Zhejiang Food
One of the major eight schools of cooking in China, Zhejiang cuisine offers combined flavors of Hangzhou, Ningbo and Wenzhou. Each of the three sub-cuisine traditions is noted for its special flavor and taste, but they are all characterized by the careful selection of ingredients, emphasizing minute preparation, and unique, fresh and tender tastes. Zhejiang cuisine specializes in quick-frying, stir-frying, deep-frying, simmering and steaming, obtaining the natural flavor and taste. Special care is taken in the cooking process to make the food fresh and tender. Thanks to exquisite preparation, the dishes are not only delicious in taste and but also extremely elegant in appearance. Zhejiang cuisine is best represented by Hangzhou dishes, including Hangzhou Roast Chicken (commonly known as the Beggar's Chicken, which is especially delicious with a pleasant aroma of lotus leaves), Dongpo Pork, West Lake Vinegar Fish, Sistern Song's Shredded Fish Soup.
Source: (Zhejiang Online http://www.zjol.com.cn 6-23)
Some tasty Zhejiang Food:
| Dongpo Pork:
First created by Su Dongpo, a well-known poet from the Song Dynasty, when he served as a local official of Hangzhou. The dish is made from belly pork which is cut into four pieces and first briefly boiled and then rinsed. Next, the pork is put into a pot with sugar, soy sauce, onion, ginger and rice wine, the pot is sealed, and the pork is cooked in the oven until tender (about two hours). Finally, it is transferred to a bowl, the juices from the pot strained over the meat, and the bowl covered and put inside a steamer and steamed for at least two hours. |
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| Xi Hu Cu Yu (West Lake vinegar 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. The fish is first starved for 2 days in order to get rid of the mud smell. |
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Jiao Hua Ji (Beggar's Chicken): Recipe
Legend has it that a Hangzhou beggar invented "Beggar's chicken". The story goes that because the beggar had no stove, he wrapped the stolen chicken in clay and baked it in a hole in the ground. To cook the chicken, firstly the organs of the chicken are cleaned, and Chinese herbs are inserted. Then the chicken is wrapped around lotus leafs, and wrapped around in clay and baked over low heat for hours. The taste of the chicken is aromatic, tasty, and tender. |
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Zhejiang cuisine, also called Zhe Cai for short, is one of the eight famous culinary schools in China. Comprising the specialties of Hangzhou, Ningbo and Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province regarded as land of fish and rice, Zhejiang cuisine, not greasy, wins its reputation for freshness, tenderness, softness, and smoothness of its dishes with mellow fragrance. Hangzhou cuisine is the most famous one among the three.
Hangzhou cuisine is characterized by its elaborate preparation and varying techniques of cooking, such as sauteing, stewing, and stir- and deep-frying. Hangzhou food tastes fresh and crisp, varying with the change of season. Ningbo food is a bit salty but delicious. Specializing in steamed, roasted and braised seafood, Ningbo cuisine is particular in retaining the original freshness, tenderness and softness. Shaoxing cuisine offers fresh aquatic food and poultry that has a special rural flavor, sweet in smell, soft and glutinous in taste, thick in gravy and strong in season.
Each of the three sub-cuisine traditions is noted for its special flavor and taste, but they are all characterized by the careful selection of ingredients, emphasizing minute preparation, and unique, fresh and tender tastes.
Zhejiang cuisine specializes in quick-frying, stir-frying, deep-frying, simmering and steaming, obtaining the natural flavor and taste. Special care is taken in the cooking process to make the food fresh, crispy and tender. Thanks to exquisite preparation, the dishes are not only delicious in taste and but also extremely elegant in appearance. Zhejiang cuisine is best represented by Hangzhou dishes, including Hangzhou roast chicken (commonly known as Beggar's chicken), Dongpo pork, west lake fish in vinegar sauce, Songsao Shredded Fishsoup, etc.
The famous restaurants in Hangzhou are: Louwailou Restaurant, Hangzhou Restaurant, Xizhongxi Restaurant, etc. Louwailou Restaurant boasts a history of over 100 years and is noted for west lake fish in vinegar sauce, fried shrimps with Longjing tea
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