Typical courses of Jiangsu cuisine are Jinling salted dried duck (Nanjing's most famous dish), Squirrel with Mandarin Fish, Yangzhou Style Fried Rice, "Lion-Head" Meatball with Crab Roe, Wuxi Sweet and Salty Spare Ribs. Crystal meat (pork heals in a bright, brown sauce), clear crab shell meatballs (pork meatballs in crab shell powder, fatty, yet fresh), Yangzhou steamed Jerky strips (dried tofu, chicken, ham and pea leaves), triple combo duck, dried duck, and Farewell My Concubine (soft-shelled turtle stewed with many other ingredients such as chicken, mushrooms and wine), etc.

	Nanjing Style Dried Salty Duck It has a long history of over 1,000 years. apart from its plumpness in appearance. It, the duck tempts people with characteristics of tasting crisp, fresh, fragrant, and rich but not greasy. The cooking method of the duck was invented 600 years ago. The salted duck is slathered with roasted salt, steeped in clear brine, baked dry and then kept under cover for some time; the finished product should have a creamy-colored skin and red, tender flesh. It was the tribute to the royal palace during the Qing Dynasty.
	Squirrel-shaped Mandarin Fish Tradition has it that once stopping at the Crane House during his south Yangtze tour, Emperor Qian Long saw a carp frisking on the holy table and ordered it cooked for him. The chef, knowing it was the emperor's order, spared no effort in flavoring and seasoning. In order to be exempted from the sin of killing the "holy fish", he made the carp into the shape of a squirrel with its head and tail soaring high. The dark reddish brown fish, crisp outside and tender amid, was sour and sweet enough to the taste of emperor, whose appreciation raised the name of Squirrel-shaped Mandarin Fish to the world. Being the raw material, the mandarin fish is characterized by its tenderness of the flesh and sparseness of the bones as well. After scaling and frying, the head of the fish looks big with its mouth wide open, the tail bends upwards, and the flesh imitates the erecting hair of a squirrel. It will be squeaking like a squirrel if it is sprinkled with shrimp meat, dried bamboo shoots and tomato ketchup. Thus the Squirrel-shaped Mandarin Fish is complete in color, smell, flavor and sound, and it is to arouse the appetite of whoever sees it.
	Yangzhou Style Fried Rice: Rice is the main ingredient in this dish. It is first pounded and then stir-fried with shrimp, ham, egg, peas and seasonal vegetables. Because a variety of seasonal vegetables are used, you taste a variety of wonderful flavors and textures!
	"Lion-Head" Meatball with Crab Roe: This dish is the symbol of Huaiyang cuisine and it requires very complicated procedure. First mix the ground pork, egg white, crabmeat, rice wine, salt, scallions and ginger into a rather stiff mixture. Then divide it into 4 portions and roll each portion into a meatball. Add cabbage, chicken broth together with meatballs into casserole and place on low heat and simmer for long time until its done. It has the fragrance of the pork and crab and the color of the dish is as bright as orange. It tastes rich but not greasy.
	Wuxi Sweet and Salty Spare Ribs Wuxi Spare Ribs is the most popular local dish and is the specialty to look out for people come to Wuxi. It features the common eastern technique of "Red cooking" in a stock of rice wine and soy sauce and spiced with ginger, anise, cloves and black peppercorns and has unique red

Zhenjiang Qianlong Imperial Banquet

Rich in various products, Zhenjiang has favorable conditions for producing delicious food. In the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Qianlong made six inspections of the areas to the south of the Yangtze River. During his inspections, the emperor would stay in Zhenjiang and taste various kinds of delicacies and snacks.

Zhenjiang Qianlong Imperial Banquet consists of a wide variety of meticulously made dishes. There are four different kinds of menus for four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter. Famous dishes include Golden Hill Buddha, Eight-taste Dish, Swallow Flying to the Moon, etc.

No.1 Banquet of South Jiangsu

Suzhou is a famous land of fish and rice in China. Thanks to the efforts in the past ages, chefs of Suzhou have summed up a series of cooking skills, featuring the combination of Chinese and Western techniques, the combination of meat and vegetables, and the combination of fruits and vegetables. No. l Banquet of South Jiangsu is the best representative.

No. l Banquet of South Jiangsu includes the following dishes: Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish, Orchid Crab Meat and Shark's Fin, Rose and Hedgehog, A Hundred Flowers Vying with Each Other for Blossoming, Scenes of Ancient Suzhou, in addition to snacks for tourists on boat.

Xuzhou Han Imperial Palace Banquet

Xuzhou enjoys a high reputation both at home and abroad for its Han culture and cuisine. After a long study of the quintessence of the cuisine and cooking techniques of the Western and Eastern Han dynasties, Xuzhou chefs have created the Han Imperial Palace Banquet, full of the characteristics of the Han Dynasty cuisine in the color, smell, taste and shape.

Longcheng Dongpo Banquet

Su Dongpo was not only a famous writer in ancient China, but also a true gourmet. The Changzhou Hotel and Changzhou Federation of Literary and Art Circles jointly made a research on Su Dongpo's diet culture and developed "Longcheng Dongpo Banquet."

Dongpo Banquet consists of three parts: Dongpo refreshments, Dongpo banquet wine and Dongpo banquet dishes. Each dish served at the banquet is meticulously made by chefs, featuring a bright color, sweet smell, refreshing taste and beautiful shape, just like an art work.

Introduction to Famous Dishes

Butterfish in Creamy Juice with Lotus Smell

Butterfish is one of the three treasures hilsa herring, cutlass fish and butterfish - from the Yangtze River. Butterfish in Creamy Juice with Lotus Smell features thick and tender fish meat, no fishbone, and a delicious taste.

Caigen Large Meatballs

Caigen Large Meatball is a representative of Huaiyang Cuisine. At the banquet to celebrate the founding of the People's Republic of China, Premier Zhou Enlai entertained Chinese and foreign honored guests with this dish, which was spoken highly by guests. Though made of meat, this dish is not greasy, but delicious and refreshing.

Crab Meat and Sea-bottom Pines

As one of the local famous dishes of Nantong, this dish features a unique delicious and refreshing taste.

Sanfengqiao Soy Sauce Spareribs

Sanfengqiao Soy Sauce Spareribs, which is prepared with high-quality spareribs, and more than 20 natural precious seasonings, features a red and bright color, soft bones, tender meat, a slightly sweet taste. This dish has been well known at home and abroad.

Clams with Crisp Skin

Clams are known as the "No. l Delicious Food on Earth." This dish is especially delicious and appropriately crisp, and rich in nutrition. This local dish features original juice and taste.

Tianmuhu Fish Head in an Earthenware Pot

This dish was originally created by Tianmuhu Hotel in Liyang City, Jiangsu Province. Thanks to the painstaking efforts in the nearly 30 years, Zhu Shuncai, a special-class chef of Jiangsu Province, constantly perfected the dish. Now Tianmuhu Fish Head in an Earthenware Pot has become a famous dish, enjoying a high reputation in China. It is named as a famous traditional dish of Jiangsu Province and a beautiful flower in the delicacy garden.

Pork Prepared with Fermented Bean Curd Juice

First created by Jufengyuan Restaurant in Wuxi, this dish has a history of nearly 100 years. As a famous local dish, it has a red bright color, and a slightly sweet taste.

Fish Hidden in Mutton

Fish is placed in a large piece of mutton, which is stewed over a low fire. Hence the name. This dish originated from the Tangyao period. After constant evolution and improvement in the past 4,000 years, this dish is now very popular in Xuzhou City and its surrounding areas, and enjoys a reputation of being the "root of 100 famous dishes."

Nanjing Dried and Pressed Duck Gizzard

Nanjing has a history of over 200 years of producing salted and dried duck gizzards, which are easy to be carried about.

Nanjing Pressed Salted Duck

Nanjing started to produce pressed salted ducks more than 600 years ago. In the Qing Dynasty the pressed salted ducks were presented to the emperors as tributes, featuring tender and delicious meat.

Liuhe Pressed and Dried Beef

Made with the meat from the front legs of oxen, Liuhe pressed and dried beef used to be a tribute presented to the imperial family in the Qing Dynasty. The production of such beef started 500 years ago.

Tuo Soup

Created by Ancestor Peng, the earliest cooking ancestor, Tuo Soup was originally known as Zhi Thick Soup, with a history of over 4,000 years. In the Qing Dynasty when Emperor Qianlong made an inspection of south China, he tasted Tuo Soup in Xuzhou, finding it so delicious that he could not help writing an inscription. "No. l Thick Soup on Earth." 

• Quick View To Civilization of Chinese food
• Cooking Methods in Chinese Cuisine
• Eating No-no's
• Ningbo Cuisine
• Wuxi Cuisine
• Shaoxing Cuisine
• Food in Nanjing
• yangzhou Cuisine
• Cuisines in Suzhou
• Food of Hui
• Chaozhou Cuisine
  
• Huai-Yang Cuisine
• Dim Sum Dishes