With their emphasis on fresh ingredients and light flavors, Chaozhou dishes are popular the world over as a healthy option among Chinese cuisine. Sampling everything from porridge to lobster and kungfu tea, Chehui Peh recommends local options for every budget.

Chaozhou cuisine, one of the most common cuisines among overseas Chinese, is famous for its fresh seafood and vegetables and light, natural flavors. It's also healthy since it's made with minimal oil.

Chaozhou or Teochew cooking originated in the Chaoshan coastal region in southeastern Guangdong Province. It's a major school of Guangdong cooking, influenced by Cantonese style and technique and by the richly flavored fare of its northeastern neighbor, Fujian Province.

Since it's a coastal region, seafood and vegetables are featured prominently. Chaozhou cuisine is delicate and has a natural, light, sweet fragrance. It's prepared without much oil, and dishes tend to be poached, steamed, simmered, braised and stir-fried.

A trademark dish is Teochew porridge or Teochew "muay," which is more like rice soup than thicker congee. Porridge is eaten widely for breakfast, topped with small quantities of pickles and seafood. Porridge is said to help detox the body and, in traditional Chinese medicine, it is said to calm the mind.

But the cooking is too mild. A popular condiment is satay sauce made from soybean oil, garlic, shallots, chilis, brill fish and dried shrimp. It's savory and slightly spicy, also used in Fujian and Taiwanese cuisines.

Braised duck is famous, braised in sweet, dark sauce to retain its tenderness; the resulting sauce is perfect when eaten with plain rice.

Sweet dishes such as pumpkin and taro are also specialties.

Chaozhou's tea culture is as famous as its food culture, despite popular misconceptions that Fujian is more particular about its tea. Before and after meals, Chaozhou people tend to drink very strong Oolong tea, presented as kungfu tea, a bittersweet shot of caffeine said to aid digestion.

Chaozhou banquets are famous, featuring a large, square table for eight and a full-course dinner with all the region's famous delicacies. Banquets are called "jiat doh" - literally "eat the table" and are held on happy family occasions.

Because it's light and uses less oil than many other cuisines, Chaozhou cooking is found in elegant Shanghai restaurants, as well as small eateries for home cooking.

Shanghai Daily visits high-end as well as homey restaurants.

Chaoshan Claypot Porridge Restaurant(潮汕砂锅粥馆)

Cuisine: Teochew porridge and sides

Ambience: Not much to speak of, the interior resembles a casual diner.

Who to invite: A group of friends for a casual meal.

Pros: Extensive menu with a wide selection of porridges; porridge is served in a clay pot keeping it warm until the end of the meal. Portions are also big.

Cons: The place is rather small. There's no English menu, and the porridge is more expensive than in average restaurants.

Recommended: Seafood is excellent. Among the porridges, the best are prawn-crab porridge (虾蟹粥), prawn-crab-dried-scallop porridge (虾蟹干贝粥) and fish porridge (生鱼粥). The porridge is continuously heated in a clay pot during the meal, creating a mushy stew by the end of the meal, which is flavorful. For sides, the salt and pepper yellow croaker (椒盐小黄鱼) was fried to perfection; the flesh was soft and chewy, while the skin was crisp.

Don't order: The dried scallop porridge (干贝粥) tasted as though it contained a lot of MSG and although tasty, it had an unpleasant after-taste.

Drinks: Authentic kungfu tea and water.

Cost: Around 80 yuan (US$12.57) per person with sides and porridge to share.

Address: 868 Xinzha Rd

Tel: 6253-7779

Chaofu Restaurant (潮府酒家)

Cuisine: Modern Chaozhou

Ambience: With a large dining hall, grand staircase and modernist design, Chao Fu is suitable for wedding banquets. It has high ceilings and lots of space, and the decor, such as hanging lamps, are tasteful.

Who to invite: Your other half, family or close friends for a special occasion, or if you feel like eating fancier fare. Also good for business clients.

Pros: Chao Fu is located in an attractive and tranquil park. The menu is also done up in detail and photos of each dish is available. Seafood is air flown from Chaozhou. Authentic kungfu tea is served and tea tastings are offered. At night there is live music and tea ceremony performances.

Cons: It is rather expensive, and if you happen to chance on a wedding, the service is slow.

Recommended: Cold flower crabs (冻花蟹), lobster stir-fried with hasma - fat tissue around frog fallopian tubes - (小青龙炒雪蛤) and fish mouth soup (鱼嘴汤) are trademark dishes. The crab is fresh, chewy and sweet, delicious without any seasoning. The lobster and hasma was refreshing and light. The soup was starchy but the natural sweetness of the fish and surprisingly chewy fish mouth was worth a try. The braised goose liver (卤水鹅肝) was soft and braised to the right texture, the Chaozhou version of foie gras.

Don't order: Fish, which was very expensive and not worth the price. The coconut-scented crispy-skin chicken (椰香脆皮鸡) was under-seasoned, and the skin was flaky rather than crispy when we visited.

Drinks: A large selection from juices to alcoholic drinks and, of course, Kungfu tea.

Cost: Around 500 yuan for three if seafood is ordered.

Address: 288 Guangzhong Rd W.

Tel: 6631-5787

Hujiang Restaurant (沪江餐厅)

Cuisine: Simple, Chaozhou home cooking.

Ambience: A neighborhood restaurant in an obscure lane, it has a homey, friendly vibe. Admittedly, the surroundings are not too attractive, but the boss' dialect and the menu pasted on the walls have a nostalgic feel.

Who to invite: Foodies wanting to try authentic Chaozhou food.

Pros: Food is good and fresh, service is friendly. It is almost like eating in a friend's kitchen.

Cons: The place is difficult to find, and frankly, rather dirty. The only menus are on the walls and it's impossible to order if you don't speak Chinese.

Recommended: Gongyi tofu (工艺豆腐) and strange-flavored braised pork ribs (怪味排骨) are the favorites of many regulars.

The tofu is stir-fried with the meat, which adds fragrance. The tofu itself is different and tastes more like mushroom than tofu. Fried gluten with vegetables (鱼味面筋炒青菜) was delicious, particularly since bits of yellow croaker fish were added for flavor. Also recommended is the trademark meat wrapped in eggplant (烧汁酿茄子), which is fried and served with a special braised sauce.

Don't order: Fish head with pickled cabbage (酸菜鱼头). The typical Sichuan dish is cooked in Guangdong style, making it too bland.

Drinks: All stored in a small refrigerator; self-service is encouraged. A wide variety is offered from soft drinks to beer.

Cost: Around 30 yuan per person for three to five.

Address: 40 Wufu Lane, near Nanjing Rd E.

Tel: 6322-1499

Chao Pin Ji (潮品集)

Cuisine: Authentic Chaozhou

Ambience: Located on the first floor of a hotel, the restaurant is typical of Chinese restaurants in hotels - large, modern and simple. It's decorated in dark reds and browns, with a rather grand feeling; large windows give it pleasant light.

Who to invite: Family or partner for a relaxed but semi-formal meal.

Pros: The quiet surroundings are definitely a plus, and the price is cheaper than in most Chaozhou restaurants. The selection is wide and typical home-cooked dishes are also offered.

Cons: The wait staff was not very attentive when we visited and were rather dismissive.

Recommended: The braised eggplant had a homely feeling, and the eggplant was cooked for a long time to make it soft but not mushy. "Fo Tiao Qiang (佛跳墙)," literally "the buddha jumps over the wall" in Chinese, is a classic Chaozhou shark's fin soup with other seafood, and they seem to have nailed the complex taste of seafood and herbs. Seafood Claypot (神旺一品煲) was fresh and had a very interesting concept with a red character of wang (旺, meaning make a fortune) placed on top of a mushroom in the middle of the dish. Kungfu Pine Mushroom Soup (松茸功夫汤) where everyone is served a full teapot of pine mushroom soup was visually impressive.

Don't order: Dimsum, which was much less impressive than the Chaozhou dishes.

Drinks: Tea, soft drinks, juices and alcohol.

Cost: Around 250 yuan for four.

Address: 650 Yishan Rd, 1/F, San Want Hotel

Tel: 6145-1111