Jiangsu Food

A journey through Jiangsu is not only a chance to experience beautiful river town  scenery and some of the most brilliant achievements in Chinese culture,  but also a great chance to try one of the major components of Chinese  cuisine - Jiangsu Cuisine. Jiangsu Cuisine, also called Huaiyang Cuisine,  consists of the styles of Yangzhou, Nanjing, Suzhou and Zhenjiang dishes.  Known as "a land of fish and rice" in China, Jiangsu Province has a rich variety  of ingredients available for cooking. Using fish and crustaceans as the main  ingredients, it stresses freshness and aliveness freshness. Its high carving  techniques are delicate, of which the melon carving technique is especially  well known. Due to using the methods of stewing, braising, quick-frying,  warming-up, stir-frying, wine sauce pickling and adding some sugar as  condiments, Jiangsu dishes taste fresh, light and mellow. In Huaiyang cuisine,  ingredients are strictly chosen and carefully prepared to maintain the original flavor.  Huaiyang cuisine also pays special attention to the seasonally of each  ingredient so that each ingredient is in its prime state for eating. For example,  Yangzhou Cuisine is light and elegant; Suzhou Cuisine is slightly sweet; and  Wuxi Cuisine is fairly sweet. Light and tasty soups are also a key part of  Huaiyang cuisine and perfectly in tune with the latest health food trends. In 1949, Huaiyang cuisine was the selected cuisine for the first state banquet  of the new People's Republic and, in 1999, Huaiyang cuisine was also featured  on the menu of the People's Republic's 50th anniversary state dinner. In 2002,  Huaiyang cuisine was also selected for the dinner hosted by President Jiang Zemin  for visiting US President George W. Bush. Jiangsu dishes can be classified into that of Suzhou-Wuxi style and  Zhenjiang-Yangzhou  style. The feature of Suzhou-style dishes is their natural flavor in original  stock and a mixture of salty and sweet taste. The characteristics of  Zhenjiang-Yangzhou style food are best described by the saying that  "the soup is so clear that you can see the bottom of the bowl and the  sauce is so thick that it turns creamy white".Typical courses of Jiangsu cuisine  are Jinling salted dried duck (Nanjing's most famous dish), Squirrel with Mandarin Fish,  Yangzhou Style Fried Rice, "Lion-Head" Meatball with Crab Roe, Wuxi Sweet and Salty  Spare Ribs. Crystal meat (pork heals in a bright, brown sauce), clear crab shell  meatballs (pork meatballs in crab shell powder, fatty, yet fresh), Yangzhou  steamed Jerky strips (dried tofu, chicken, ham and pea leaves), triple combo duck,  dried duck, and Farewell My Concubine (soft-shelled turtle stewed with many  other ingredients such as chicken, mushrooms and wine), etc. Nanjing Style Dried Salty Duck It has a long history  of over 1,000 years. apart from its plumpness in  appearance. It, the duck tempts people with  characteristics of tasting crisp, fresh, fragrant,  and rich but not greasy. The cooking method of  the duck was invented 600 years ago. The salted  duck is slathered with roasted salt, steeped in  clear brine, baked dry and then kept under cover  for some time; the finished product should have  a creamy-colored skin and red, tender flesh. It was  the tribute to the royal palace during the Qing Dynasty. Squirrel-shaped Mandarin Fish Tradition has it  that once stopping at the Crane House during his  south Yangtze tour, Emperor Qian Long saw a carp  frisking on the holy table and ordered it cooked for him.  The chef, knowing it was the emperor's order, spared no  effort in flavoring and seasoning. In order to be exempted  from the sin of killing the "holy fish", he made the carp into  the shape of a squirrel with its head and tail soaring high.  The dark reddish brown fish, crisp outside and tender amid,  was sour and sweet enough to the taste of emperor, whose  appreciation raised the name of Squirrel-shaped Mandarin Fish  to the world. Being the raw material, the mandarin fish is  characterized by its tenderness of the flesh and sparseness  of the bones as well. After scaling and frying, the head of the  fish looks big with its mouth wide open, the tail bends upwards,  and the flesh imitates the erecting hair of a squirrel. It will be  squeaking like a squirrel if it is sprinkled with shrimp meat,  dried bamboo shoots and tomato ketchup. Thus the  Squirrel-shaped Mandarin Fish is complete in color, smell, flavor and sound, and it is to arouse the  appetite of whoever sees it. Yangzhou Style Fried Rice: Rice is the main ingredient in  this dish. It is first pounded and then stir-fried with shrimp,  ham, egg, peas and seasonal vegetables. Because a variety  of seasonal vegetables are used, you taste a variety of  wonderful flavors and textures! "Lion-Head" Meatball with Crab Roe: This dish is the  symbol of Huaiyang cuisine and it requires very  complicated procedure. First mix the ground pork,  egg white, crabmeat, rice wine, salt, scallions and  ginger into a rather stiff mixture. Then divide it into  4 portions and roll each portion into a meatball.  Add cabbage, chicken broth together with  meatballs into casserole and place on low heat  and simmer for long time until its done. It has the  fragrance of the pork and crab and the color of the  dish is as bright as orange. It tastes rich but not greasy. Wuxi Sweet and Salty Spare Ribs Wuxi Spare Ribs is  the most popular local dish and is the specialty to look  out for people come to Wuxi. It features the common  eastern technique of "Red cooking" in a stock of rice  wine and soy sauce and spiced with ginger, anise,  cloves and black peppercorns and has unique red-sweet  sauce on the top in order to give rich taste.