Rice

Rice is the Cantonese universal. No day passes without a Cantonese man, woman, or child having rice at least twice, for it is said that unless a Cantonese eats rice at least two times daily, he or she will have no energy. Rice eaten in Canton is white rice, usually eaten after it has been cooked plainly, with water, and properly, so that each grain of white rice is fluffy, is separate from other grains, and though not moist, has absorbed all of the water in which it has been cooked.

South China, along with India and other parts of East Asia, is perhaps the world’s most abundant rice-growing region. Two crops are harvested each year in southern China, in and around Canton and throughout Guangdong Province, and the mark of a man without material care is said to be that “his rice bowl is full.” A person who has fallen upon lean times has a “broken rice bowl.” Rice in Canton is food, respect, tradition.