Guangzhou

Xiā jiǎo

Whole prawns, bamboo shoot and a little pork fat wrapped in a translucent wheat-starch skin and steamed in a bamboo basket. A good one is pleated by hand - Tao Tao Ju insists on thirteen pleats per dumpling and three to four prawns inside. Eat it straight from the steamer with chopsticks, in one or two bites, plain or with a dab of soy.

Tastes like: Sweet, clean prawn with a springy snap; the skin is slippery and faintly chewy.

Not on the menu but in it: Pork fat is worked into the filling of traditional versions for juiciness, so this is not pork-free even though it looks like a prawn dumpling.

Gānzhēng shāomài

Minced pork and prawn bound with mushroom or water chestnut, wrapped in a thin yellow wheat wrapper left open at the top and steamed. The Cantonese version is squat and firm rather than soupy, and is often topped with a few grains of crab roe or a slice of mushroom. Eaten whole, sometimes dipped in chilli oil.

Tastes like: Dense, bouncy and meaty with a savoury pork-fat richness.

Not on the menu but in it: The wrapper is usually egg-coloured wheat dough; dried shrimp or prawn is mixed into the pork even when the menu just says pork.

Chāshāo bāo

A soft white steamed bun that splits open at the top to show diced barbecued pork in a thick glossy sauce of soy, honey and five-spice. Some teahouses do a baked version with a crumbly sweet crust instead. Pull it apart or bite straight in; it is eaten hot.

Tastes like: Sweet-savoury and sticky inside, cloud-soft and slightly sweet outside.

Not on the menu but in it: The filling sauce is thickened with wheat flour or cornflour and contains a good deal of sugar; lard is common in the bun dough.

Chángfěn

A thin rice-milk batter is steamed in a flat drawer into a silky sheet, scattered with filling and rolled up. Guangzhou has two traditions: the delicate teahouse rolls stuffed with prawn, beef or barbecued pork, and the cheaper neighbourhood 'drawer' version with egg, minced pork and lettuce. Both arrive doused in a sweetened light soy sauce and are cut with the side of your chopsticks.

Tastes like: Very soft, slippery and barely chewy, carried by the sweet-salty soy.

Not on the menu but in it: The 'soy' poured over it is usually a house sauce with sugar, oil and sometimes oyster sauce or dried-shrimp stock, so a plain vegetable roll is often not vegetarian. Some shops brush the sheet with lard.

Chǐzhī fèngzhǎo

Chicken feet are deep-fried, soaked until puffy, then steamed slowly with fermented black beans, garlic and sugar until the skin and tendon slide off the bone. They are called 'phoenix claws' on menus. You pick one up, work the soft skin off with your teeth and put the bones in the dish provided - everyone does this with their fingers.

Tastes like: Deeply savoury and sweet, with a gelatinous, lip-sticking softness and no real meat.

Not on the menu but in it: Nothing hidden, but note they are fried before steaming and the sauce contains a lot of sugar.

Shāo'é

A whole goose is rubbed inside with a paste of fermented bean curd, five-spice and sugar, sewn shut, inflated, coated in maltose and hung in a charcoal oven until the skin is lacquer-dark and crisp. It is chopped through the bone into pieces and served with sour plum sauce. Order a quarter or by weight rather than a whole bird.

Tastes like: Rich dark meat with a thick layer of rendered fat under shattering sweet skin; the plum sauce cuts it.

Not on the menu but in it: The marinade is built on fermented red bean curd (南乳) and the glaze on maltose sugar - both can taste unfamiliar and funky.

Báiqiē jī

A whole free-range chicken is poached just to the point of doneness in barely-simmering water, plunged into ice water so the skin tightens into a jelly layer, then chopped through the bone and served cool with a dip of scallion, ginger and hot oil. It is the dish Cantonese cooks are judged on, and the famous versions - like Wen Ji Yixinji's - are deliberately left pink at the bone.

Tastes like: Mild, clean and faintly sweet chicken with a gelatinous skin; the ginger-scallion dip does the seasoning.

Not on the menu but in it: Nothing added, but the bird is served cold or barely warm, which surprises people expecting hot roast chicken.

Shāolà fàn

The standard cheap lunch: a plate of rice topped with one or two roast meats carved to order - barbecued pork (叉烧), crisp-skinned pork belly (烧肉), roast duck or soy-braised goose - plus a spoon of blanched greens and a ladle of the drip sauce from the roasting tray. Point at what is hanging in the window and say how many items you want.

Tastes like: Sweet-salty glazed meat, crackling fat, and rice soaked in savoury drippings.

Not on the menu but in it: The drip sauce is a meat gravy, so the greens on the plate are not vegetarian. Char siu is coloured and sweetened heavily with maltose and sometimes red fermented bean curd.

Tǐngzǎi zhōu

Rice cooked down for hours until the grains collapse into a smooth cream, then finished to order with slivers of fish, squid, peanuts, jellyfish, pork skin and fried noodle shards. The name comes from the sampan vendors who sold it on the Liwan canals. Stir everything in as soon as it arrives and eat it with a spoon; many people dunk a fried dough stick (油条) in it.

Tastes like: Silky and faintly sweet, with crunch from peanuts and fried bits and a light seafood savour.

Not on the menu but in it: Jellyfish, pork skin and dried squid are standard toppings and are not usually itemised in English. Peanuts are almost always present.

Yúntūn miàn

Thin alkaline egg noodles, traditionally kneaded by riding a bamboo pole over the dough (竹升面), served with prawn-and-pork wontons in a clear broth built from pork bone, dried flounder and dried scallop. The classic order is a small bowl where the noodles sit on top of the wontons so they do not go soft. Eat it fast, and add a splash of the red vinegar on the table.

Tastes like: Springy, almost crunchy noodles in a light but intensely savoury seafood-pork broth.

Not on the menu but in it: The broth's depth comes from dried flounder (大地鱼) and dried scallop, so it is never vegetarian even without visible meat. The noodles contain egg and lye water, which gives the faint bitterness.

Bāozǎi fàn

Raw rice is cooked to order over a flame in a small clay pot, with cured pork sausage, marinated chicken, spare ribs or preserved duck laid on top so the fat drips through. It arrives sealed; you pour the sweet soy sauce over, stir hard to scrape up the scorched crust (饭焦) stuck to the bottom, and eat straight from the pot. Allow 20-25 minutes from ordering.

Tastes like: Smoky, sweet-salty and rich, with a toasted crunchy layer at the base that is the whole point.

Not on the menu but in it: Cantonese cured sausage (腊肠) is pork sweetened with sugar and rose-flavoured liquor; the preserved duck version is very salty. A ladle of lard is sometimes added at the table.

Luóbo niúzá

Beef tripe, lung, intestine and tendon simmered for hours with daikon radish in a star-anise and fermented bean broth, snipped up with scissors into a paper cup and drowned in sweet hoisin-style sauce and chilli. You eat it standing up with a bamboo skewer. The radish, which has absorbed the broth, is often the best thing in the cup.

Tastes like: Sweet, spiced and faintly funky; textures run from springy tripe to soft honeycomb lung.

Not on the menu but in it: The pieces really are lung and intestine, not just tripe and tendon; the sauce is a sweet bean-and-sesame paste that often contains peanut.

Gānchǎo niúhé

Wide fresh Shahe rice noodles stir-fried over ferocious heat with marinated beef, bean sprouts and spring onion, with no added liquid - the test of a wok cook is that the noodles stay whole and dry but pick up a charred breath of smoke. Shahe noodle-making is a recognised Guangzhou heritage craft. Served as a shared plate.

Tastes like: Smoky and savoury, slippery noodles with tender beef; dry rather than saucy.

Not on the menu but in it: The beef is tenderised with bicarbonate of soda, which gives its oddly soft texture; dark soy and oyster sauce carry wheat and shellfish.

Shuāngpí nǎi

Water-buffalo milk is scalded and left to form a skin, the milk poured off and mixed with sugar and egg white, then returned under the skin and steamed so a second skin forms on top. It originates in Shunde, just south of Guangzhou, and is eaten warm or chilled, sometimes with red bean or lotus seed on top. Scoop it with a spoon and try to get both skins.

Tastes like: Barely-set, silky and gently sweet, with a faint cooked-cream flavour.

Not on the menu but in it: Egg white is a core ingredient even though it is a milk dessert - relevant if you are avoiding egg. Buffalo milk is much higher in fat than cow's milk.