Hot Starters

If cold starters are more of a northern way of eating, hot first courses are very southern indeed. In a traditional Cantonese banquet menu, the first group of dishes are called ‘yitfun’. ‘Yit’ in Cantonese simply means hot, but ‘fun’ is the opposite of vegetarian dishes, so that ‘yitfun’ together means hot, non-vegetarian dishes. What they are, in fact, are light, delicate stir-fries, often using ingredients that are in season, and they are intended to whet the diners’ appetite for the ‘big dishes’ that are to come. Vegetables themselves are often used in yitfun to complement other ingredients, such as poultry, fish or shellfish, to provide a contrasting texture, or to add colour.