Fish, shells and crustaceans

Puffer fish and blue beauty prawns.[Photo by Pauline D. Loh / China Daily]

Puffer fish and blue beauty prawns.[Photo by Pauline D. Loh / China Daily]

Guangdong or Cantonese cuisine is known for its insistence on the freshness of ingredients. Pauline D. Loh finds out exactly how high the bar is raised.

Every Cantonese chef or serious home cook would have visited Guangzhou's Huangsha seafood wholesale market at least once. It is the mecca of freshness, where everything is breathing, swimming or wriggling.

Located along the river in the Lizhiwan or Lychee Bay area, it commands a huge spread of land that is escalating in price every day.

Property developers are invading its fringes, building high-rise, high value condominiums that cost a cool couple of millions each. That is the reason why there have been so many attempts to get the sprawling wholesale market to move - but with little success.

It is obvious that while Guangzhou natives love the profit like everyone else, they love their food better.

So, Huangsha market is safe for the moment. Every day starting from the early hours of the morning, the fishing boats and container trucks roll in, bringing in the freshest fish, prawns, crabs and shellfish not just from all parts of China, but from all over the world.

From Norway, salmon arrives and there are specialist shops where the large fish are delicately and precisely cut into fillets and steaks that gourmet shoppers can buy home.

One of the first shops we visited had a huge display window where you could see the masters carving up the cuts while apprentices watched and learned the craft.

Further in, the market divides into areas where the chefs can shop according to the seafood categories.