The atlas · A cuisine · Jiangsu province and the lower Yangtze, eastern China

Huaiyang

Also Jiangsu, Su, Su cuisine
One of Chinese cooking's regional kitchens · all 13 side by side

Delicate and exact: fine knife work, clear stocks and a gentle sweetness, cooked to bring out an ingredient's own flavour rather than to cover it.

Where it comes from

Huaiyang takes its name from Huai'an and Yangzhou, cities on the Grand Canal where salt merchants grew rich under the Ming and Qing and spent it on the table. Emperors touring the south, Qianlong above all, are said to have eaten here, and the cooking became a byword for refinement.

It's often counted among China's great regional cuisines, and in 1949 it's said to have supplied much of the menu for the first state banquet of the People's Republic. Its hallmarks are knife work, slow braising and stewing, and a light hand with seasoning — a little sugar, a little vinegar, rarely any heat.

Where in it

  1. YangzhouThe old salt merchants' city on the Grand Canal, known for its banquet cooking, its morning teahouses — and a fried rice now cooked the world over.Lion's head meatballsYangzhou fried riceDazhu gansi
  2. Huai'anThe other half of the name, on the Huai river and the canal: eel dishes above all, and a claim to the shredded tofu and the lion's head that Yangzhou also makes.
  3. NanjingThe provincial capital, sometimes nicknamed the duck capital: salted duck, duck blood soup and duck in nearly every other form.Nanjing salted duck
  4. SuzhouA city of canals and gardens whose cooking runs sweeter and prettier, with river fish cut to look like something else.Squirrel-shaped mandarin fish
  5. WuxiOn Lake Tai, with the sweetest cooking in the province: dark, glossy spare ribs, and soup dumplings sweeter than most.Wuxi spare ribs

How it cooks

Knife work
Cutting so fine and even that it's the point of the dish: tofu shaved into threads, fish scored to open like a flower.
Stewing and braising
Long, gentle cooking in a covered pot — dùn and mèn — until meat is soft enough to cut with a spoon.
Clear stock
Stocks of chicken, pork and ham, simmered and clarified, so a soup or sauce tastes rich but looks light.
Sweet and sour, lightly
A little sugar and Zhenjiang vinegar to round a dish, especially around Suzhou and Wuxi, where cooking runs sweeter.

Always in the kitchen

light soydark soyShaoxing wineZhenjiang black vinegarrock sugargingerspring oniontofuJinhua hamdried shrimpbamboo shootsriver fishpork bellywhite pepper

Cook from it

Tonight, with what's good in October

Its classics

HuaiyangLion's head meatballsLarge, soft pork meatballs, gently stewed in stock over Chinese leaf until they're tender enough to eat with a spoon.No one here has made it yetHuaiyangYangzhou fried riceDay-old rice fried with egg, prawns, ham, peas and spring onion — each grain separate and coated.No one here has made it yetHuaiyangSquirrel-shaped mandarin fishA whole mandarin fish, boned, scored deep and fried so the flesh fans out in spikes, then covered in a bright sweet-and-sour sauce.No one here has made it yetHuaiyangNanjing salted duckA whole duck, dry-salted with Sichuan pepper, brined, then poached very gently and served cold in slices — pale, juicy and delicately salty.No one here has made it yetHuaiyangDazhu gansiPressed tofu shaved into hair-fine threads, simmered in a rich chicken stock with shreds of ham, chicken, bamboo shoot and prawns.No one here has made it yetHuaiyangWuxi spare ribsPork ribs braised slowly in soy, rice wine and plenty of sugar until they're falling-tender and coated in a dark, sticky, sweet glaze.No one here has made it yetHuaiyangCrystal pork terrineSalted pork hock, simmered, pressed and set in its own clear jelly, then sliced cold and eaten with shredded ginger and Zhenjiang black vinegar.No one here has made it yet

Cooked here

No one here has cooked Huaiyang yet.