Tianjin cuisine is derived from the native cooking styles of Tianjin Municipality, a metropolis along the coast of northern China. It is heavily influenced by Beijing cuisine, due to its proximity. The cuisine differs by being sweeter, and more heavily focused on seafood. Tianjin Food Street is a place where cross-cultural Chinese dishes can be sampled. Popular dishes include Eight Great Bowls, Four Great Stews, Tianjing goubuli, and guifaxiang mahua, among others. is a combination of eight mainly meat dishes. It can be further classified into several varieties, including the rough, smooth, and high. The refers to a very large number of stews, including chicken, duck, seafood, beef, and mutton. Tianjin also has several famous snack items. Goubuli is a classic steamedstuffed bun that is well-known throughout China. Guifaxiang is a traditional brand of mahua. Erduoyan is a traditional brand of fried rice cakes.
Differences between Tianjin and Beijing cuisines
Tianjin cuisine differs from Beijing cuisine in the following ways. One of its most distinctive traits involves the heavy concentration on seafood, particularly river fish and shrimp. This is primarily attributed to Tianjin's proximity to the sea. In the case of the same dish, the taste of Tianjin cuisine is not as heavy as that of Beijing cuisine, and this is often reflected in the lighter salty taste of Tianjin cuisine. This can be explained by the fact that although Beijing and Tianjin cuisines are both mainly salty in taste, the latter requires the addition or use of more sugar, which results to a distinctive flavor. Those new to the cuisine will immediately identify a slightly sweet taste embedded in the savory flavor. Since ancient times, the cuisine is also known for its liberal use of oil. Historical accounts for example, during the late imperial period referred to Tianjin as the region where oily-mouthed businessmen were from. While this reference is linked to the capability of slippery-tongued Tianjiners to haggle for the best price, this also alluded to their well-lubricated tongues due to the abundance of oil in the local cuisine. Tianjin cuisine also uses mutton and lamb more frequently due to the less frequently used pork in comparison to Beijing cuisine, and in the event of traditional holidays, mutton and lamb are nearly always prepared for holiday dishes. A greater proportion of Tianjin cuisine includes rice in comparison to Beijing cuisine. In addition, the ways noodles are served in Tianjin cuisine is different than that of Beijing cuisine in that for Tianjin cuisine, the vegetables and meat are served separately from the noodles; in Beijing cuisine, they are served together with the noodles. Finally, there are dishes in the cuisine that show influences from other countries such as Russia and Japan. Scholars attribute this to the city's location as a treaty port, making its culture and, by extension, its cuisine more cosmopolitan than other major Chinese cities such as Beijing.
Nanshi Cuisine Street
is a shopping mall-like complex with more than 100 restaurants covering about 40,000 square metres in area in Tianjin's Heping District. Notable establishments include Zheijiang Restaurant, Da Jin Haiwei, which specializes in seafood,and Erdouyan Fried Cake Shop, a century-old institution known for its rice-powder cakes that are fried in sesame oil.
