Shaoxing Dishes
Shaoxing dishes have three main courses:"Mei","Zui", and"Jiang"."Mei" means preserved vegetable or food like beancurd, beancurd skin or soy bean. The typical dish of"mei" is the Steamed Pork with Preserved Vegetables where a little sugar and rice wine is added to the sliced pork with preserved vegetables, and then steamed until the pork becomes soft and smooth. This dish possesses a good texture as well as a strong fragrance of both the pork and preserved vegetables.
Another famous dish is the Fried Strong Smelling Beancurd. Though the beancurd smell is quite unpleasant but it tastes wonderful when fried until golden crisp outside and soft and fragrant inside. When tasting it with the special chilli or sweet sauce you surely will not forget this delicious dish with the special flavor.
"Zui" in Chinese means"drunk". Here, it refers to the cooking method with rice wine vinasse (the residue of the wine making). The most common dish in this style must be Zui Ji (Wine Chicken). The ingredient is the local Yue chicken with its delicate texture and the rice wine vinasse. After being boiled, pickled with some flavoring and cooked with vinasse juice, the chicken becomes more delicious with that special fragrance of rice wine.
Food cooked by the"Jiang" method is also very popular in Shaoxing."Jiang" is Chinese for"bean sauce". Here it means pickled food with bean sauce. The representative dish is Duck with Bean Sauce. The clean dressed duck is soaked in the bean sauce for several days. Next, after being washed with boiled water, is hung in the sunshine for several days with its abdomen stretched. Then, the delicious duck with its strong flavor of bean sauce is ready.
In addition to the representative dishes above, Chicken in Light Soup should also not be missed. The spring chicken is stewed on a low heat with black mushroom, ham and bamboo shoots. With an attractive clean appearance, the chicken tastes pretty good with its delicate texture and fragrant soup.
Shaoxing also boast various snacks with special flavors such as Broad Bean, Fermented Beancurd and Pickled Cucumber. Broad bean is famous for its description in the famous novel of Lu Xun, who is one of the most outstanding novelists in China. However, the broad bean itself is a popular snack in Shaoxing. The dried broad bean is stewed in the water with many flavorings such as fennel, Chinese cinnamon and salt. It boasts a fragrant taste.
Source: travelchinaguide.com
Editor: Wang Moyan
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