Chinese food in Australia is largely based on Cantonese cuisine. The first generation of migrants came from Canton and brought their food with them. Now renamed Guangzhou, this southern province is where to find authentic versions of the Chinese food you know and love, plus new taste sensations.

Cantonese culture is based around five meals a day; breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and night snack, making Guangzhou a great eating destination. Here are the top 20 food experiences you can’t miss while in Guangzhou.

1. Cantonese-style Mandarin fish
You can thank Canton for bringing the world its delicate style of steamed whole fish. Try it at HongXing Yidu Bird Seafood restaurant, where it’s seasoned with soy, ginger and spring onion.

2. Sizzling seafood with oyster sauce
A thin, crispy, oily savoury pancake base topped with clams, calamari and prawns at HongXing Yidu Bird Seafood. It’s from the Chao Zhou region of Guangdong province, which specialises in seafood.

3. Cantonese-style beef noodles
You aren’t limited to seafood at HongXing Yidu Bird Seafood, a 24-hour restaurant. Try the flat rice noodles, which are about the width of tagliatelle and have a lovely smoky char.

4. Sweet and sour pork
Lotus Fragrant House has been serving traditional Cantonese food since 1889. Rather than the unnaturally bright plates served in Australia, the sauce is darker here and closer to brown than orange, with the dominant flavour being sour rather than sweet. The pork is sliced thinly and lightly battered, adding texture to the dish.

5. Green vegetables and mushrooms
You expect gai lan or bok choy when served Asian greens, but at Lotus Fragrant House they cook lettuce. It’s light, crunchy and delicious.

6. Fish skin
Chanpim Kei is an alleyway restaurant that serves only three things. Fish skin, congee and rice noodles. The skin of grass carp is scaled then ‘cooked’ by alternately blanching it in boiling and cold water five times, giving it a gelatinous yet crunchy texture, akin to cartilage. It’s seasoned with sesame, soy, scallion, coriander, peanut and spices.

7. Boat porridge congee
The flesh of the grass carp at Chanpim Kei is used to make the congee, which also has peanuts and chopped, fried dough sticks rather than tofu. It gets its name because it was traditionally cooked by fishermen in the Guangdou province,

8. Rice noodles
This completes the trio at Chanpim Kei, smooth, silky sheets of noodles rolled into little logs so you can sink your teeth into them, simply served with soy sauce and sesame seeds.

9. Clams
The street food along Boahua Lu can’t be missed. Our pick is the giant clams topped with a mound of vermicelli noodles. They’re steamed together so that the noodles absorb all those clam juices. The clam shell makes a handy little bowl, and it feels like you’re slurping a mouthful of noodle soup.

10. Pan-fried dumplings
Liwan Famous Eatery is the place to get them. Dumplings in Guangzhou are traditionally fried rather than steamed. These are double the size of yum cha dumplings and filled with a mix of pork, chive and water chestnut.

11. Red bean congee
After the dumplings, order this dessert soup at Liwan Famous Eatery. It’s a cool bowl of glutinous porridge goodness brimming with sweet red beans and sticky rice dumplings filled with black sesame.

12. Dragon hair sweets
This is street-food snacking for sweet tooths. When wandering around LiWan Park, look for the group of kids staring transfixed at a little bike-stall. The vendor pulls, stretches and shapes the sugary, fairy-floss like confection into long strands and then wraps them around a peanut crumble centre.

13. Dim sum
You’ll find the best in town at Panxi Restaurant. You get a picture menu and pencil rather than trolleys like you would at yum cha, but on the plus side, the delicious dumplings are available all day. Don’t leave without ordering the egg custard tarts.

14. Cheong fun
Yin Zi in the Hai Zu district makes these rice noodles, filled with everything from an egg to bbq pork, in front of you. A Hakka dish, coming from the mountains in Guandong province, this is a traditional breakfast dish that’s sold out by 11am, so skip the breakfast buffet at the hotel and start your day here.

15. Deep fried fish belly
We know that the belly is the prized part for sashimi, but it’s also a star when cooked at Kung Fu Fish Restaurant. Sliced into thick chunks, they’re fattier than regular fillets, making for wonderfully juicy bites that have a crunchy exterior.

16. Roast goose
Guangdong’s proximity to Hong Kong means you’ll find their local speciality here. Try it at Kung Fu Fish Restaurant, where they serve more than just seafood. Like roast duck it’s got skin so crisp it breaks off into shards, the meat is a little gamier and it comes with a sweet and sour plum sauce for dipping.

17. Beef brisket rice noodles
At Sha Hou Fun Village, this dishes uses ho noodles, made from water from nearby Baiyu mountain; they’re thinner and more slippery than regular flat rice noodles.

18. Ham zin ban
The texture of these salty, savoury pastries at Sha Hou Fun Village sit somewhere between a doughnut and a bagel. Snack on them as is or dip them into your noodle soup.

19. Prawn yellow curry
Guangzhou is just over an hour from Macau, so there are a lot of restaurants specialising in Macanese cuisine, an intriguing blend of Chinese and Portuguese flavours. At Macau Street Restaurant the marigold-coloured prawn yellow curry has a comfortingly familiar taste that haunts us until we realise it’s Keen’s Curry Powder.

20. Portuguese egg tarts
This Portuguese speciality is popular in Macau and inspired the Chinese egg tarts you get at yum cha, the difference being the European version has crisp layers of pastry, a firmer egg centre and slightly charred top. The best ones are found at KFC. No, that’s not a typo but insider-intel our local guide shared.