Drifting Clouds 片雲の風

Coming back to Singapore after almost 10 years away, one thing that struck me is the proliferation of regional Chinese food. Mala is the most visible manifestation, but the southern Chinese dishes we all know and love have been supplemented by restaurants serving up more or less unadulterated dishes from northern, northeastern, western and central parts of China. Yet since they cater mostly to recent immigrants, many of them are nearly invisible on the English-speaking Internet: they’re rarely covered by local bloggers, mostly missing from the usual delivery services and often not even listed on Google Maps.

With my business travel plans to China scotched by COVID-19 for the foreseeable feature, I figured I’d set a goal for myself: trot out my 非常不好 Mandarin and try to explore the food of every one of China’s 34 provinces right here in Singapore. Easy enough for Shanghai or Hong Kong; a bit more challenging for Guizhou or Anhui.

The 34 provinces as we know them today were only set up in the 1950s, with tweaks continuing up to the 1990s, so Chinese culinary traditions don’t map them to them all that neatly either. So here’s a listing of China’s regions, their culinary traditions (the Eight Great highlighted in bold) and, roughly, how the provinces slot under them.

Region 地区	Cuisine 菜	Province 省
Northwest 西北 Xīběi	Xibei 西北菜	Qinghai Gansu Ningxia
		Xinjiang
	Qin 秦菜	Shaanxi
Northeast 东北 Dōngběi	Dongbei 东北菜	Heilongjiang Jilin Liaoning
North 华北 Huáběi		Inner Mongolia
	Jing 京菜 Imperial/Yushan 御膳	Beijing
	Jin 津菜	Tianjin
	Ji 冀菜	Hebei
	Jin 晋菜	Shanxi
East 华东 Huádōng	Lu 鲁菜	Shandong
	Hu 沪菜	Shanghai
	Su 蘇菜 Huaiyang 淮扬菜	Jiangsu
	Zhe 浙菜	Zhejiang
	Hui 徽菜	Anhui
	Gan 赣菜	Jiangxi
	Min/Hokkien 闽菜 Fuzhou/Foochow 福州菜 Putian/Henghua 莆田/兴化菜	Fujian Taiwan
Southwest 西南 Xīnán	Chuan 川菜	Sichuan Chongqing
	Dian 滇菜	Yunnan
	Gui 黔菜	Guizhou
		Tibet
Central 中南 Zhōngnán	Yue 粤菜 Chaozhou/Teochew 潮州菜 Kejia/Hakka 客家菜	Guangdong Hong Kong Macau Hainan
	Chu 楚菜	Hubei
	Xiang 湘菜	Hunan
	Yu 豫菜	Henan
		Guangxi

Here’s my current plan of action, noting dishes & drinks to try and places to try them, and the map version of the same.  All things considered, I’d prefer to eat everyday/street/”real” food instead of fancy 5-star hotel restaurant stuff, but I’m open to everything.  If you have suggestions or would like to you’d like to offer your services as tour guide/translator/culinary consultant, please comment directly on the doc, join the 34 Province Project mailing list or Telegram group or drop me a line!

Pick an link from the table above, or start your journey here: Xinjiang >>>