China Eight: Jiangsu Cuisine

Jiangsu cuisine comes from the southern portions of the Yangzi (Yangtze) River, and includes four similar styles from that area: Huaiyang Cuisine (Yangzhou and Huai'an); Jingming Cuisine (Zhenjiang and Nanjing); Suxi Cuisine (Suzhou and Wuxi); and Xuhai (Suzhou and Lianyungang).

Definition

Jiangsu food is characterised by ingredients readily available in a land of rivers and lakes: fish and rice.

History

Chinese cuisines are often traced through sayings and aphorisms that come into the language about certain dishes. Various distinctive Jiangsu dishes are thus known to be centuries old at least, including West Lake fish in vinegar (where the fish absolutely must be alive when it enters the stewing pot) and "The King Bids Farewell to his Consort," more romantically known as "Farewell My Concubine," which is a soft-shelled turtle stew.

Certain Jiangsu dishes are strongly associated with their "home" city, like Nanjing pressed salted duck, a dish with at least a 600-year history that included being a tribute item to the Qing Dynasty Court.

Recipe Book

In the kitchen: befitting a river cuisine, the fish and crustaceans must be absolutely just-caught fresh, and are usually cooked rapidly. By contrast, the preparation of non-aquatic meats tends towards the elaborate, such as salted dried duck, and Yangzhou jerky (made from dried tofu, chicken and ham).

At the cooker:to preserve ultimate freshness, the vegetables are often prepared with the fish in the same pot, so they are carefully cut to allow rapid cooking.

On the table: Jiangsu cuisine must be eaten with a large group, as the careful control of the flavours in the dishes can tend to the monotonous if there are not many dishes on hand for variety. Notice the elaborate ways fruit (particularly carved melons) and vegetables are served on their own.

Local Flavour

Focus: Seeing "Squirrel-shaped Mandarin Fish" on a menu is enough to bring out the curious in every gourmet! In this case it's a perfect translation that hides a fascinating story about a visually unusual fish dish.  During his tour of the southern reaches of the Yangzi, according to legend, Emperor Qianlong stopped at a temple to revitalise. For reasons lost to history he expressed a desire to eat a fish he had seen in a temple pond. Now killing a "holy" animal was considered a sin, so the cook got creative with the head and tail of the fish to make the finished dish look like a squirrel! The delicious shrimp-based thick sauce is a little oily for some, but goes very well with the smoky taste of the fish.

Words

Sweet, light, fresh, sometimes too oily, adventurous naming can make for dining mystery!

Dishes

A vast variety of clear soups, dried and otherwise preserved meats, and everything from freshwater you can imagine.