The Chinese traditional cuisines are well known for their appearance, delicacies, color, aroma and taste. The cuisines have numerous flavors and brings a variety of exquisite features onto the table. No wonder, Chinese cuisines are an integral part of the vibrant Chinese culture. Although China offers a variety of cuisines with unique cooking styles, Chinese chefs have identified eight major culinary schools in China (八大菜系, Bād cix). Each of these culinary traditions, offering different tastes, are often viewed as the role models. Some of the famous dishes, part of the of the Eight Great Cuisines of China, are: Hotpot (火锅, huǒguō), Dumplings (饺子, jiǎozi), Kung Pao Chicken (宫保鸡丁, gōngbo jīdīng), Ma Po Tofu (麻婆豆腐, mp dufǔ), Shrimp with vermicelli and garlic (蒜蓉粉丝蒸虾, sunrng fěnsī zhēng xiā), Sichuan Pork (水煮肉片, shuǐzhǔ rupin), Stir-fried noodles (炒面, chǎomin), etc.

The current book volume, Chinese Food (8 Major Cuisines of China), is a Chinese reading practice book. It would introduce you to the eight major cuisine types in China. The featured cuisines are extremely popular in China and virtually every Chinese knows them well. These dishes, popular among the foreigners and Chinese alike, are available throughout the mainland. For the convenience of buying these cuisines, the volume also lists (in tabular form) numerous famous Chinese dishes from each of the eight culinary schools.

The volume, 4^th in the "Introduction to Chinese Culture Series", includes both the Chinese text (simplified characters) and pinyin Romanization. With about 1000 unique Chinese characters, the volume would be suitable for the beginners, lower intermediate and advanced level Chinese language learners (HSK 1-6). Overall, the reading series offers you a variety of elementary level books (Level 1/2/3) to learn Chinese culture as well as practice Chinese reading fast.

The book has 9 chapters in the following order:

Chapter 1: Introduction to Eight Major Cuisines (第一章：八大菜系概论)

Chapter 2: Shandong Cuisine (第二章：鲁菜)

Chapter 3: Sichuan Cuisine (第三章：川菜)

Chapter 4: Cantonese Cuisine (第四章：粤菜)

Chapter 5: Jiangsu Cuisine (第五章：苏菜)

Chapter 6: Fujian Cuisine (第六章：闽菜)

Chapter 7: Zhejiang Cuisine (第七章：浙菜)

Chapter 8: Hunan Cuisine (第八章：湘菜)

Chapter 9: Anhui Cuisine (第九章：徽菜)