I just came back from my hometown Yangzhou which is really a nice city with great views and delicious food.

The most attracting thing might be the dishes. In Yangzhou all dishes, whether cheap or expensive, are elaborate. Cooks will not scrimp on their work, even with “煮干丝” (stewed sliced dry bean curd), a popular dish that costs only a few yuan. Dry bean curd is made by each restaurant that serves it, so the flavor is guaranteed. The cook slices the 1-cm-thick curd into 30 shreds, each one paper-thin but none broken, and then stews them for hours with chopped bamboo shoots and shelled shrimps in chicken soup. In this way the dry bean curd shreds can soak up the flavor of the other ingredients, and the soup is clear but savory.

Another famous dish is 扬州炒饭. boiled rice is fried with meat (with fat), green peas, bamboo shoots, shrimps, fungus and 20 materials (I cannot remember everything but specially, NO eggs) until every single rice is surrounded by oil and separated from others. After frying the rice will be in a color of light golden so fried rice is also called “碎金饭” (pieced gold rice). The real Yangzhou fried rice is expensive and only served in high class restaurants. But simplified Yangzhou fried rice can be found in every street restaurant.

Other famous dishes like “狮子头”, ”虾仁豆腐汤” and “脑花蒸蛋” are also very typical food in Yangzhou. Once you come to this city, you will find it is not only Yangzhou cooks but also the ordinary people who are conscientious about cooking, or more exactly, eating. Almost in every residence community there is a whole street with just restaurants. In China, there is an old saying goes ”民以食为天” (Food is most important thing for the citizens). I guess Yangzhou is one of the perfect explanations.

P.S. A list of dishes you cannot miss in Yangzhou:

1. 煮干丝 zhu gan si
2. 扬州炒饭 yangzhou chao fan
3. 狮子头 shi zi tou
4. 蟹黄汤包 xie huang tang bao
5. 鸭血粉丝 ya xue fen si
6. 虾仁豆腐汤 xia ren dou fu tang
7. 脑花蒸蛋 nao hua zheng dan
8. 老街云吞 lao jie yun tun
9. 富春包子 fu chun bao zi
10. 共和春饺面 gong he chun jiao mian
11. 野春干拌面 ye chun gan ban mian
12. 九如煎饺 jiu ru jian jiao