Zhejiang Cuisine
By admin on 2014-12-11

The coastal province of Zhejiang is rich in produce and has long been known as "the land of fish and rices". Naturally, therefore, it has always been a great place for eating. Especially after 1127 when Hangzhou become the capital of the Song Dynasty, moved from Kaifeng in the north. Some of the best chefs from both these cities were brought together, and as a result northern methods of cooking were introduced to the south. Thus, Zhejiang Cuisine evolved, which became one of the most famous types of cooking.

Zhejiang cuisine consists mainly of four local styles: Hangzhou, Ningbo, Shaoxing and Wenzhou, each having its own special characteristics. Among the four, Hangzhou Cuisine is considered the most representative one in Zhejiang. Although the main methods of cooking are frying and stewing, the food produced is usually light and delicate. Some of the most popular dishes are Shrimp with Longjing Leaves, West Lake Fish in Sweet and Sour Sauce, Fried Eel Slices, West Lake Water Shield Soup, Beggar's Chicken, Dongpo Pork and Steamed Pork in Lotus Leaves.

Ningbo dishes tend to favour more steaming, roasting and stewing, and are slightly richer in taste. Yellow croaker, eel and crab are popular in Ningbo, and there is also a sweet soup made of turtle stewed with rock sugar. Shaoxing dishes are usually light on oil and spices, yet lack nothing in richness, as Shaoxing rice wine is often used to make the sauces for dishes. The last of the fourth, Wenzhou dishes, are also light on oil, and some of the more popular ingredients are yellow croaker, crab and squid.

Zhejiangcuisine strives to be delicate in taste as well as in appearance. In recent years people have been trying to revive Southern Song- dynasty imperial cooking, based on what they can find in historical records. Their emphasis is on preserving and bringing out the original taste of the recipes, thus visitors to Zhejiang now have even more varieties of cuisine to tempt their palates!

Typical famous dishes:

Dongpo Pork

First created by Su Dongpo, a well-known writer and poet of the Song Dynasty, when he served as a local official of Hangzhou. Dongpo Pork is red and bright in color, oily but not greasy, crisp but not smashed, plus mellow juice.

West Lake Sour Fish

Prepared with fresh and alive grass carps from the West Lake, this dish integrates delicious, sweet and sour tastes, with tender fish meat, which tastes just like crabmeat.

Jiaohua Young Chicken
Select fat and young Yue chicken, clean the chicken thoroughly, add seasonings to the chicken, wrap it with special materials, and bake it over a low fire. Jiaohua Young Chicken is aromatic, tasty, and soft, with tender meat.

Sister-in-Law Song's Thick Fish Soup
It was a famous dish of the Southern Song Dynasty, with a wide variety of ingredients, a yellow color, and a tender and delicious taste. As it tastes like crabmeat thick soup, it is also known as "Treasure Crab Thick Soup."

Zhejiang Snacks

Chinese Chestnut of Changxing

Chinese chestnut, also called "banli", is rich in protein, fat, sugar and starch. It is tasty when being cooked or not. The chestnut tree reaches twenty meters high. "Sweet Chinese chestnut" is regarded as superior nutriment internationally.

The Chinese chestnut grows in both the south and the north. Changxing is the primary growing area in Huzhou City. Chinese Chestnut of Changxing is good in quality, and the "youguangli" is popular in Guangzhou Fair. In addition, Machiqing, Dahongpao, Kuili, Chaguoli are also popular species.

Stir-fried Rice Flour

Farmers always grind cooked rice in the countryside that is abundant in rice. The flour is stir-fried together with rendered lard and fine white sugar. That is stir-fried rice flour, an inexpensive and good snack.

It is said that a person of Xitang took the snack made by himself to Hangzhou for a lawsuit in order to save money in the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911). Fortunately, the mellowness of the snack attracted Emperor Qianlong, who came to the south for fun. The emperor helped him win the lawsuit and the snack also became famous.

Congbaogui

It is crisp and yellow like twisted dough-strips. Eat it with sweet soy sauce or hot soy sauce and there will be much flavor in your mouth.

Sheep Tail with Egg White

Mix sweetened bean paste and white sugar, and make balls with them and cover offal fat outside. Then mix egg white and mountain powder, put the balls into the egg white, coat them with the white and fry the balls twice. It tastes crisp and tasty with some white sugar. 

Dingloianfang Steamed Stuffed Bun with Soybean Milk Film 

The bun is covered tight. The filling is made from fine leg meat, Korean Kaiyang, Japanese scallop, Xiaofeng butterfly bamboo shoot covering and cooked sesame. It is fresh and mellow. The noodle is white and thick. It does not over boil and it is very soft.

Steamed Bread with Bean Curd

It is the most famous snack in Shengzhou and it is a pity not to taste it. It is not as big as steamed bread. Its skin is as thin as that of dumpling. There is fresh and white mashed bean curd and galantine inside the bread. There will be shrimp if it is made daintier.

It is very delicious with spices. Dip the mixture of vinegar and scarlet sambal in the sauce boat and eat it.

Sweet Potato Vermicelli Soup 

Turn sweet potato into sweet potato vermicelli, and cook the dried sweet potato vermicelli with pettitoes or scrag. Add egg, celery, shrimp, laver, oyster flesh, rice vinegar, soy and monosodium glutamate in the bowl when eating it. That will be tastier. Add some hot soy sauce if you like spicy flavor. Stir-fried sweet potato vermicelli is an essential dish for Yandang people when they entertain guests and conduct a wedding or funeral.

Bean Curd Soup with Clam

Clam is a seashell animal. It is flat round in shape. There are always colors on the shell, such as red, black and white, and thus it is very attractive. Clam is always used to cook soup. The bean curd soup with clams is very famous, and it is regarded as "top freshness of the world". Of course, you can boil it and stir-fry the flesh. It will have another flavor.

Hu Town Popcorn Sugar

Recipe：Soak glutinous rice in water for several days and steam the rice. Dry the rice and remove the shell. That is "fami". Cook "fami" into popcorn on strong fire. When it is cool, add peanut kernel and edible color thread, and mix with fried maltose. Then press it and cover the surface with sesame. Cut it into slices and pack them. It is best if technicians make it. 

Dried Tofu with Fennel

It is made from small dices of dried tofu, fresh pettitoes, cassia bark, fennel, garlic root and refined salt. They are boiled in the pot. The longer it cooks, the better the flavor will be. Boil them until the inside of the tofu becomes faveolate. It tastes better with some hot soy sauce. A mouth of the tofu will make you feel mellow and tasty.

Cake Roll

It is a special kind of food in Tiantai. People always make cake rolls as festival food in Tomb-sweeping Day, July 15^th in the Chinese Lunar Calendar, winter solstice and Spring Festival. It is also eaten on the first day of summer and the Mid-autumn Day in recent years. It is a custom to entertain relatives with cake rolls. The cover is made from paste of flour and water. The cooking is dainty, the filling is various, and it tastes crisp and mellow. The cake roll is good for hunger and drinking. It can be a snack or a staple. The best is called "five tigers capture a sheep", which is regarded as top grade food for feast. It includes cutlet, pork liver, hornazo, fish, sliced bean curd, gold acupuncture needle, jelly fungi, vermicelli, bamboo shoot and vegetable stem.

Jinyun Noodle

Jinyun noodle is made from fine flour and fine salt. It is special for it is flexible and soft. Its process includes blending, fermenting, extraction and insolation, which are all handiwork. It is thin like wick, long like bamboo chopsticks, crisp, smooth and dainty. It was always cooked for guests and on festivals, and today it becomes a local snack.

Jinyun Cake

It is also called Jinyun baked wheat cake.

Recipe：Cover pork and dried vegetable with fine flour, and bake them in the hot wooden charcoal fire kiln. The cake is round and red, crisp and delicious, and it is a specialty of Jinyun. 

Rice Flour Noodle

There is a kind of snack called "thin noodle" in Yandang. The noodle is thin like pine needles. It is thin but not broken, yellow but not parching, loose but not twisted, smooth but but bored. It is more delicious with oyster, razor clam flesh and hornazo.

Nanxi Noodle

The noodle is always overlapped like "8" in shape, and so it is also called "8-shaped noodle".

The noodle is thin like filamentary silver, white and flexible. The cooking method is simple. Prepare soup material first and put the noodle in the boiling water. It will be ready when the water is boiling again. It can not be boiled long, or it will turn paste and become tasteless. The noodle is bright, smooth and tasty. The noodle is salty, and so there is no need to add salt in the water. It is different from the cooking method of dried noodle.

NingboRice Cake

Ningborice cake is long piece and with no spices, and so people call it "foot plate rice cake", which sounds funny. The cake is very flexible. There are different flavors when frying, cooking, stir-frying or baking it.

NingboRice Dumpling

It dates back to the Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty, Which has a history of over 700 years. Ningbo people are used to eat rice dumplings with the whole family on the morning of the Spring Festival, which is different from northern people. The coat is made from glutinous rice flour, the filling is made from lard, white sugar and black sesame powder, and the rice dumpling is with thin coat and smooth, white like mutton tallow, bright and glutinous.

NingboStyle Cake

It is a famous traditional snack of Ningbo, with a long history, and it is one of the twelve cake sects of China. It is dainty in material and rich in nutrition, with fine cooking, delicate shape. It is mainly crisp and there are differences obviously between the crisp, the soft and the brittle. It includes dry cake, damp cake, sugar cake, shrimp cake, trifle cake, peach cake, flaky pastry and mooncake. Besides the special Taishengpian, Enteromorpha linza millefoglie, Enteromorpha linza moon cake. There is also crisp "Sanbei" lotus root sugar, bright yellow Yangtiebing cake with silver coin size, thin and crisp jute board, tasty and soft Songhuahuang "dayou" cake and crisp bean candy with thick soya mellowness.

 Mother-in-law Cake 

It is the most special snack of Taishun. The Xu Shiyue couple is famous for their mother-in-law cake, who opens a cake shop in the ring road of the Luoyang City.

 The recipe is: make thin cake with rice paste, add filling, roll it, press it flat and fry it in the pan for a moment. The snack is crisp in skin, fresh in filling and always delicious.  

Meat Broth

 It is traditional snack of Jinyun. Cut fine pork into small pieces, mix them with lotus root starch repeatedly, press them flat, add spices and water, and boil them. There is also trepang broth, soybean milk film broth and sweet broth, which are all very delicious.  

Crystal Cake  

It is made from egg, white sugar and glutinous rice flour. They count one third respectively. Mix the egg white and add white sugar. When the sugar melts, add glutinous rice flour and stir them into paste. Put the wet cloth on the shelf with the cloth upright around. Then put the paste into the shelf and steam it on strong fire until it is cooked. Cut it into small pieces and they are soft, yellow and tasty food. It can be cooked for daily meal or entertaining guests. It is always used as "daoshi" in the banquet.  

Crystal Steamed Bun  

It is a special snack of Ningbo. The coat is made from top grade flour, and the filling is made from fat suet with white sugar, pip, and melon seed kernel and sugar strip. The cooked bun is bright and tasty. The hot filling always spills when you eat it.

 Wushan Ghee Cake  

It is golden yellow, crisp but not broken, fat but not bored, mellow and sweet. It melts easily in mouth.

 Brief Introduction: turn fine flour and cooking oil into paste, change the shape and then fry it in the oil. Add fine white sugar when you eat it. The cake is crisp with layers. It is a specialty of Wushan region. It is said to have been eaten by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911). It is called "Wushan Top Cake" in the region.  

Stir-fried Eel Noodle with Shrimp  

The noodle is delicate with eel fragrance, thick soup and fresh noodle.  

Recipe: select thick live eel, cut its head and tail, remove the bone, and cut the flesh into slices, stir-fry them with vegetable oil and lard, add sesame oil, stir-fry them until the become crisp. Select live river shrimp, clean it, add egg white and stir-fry it until it turns white. Fine noodle does not adhere or burn. Make the noodle absorb the eel flavor and the noodle will be more delicious. Stir-fried eel noodle with shrimp is the famous noodle of Kuiningguan Restaurant.

 Xiangluo Snail

 It can be eaten after being cooked in water. Its eating method is different from Tianluo snail. It can not sucked by mouth; you have to use a toothpick. Remove the thin purple cover and pick the flesh and cream out with a toothpick, dip it in the spices of vinegar and soy sauce, and then it can be eaten.  

Bloated Cucumber 

It is one of Changbei pickles. Changbei lies in the high altitude region and there is no green vegetable in winter. People there bloated cucumber and cowpea harvested in the harvest time with salty water in the past. They were made into pickle and eaten in winter. So people can enjoy bloated cucumber all year round. It is unique in flavor.  

Yanzhou Crisp Cake

 It was called Yanzhou baked wheat cake with dried vegetable. It is traditional specialty of Jiande. The cake is soft, crisp and mellow. Yanzhou crisp cake is made from fine flour. Mix it with water of different temperature and vegetable oil, make filling with shop fat and dried vegetable, smear syrup and oil on the surface, cover some sesame on the surface, and bake them in the special kiln on charcoal fire.  

Yandang Flapjack 

There are many small stalls on the both side of the street in Yandang. Every stall includes one stove and one pan. They are used for cooking flapjacks. The spice inside the flapjack is very dainty. Spices include pickles, dry tofu, dried small shrimps, lard and hornazo. They are mixed into the paste. Then turn paste into round thin pieces, bake the pieces on the pan and it will be cooked after several minutes. The flapjack is delicious and mellow.