Meat

Historically, to the Cantonese, meat is pork. Old cookbooks, old writings on food, when giving instructions for the cutting, preparation, and serving of meat, mean pork. When Confucius wrote his careful instructions for the proper cutting of vegetables and meat, he meant pork. To this day, for many older Cantonese people, meat means only pork. There are different reasons for this.

First, many Cantonese are Buddhists, and while some of them refrain from eating any meat at all, none will eat beef. In addition, beef in China was not always as plentiful as pork. Third, the strong aroma and taste of lamb are traditionally not to the liking of many Cantonese.