The characteristic of Chaozhou cuisine is that it attaches great importance to the sauces: salty, sour, sweet and spicy, each with its own specialties. A dish with a small dish of sauce is much more elegant than other local dishes that only use soy sauce and vinegar. Like the most commonly eaten braised goose, there must be a dish of garlic vinegar on the side when it is served. The color is monotonous, and sometimes some chopped chili is added for decoration.
The raw rolled carp is also served with garlic vinegar. They are two different foods. The sauce can be the same, but the taste after eating is completely different, which is also strange. Raw crab with minced ginger and vinegar, roasted goose with plum paste, roasted suckling pig with sweet sauce, roasted conch with plum paste mustard, braised white eel or water fish with red soy sauce.
When the fish is cooked and turned into fish rice, be sure to add bean paste so that the fish does not smell fishy. The bean paste must also be produced in the Puning area, and some even add a little spiciness to it. There's a huge difference between good and bad bean paste. The bean paste with clearly visible beans is too raw and has no bean flavor; the beans are pickled for too long and turn into a ball of paste, which is too salty and unsightly. What a great knowledge.