The atlas · A cuisine · Zhejiang province, eastern China

Zhejiang

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

Fresh, mellow and gently sweet: lake fish and river shrimp, young bamboo, cured ham and a good deal of Shaoxing wine, cooked to taste of themselves.

Where it comes from

Zhejiang sits on the coast south of the Yangtze delta, a land of rice paddies, canals, tea hills and lakes, and it has long been one of China's richest provinces. Hangzhou was the capital of the Southern Song dynasty in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and its markets and restaurants were famous even then; many of its dishes carry stories from that time.

It's counted among China's eight great regional cuisines. The cooking is lighter and less fierce than Sichuan's or Hunan's: freshness first, sauces that are sweet-sour or wine-scented rather than hot, and seasonings — Shaoxing wine, Zhenjiang-style vinegar, Jinhua ham — that bring out an ingredient rather than bury it.

Where in it

  1. HangzhouThe provincial capital on West Lake, with tea gardens in the hills behind: its cooking is the province's best known, from lake fish in vinegar sauce to shrimp with Longjing tea.Dongpo porkWest Lake fish in vinegar sauceLongjing shrimpBeggar's chicken
  2. ShaoxingA canal town famous for its amber rice wine, brewed here for well over a thousand years, which finds its way into cooking across China — and into its own drunken chicken.Shaoxing drunken chicken
  3. NingboAn old port on the coast, whose cooking is saltier and leans on the sea: salted fish, fermented greens, seafood — and glutinous rice balls filled with black sesame and lard.Ningbo tangyuan
  4. WenzhouA trading city in the south of the province, with a seafood cooking of its own, lighter and sharper than Hangzhou's; its fish balls and crab dishes are well known.
  5. JinhuaAn inland city known across China for its cured hams, salted and air-dried through the winter, which season soups and braises far beyond Zhejiang.Honey-glazed Jinhua ham

How it cooks

Red-braising (hóngshāo)
Slow braising in soy, wine and sugar until the sauce reduces to a glossy, mahogany glaze.
Wine-steeping (zuì)
Cooked or raw food steeped in Shaoxing wine, served cold — 'drunken' chicken, shrimp or crab.
Quick-frying (huábào)
Delicate things — shrimp, fish slices — coated in egg white and starch, then cooked briefly in warm oil so they stay tender.
Salting and curing
Hams, salted fish and fermented greens, kept for the lean months and used to season fresh food.

Always in the kitchen

Shaoxing winelight soydark soyblack vinegarrock sugargingerspring onionJinhua hambamboo shootsdried shiitakesalted and preserved vegetablesLongjing teaglutinous ricelard

Cook from it

Tonight, with what's good in October

Its classics

ZhejiangDongpo porkThick squares of pork belly, tied with string and braised slowly in Shaoxing wine, soy and sugar until the fat trembles.No one here has made it yetZhejiangWest Lake fish in vinegar sauceA whole grass carp, poached briefly and then bathed in a glossy, sweet-sour sauce of black vinegar, sugar and ginger.No one here has made it yetZhejiangLongjing shrimpSmall peeled river shrimp, quick-fried pale and tender, then tossed with the fresh leaves of Longjing green tea.No one here has made it yetZhejiangBeggar's chickenA whole stuffed chicken wrapped in lotus leaves, sealed in clay or dough, and baked for hours until it falls from the bone.No one here has made it yetZhejiangNingbo tangyuanSoft balls of glutinous rice dough filled with a sweet paste of black sesame, sugar and lard, served in their hot cooking water.No one here has made it yetZhejiangShaoxing drunken chickenChicken poached gently, chilled, then steeped for a day or more in Shaoxing wine and served cold in pieces, skin smooth and pale.No one here has made it yetZhejiangHoney-glazed Jinhua hamA square of Jinhua ham, steamed several times with rock sugar and wine until tender and sweet, then glazed with honey and served with lotus seeds.No one here has made it yet

Cooked here

No one here has cooked Zhejiang yet.