hugopal How can you tell/what’s the difference?
You just get to know what dishes and flavour profiles are from where when you’ve lived here for a long time, as you would in any country.
Wheat, beef and onions are very common in North-West cuisine because there are lots of wheat fields, lots of cows and lots of onions. North west food is also spicy because of its Silk Road location. Cantonese is not. Cantonese would be more likely to eat lots more rice and seafood and very little beef, because they are close to the sea and have lots of rice paddies.
Beef noodles done that way are just as synonymous with Lanzhou (the city), Gansu (the province) as meat and potato pies are with North-West England.
Beijing cuisine itself is fairly poor apart from a couple of dishes, but because it’s the capital you get all these restaurants and chefs from all over the country (and that has happened fro centuries because they were invited from the provinces by the emperor).
