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4 places in Anhui — touch one for what it's known for.
Anhui province, eastern China · its own page

Anhui

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

Mountain cooking from old Huizhou: bamboo shoots, mushrooms and cured things, braised long and dark, with a taste for the fermented — stinky fish and hairy tofu.

Where it comes from

Hui cuisine comes from Huizhou, the old prefecture of misty mountains round Huangshan in the south of Anhui. It's inland, hilly country, so the cooking is of what the hills give — bamboo shoots, mushrooms, wild greens, tea — and of what keeps: ham, salted fish, preserved greens. Cooks describe it as heavy on oil, colour and fire, meaning rich, dark braises cooked slowly over charcoal.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties Huizhou's merchants traded salt and tea across China and grew very rich, and they took their cooks with them; that's often given as why a mountain cooking came to be counted among China's eight great cuisines. The province also has a river cooking along the Yangtze round Wuhu and Anqing, and a plainer, saltier wheat-country cooking in the north.

Where in it

  1. HuizhouOld Huizhou round Shexian and the Huangshan mountains: white-walled merchant villages, bamboo and tea, and the stinky fish, hairy tofu and one-pot that Hui cuisine is known for.Stinky mandarin fishHairy tofuHuangshan braised pigeonHuizhou one-potHuangshan shaobing
  2. HefeiThe provincial capital, between the Yangtze and the Huai, and the home town of the late-Qing statesman Li Hongzhang, whose name is on its best-known dish.Li Hongzhang hotchpotch
  3. WuhuA Yangtze river port, heart of the province's river cooking of freshwater fish, crab and smoked and braised duck — Wuwei's smoked duck comes from just across the river.Wuwei smoked duck
  4. HuaibeiThe flat wheat country north of the Huai river, whose cooking is saltier, plainer and more northern — known above all for Fuliji's red-gold chicken.Fuliji roast chicken

How it cooks

Heavy oil, colour and fire
Rich, dark braises, simmered slowly so the sauce clings and the meat gives way.
Fermenting
Letting fish and tofu turn — salted mandarin fish, moulded 'hairy' tofu — for a deep, pungent savouriness.
Curing and smoking
Hams, salted fish, smoked ducks and preserved greens, made to last the winter in the hills.
Slow stewing
Clay pots set over low charcoal for hours, for pigeon with yam and the layered one-pot.

Always in the kitchen

bamboo shootsdried bamboo shootsdried shiitakecured hampreserved mustard greenshairy tofudried tofurapeseed oillarddark soylight soyShaoxing winerock sugardried chilliesgingerHuangshan and Keemun tea

Cook from it

Tonight, with what's good in October

Its classics

AnhuiStinky mandarin fishA whole mandarin fish, lightly salted and left for days until it smells, then fried and braised with pork, bamboo shoots and chilli.No one here has made it yetAnhuiHairy tofuBlocks of tofu left to grow a coat of fine white mould, then pan-fried golden and eaten with chilli sauce or braised in soy.No one here has made it yetAnhuiHuangshan braised pigeonPigeon stewed slowly in a clay pot with Chinese yam, ham and ginger until the meat is soft and the broth clear and rich.No one here has made it yetAnhuiHuizhou one-potA deep iron pot layered with bamboo shoots, pork, fried tofu, egg dumplings and greens, simmered slowly and brought to the table whole.No one here has made it yetAnhuiHuangshan shaobingA small, flaky, round pastry filled with preserved mustard greens and fatty pork, crusted with sesame and baked against the wall of a charcoal oven.No one here has made it yetAnhuiLi Hongzhang hotchpotchA banquet mix of sea cucumber, fish maw, squid, ham, chicken, tofu and mushroom, simmered together in a good stock.No one here has made it yetAnhuiWuwei smoked duckA whole duck, salted and spiced, smoked until bronze and then simmered, so it's smoky, savoury and tender.No one here has made it yetAnhuiFuliji roast chickenA whole chicken glazed, fried red-gold and then simmered in a spiced master stock until the meat falls from the bone.No one here has made it yet

Cooked here

No one here has cooked Anhui yet.