The cuisine is generally salty, with a prevalence of light-color sauces. The dishes feature choice of materials, adept skill in slicing and perfect cooking techniques. Shandong cuisine is representative of northern China's cooking and its techniques have been widely absorbed by the imperial dishes of Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Shandong is the birthplace of many famous ancient scholars such as Confucius and Mencius. And much of Shandong cuisine's history is as old as Confucius himself, making it the oldest existing major cuisine in China . Shandong is a large peninsula surrounded by the sea to the East and the Yellow River meandering through the center. As a result, seafood is a major component of Shandong cuisine. People in Shandong like to eat onions and scallion and to use them as a seasoning. The dishes include braised sea cucumber with onion, cartilage stewed with onions, and meat stewed with onions. Roast meats are also served with onions.

Hot Shandong Dishes
Peking Duck
It is the best dish in Beijing. The duck used to cook is called Tianya in Chinese, which is specially feed to gain more flesh and fat. Ducks are roasted whole over a fire of Chinese palm wood. In this way, the skin of duck can be crispy and drown with aroma and the meat juicy and tender.

Mutton Hotpot
It is a Mongolian dish. Only small lambs from Inner Mongolia in the north are used. Mutton is sliced wafery thin and cooked in the pot of the boiling soup for a very short time to keep the meat tender and juicy. The mutton is then dipped into a delicious sauce including soy sauce, pepper, ginger, red pepper, oil, preserved been curd, spring onion and so on.