Yes, the subtlety of Cantonese cuisine is oftentimes lost on many people unused to its emphasis on fresh, good quality ingredients, cooked in the lightest manner possible in order not to mask the natural flavours. Chinese cuisine also goes for the textural dimension, besides taste (which is central to Western cuisine), i.e. jelly-fish, fish-maw, pig’s skin, chicken feet, bird’s nest, abalone, the various types of seaweed are often prized for their textural traits, rather than any flavours they might impart on a particular dish.
The Singaporean-Chinese palate, though, has grown accustomed to the need for a chilli spike - even more so than the Malaysian-Chinese, though not as much as the Thai-Chinese. I still travel to Hong Kong with at least a jar of ultra-spicy chilli paste or “sambal belacan” in my check-in luggage.
