Guangzhou Restaurant

This guide to Guangzhou Restaurant traces the ground it stands on, a stretch of Wenchang Road once home to twin temples, including one to the sea god Hongsheng, torn down in 1921 to widen the street. It follows tea-shop owner Chen Xinghai, who saw opportunity in that empty plot in the mid-1930s and built a Lingnan-garden restaurant there, only to rebuild it after Japanese bombs nearly destroyed it in 1938. You'll hear how he and chef Zhong Quan, nicknamed the Culinary King of the South, shaped dishes still on the menu today. Listen for the live fish tank near the entrance, a small echo of the god who once watched this spot.