Teochew cuisine is well known for its seafood and vegetarian dishes. Its use of flavouring is much less heavy-handed than most other Chinese cuisines and depends much on the freshness and quality of the ingredients for taste and flavour. As a delicate cuisine, oil is not often used in large quantities and there is a relatively heavy emphasis on poaching, steaming and
braising, as well as the common Chinese method of
stir-frying. Teochew cuisine is also known for serving
congee (; or
mue), in addition to
steamed rice or noodles with meals. The Teochew '''' is rather different from the Cantonese counterpart, being very watery with the rice sitting loosely at the bottom of the bowl, while the Cantonese dish is more a thin gruel. Authentic Teochew restaurants serve very strong
oolong tea called
Tieguanyin in very tiny cups before and after the meal. Presented as
gongfu tea, the tea has a thickly bittersweet taste, colloquially known as
gam gam (). A condiment that is popular in Fujian and
Taiwanese cuisine and commonly associated with cuisine of certain Teochew groups is
shacha sauce (). It is made from soybean oil, garlic, shallots, chilies, brill fish and dried shrimp. The paste has a savoury and slightly spicy taste. As an ingredient, it has multiple uses: as a base for soups, as a rub for barbecued meats, as a seasoning for stir-fried dishes, or as a component for dipping sauces. In addition to
soy sauce (widely used in all Chinese cuisines), Teochew people also use
fish sauce in their cooking. Teochew chefs often use a special stock called siang teng (), literally translates from the
Teochew dialect as "
superior broth". This stock remains on the stove and is continuously replenished (a
perpetual stew). Portrayed in popular media, some Hong Kong chefs allegedly use the same superior broth that is preserved for decades. This stock can as well be seen on Chaozhou TV's cooking programmes. There is a notable feast in Teochew cuisine called '''' (). A myriad of dishes are often served, which include
shark fin soup,
bird's nest soup, lobster, steamed fish, roasted suckling pig and braised goose. However, due to legal and environmental considerations, '''' no longer serves shark fin soup and bird's nest soup. When guests go to '''', they must be neatly dressed, with clean hats and footwear. In earlier times, men were expected to wear long gowns and felt hats, while women would comb their hair carefully, apply light makeup, and wear ruyi hairpins (如意發簪). If one’s clothing is untidy, speech improper, posture careless, or behavior lacking decorum, others will feel that you do not understand proper etiquette and that you fail to show respect and humility. This means that when drinking soup, one must avoid letting it dribble from the mouth; when eating dishes, the tongue should not make smacking or clicking sounds; and when eating meat, one should not gnaw bones so forcefully that it produces noise. Other notable Teochew diaspora communities are in Vietnam, Cambodia and France. A popular noodle soup in both Vietnam and Cambodia, known as
hu tieu, originated from the Teochew . There is also a large diaspora of Teochew people (most were from Southeast Asia) in the United States - particularly in California. There is a Teochew Chinese Association in Paris called L'Amicale des Teochews en France. ==Notable dishes==