recent history of guanxi cuisine

About Guangxi Cuisine

The Guangxi province is one of the poorest in China, but boasts a stunning landscape full of limestone towers that have made it a climbing and outdoors destination for a couple of decades now. Yangshuo is surrounded by farmland and plays host to multiple farmers markets, giving it some very real potential for a future locavore movement. Unfortunately, the area’s historic poverty has impacted the development and progress of cuisine. Yangshuo’s specialties are Guilin Rice Noodles and Beer Fish, both dishes being born out of what was most easily accessible locally (rice is more widely used in the south of China, wheat is more widely used in the north; the Li, Dragon and Yulong Rivers all flow around the area and provide easy access to fish). Comparatively, the Guangxi province has yet to develop a formidable food culture. For a long time in Chinese history, the area was left undeveloped, being a haven for the already existing minority groups (of which China has 56) and for people that were outcasts in more developed areas. Since the 1960s, the area has grown more in industry near Liuzhou but has still been left behind in the rate of development that can be seen in other regions. Tourism in Guilin and Yangshuo have also been on the rise, which has allowed for an influx of travelers looking to escape the Chinese cities. Focus on industrial development has not left a lot of room for culinary expansion, but the growing focus on tourism (which attracts a more varied, richer crowd) has started to lay the foundation for something that could evolve into a complex food culture someday. The concept of organic farming practices are new to China as a whole and have yet to find a solid footing in the plots surrounding Yangshuo, especially when the area is more recently dealing with the concept of food as a luxury rather than just a caloric necessity. That being said, the history has shaped a strong tradition of family style eating: it is always inclusive, always involving multiple people and multiple dishes. While in western countries the action of solo eating is becoming more common, the circumstances of lower income has tended to knit groups together for more family style meals. This makes the advent of eating a shared one, breathing life into a Tuesday night via a spacious table and a few shots of baijiu.