛肉丸

Meat Balls with Green Vegetable Stem—挂绿肉果

Procedure: Make meatballs with minced pork, egg white, and seasonings, and place a green vegetable stem in the middle. This dish is unique in shape and delicious in taste.

Special Local Snacks

Old Friend Noodles—老友面

Fenjiao Dumpling—粉饺

Wrapped with rice flour skin, and stuffed with minced pork and lotus roots, the dumpling is steamed.

Tingzai Porridge—艇仔粥

Zongzi Stuffed with Meat—大肉棕

It is a pyramid-shaped dumpling made of meat and glutinous rice which is wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves.

(2). Guilin

Guilin is a beautiful city and a popular tourist designation. Therefore, it is well known both at home and abroad. There are more than 100 famous traditional dishes in Guilin.

Guilin Fermented Bean Curd—岭南香荔果

Guilin Fermented Bean Curd, Litchi, and Beef—桂乳荔枝肥牛

With beef, litchi and Guilin fermented bean curd as the main ingredients, and liquor, ginger, onions, sugar, soy sauce, pepper powder, and salt as seasonings, this dish features red color, soft meat, and strong fragrance. It is a delicacy in winter.

Chicken Wrapped with Paper in Original Taste—原味纸包鸡

Take chicken meat, hams, Xianggu mushrooms, and onion white as raw materials; cut them into strips; add condiments to them and wrap the ingredients with specially made paper. Each bag contains a piece of chicken meat, a piece of ham, a piece of Xianggu mushroom, and a one-inch onion white - and fry the paper-wrapped bags. Open the paper bag before it is eaten. The dish is delicious, tender and smooth, with original taste and juice.

Chicken Meat Balls and Fragrant Chicken Bones—凤球骨香鸡

Procedure: Prepare chicken meat, chicken bones, winter mushrooms, winter bamboo shoots and eggs as the main and supplementary ingredients, plus a wide variety of seasonings; prepare chicken meatballs; cut chicken bones into one-inch long; cut winter mushrooms and winter bamboo shoots into dices; fry or stir-fry them, respectively, and place them in one plate to make a dish.

This dish features delicious, aromatic, smooth and tender chicken meat, and crisp and fragrant chicken bones, as well as a unique flavor.

Five-color Smooth Fish Stripes—五彩滑鱼条

Procedure: Prepare grass carp meat, green peppers, carrots, grilled pork and winter bamboo shoots as the raw materials, and onions, ginger, Sanhua wine, egg white, starch, and oil as condiments; properly process the raw materials; stir-fry fish stripes; and fry the fish stripes with other ingredients.

Containing five colors, i.e., red, green, white, yellow and orange, this dish is delicious, refreshing and nutritious.

Special Local Snacks

Stuffed Bun Wrapped with Romaine Lettuce—生菜包

This snack is easy to prepare. One needs to wrap a stuffing made of glutinous rice, chestnut kernels, peanuts and dried shrimps with romaine lettuces, and then the snack is done. One can enjoy it right away.

Fried Bean Curd Cake—煎炸豆腐饼

Rice Noodles with Horse Meat—马肉米粉

Prepared with rice noodles, preserved horse meat, horse bone broth and various kinds of seasonings, this snack is delicious and aromatic, with a unique smell.

Rice Noodles with Horse Meat is a specialty of Guilin. In many other places in China, people don’t serve horse meat at banquets. In Guilin, however, a common saying goes: “One who has not tasted Rice Noodles with Horse Meat does not know delicious food on earth.”

Eight-treasure Fragrant Glutinous Rice—香糯八宝饭

Nun Noodles—尼姑面

Nun Noodles, served by the Crescent Restaurant in the Crescent Mountain, is a very famous vegetarian food of Guilin.

(3). Wuzhou

Wuzhou is an ancient city in Guangxi.

Fried Bean-dreg Cake with Stuffing—煎香豆腐头

(Made of bean dregs, and a wide variety of supplementary materials and seasonings)

Wuzhou Chicken Wrapped with Paper—梧州纸包鸡

(Similar to Chicken Wrapped with Paper in Original Taste of Guilin, this dish is well known throughout the country.)

Braised Chrysanthemum, Dragon and Tiger—菊花龙虎绘

(A special dish prepared with snake meat and chicken meat)

Fried River Snails—生炒田螺

(4). Delicacies of the Zhuang People

The Zhuang are an ethnic minority group of China with a relatively large population, and most of the Zhuang people live in Guangxi. Over the past thousands of years, they have created a great number of delicacies with a unique flavor.

These delicious Zhuang dishes and snacks include:

Glutinous Rice Cake—糕米粑

Flower Rice—花米饭

Reunion Ball—团结圆

(Fried balls made of minced pork, tofu, fish, and shrimps)

The Reunion Ball is a must for the Zhuang people at the Spring Festival. A saying goes like this: “If one does not eat bean curd balls at the Lunar New Year, one will find the wine is not sweet, and the meat is not delicious.”

Fried Yam Bean and Beef—凉薯炒牛肉

Stewed Pseudo-Ginseng and Chicken—三七炖鸡

Large Zongzi—大粽子

Flower Rice—花米饭

Flower Rice is prepared with rice dyed with various colors by using natural wildflowers and grasses. The colorful steamed rice has the fragrance of rice and flowers and is nutritious and tonic. Flower Rice is a must food served at the festivals in spring.

Large Zongzi—大粽子

(Dumpling made of glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaves)

Large Zongzi is also called “Pillow Zongzi” as it is large and in the shape of a pillow. Usually, a large zongzi is made of several dozen kgs of glutinous rice. The Zhuang people wrap zongzi dumpling with lotus leaves, place zongzi in a big jar, add water to it, cover the jar tightly, surround the jar with straw ropes and husks, light the straw ropes and husks, keep adding husks for several days running until the large zongzi is ready. During the sacrificial ceremony, people would carry the large zongzi to parade on the streets.

Interesting Stories of Some Guangxi Dishes

Huadiao Drunken Chicken—花雕醉鸡

It is a famous traditional dish in Nanning. The dish is prepared with a stripped chicken, cooking wine and various condiments, and is steamed with an earthen pot.

Due to its beautiful shape, soft meat, and a strong fragrance, the drunken chicken has been well received. In the very beginning, it was created by a chef accidentally. In the past, there was a delicatessen in Nanjing selling chickens steamed in a sealed container. One day when the delicatessen was about to close the door, several chickens had not been sold out. At that time, refrigerators did not exist, and the leftovers could not be properly preserved. Afraid that the chickens would go bad, a chef put a chicken in an earthen pot, add some Huadiao wine and crystal sugar to it, and steamed it. On the following day, the prepared chicken was sold to a customer, and the customer could not help shouting: “Bravo!” When the customer asked about the name of the chicken, the chef burst out: “Huadiao Drunken Chicken.” Since then, such chicken has become very popular.

Nun Noodles—尼姑面

Nun Noodles is a famous traditional snack in Guilin. “Nun” refers to a female monk. There is a story behind the name “Nun Noodles”: In the Crescent Mountain in Guilin stands a temple called the Crescent Tower, built in the Song Dynasty. Female monks cultivated themselves and studied Buddhist sutras there. In ancient China, the temple attracted a great number of worshippers and pilgrims every day. To entertain officials and important benefactors, the Crescent Tower Temple prepared some delicious vegetable dishes. Of all the vegetable dishes provided by the temple, the vegetarian noodles received the most welcome. The gravy poured on the noodles was prepared with Xianggu mushrooms, edible funguses, daylilies, and many other high-quality materials, so that the noodles were very tasty. All the people who had tasted the noodles spoke highly of it unanimously. Moreover, some people specifically visit the temple to taste the delicious noodles. Since the dish is prepared by the nuns in the temple, the noodles are called “Nun Noodles.”