Huaiyang cuisine is supported by top cooking skills, with original flavor, exquisite shape and mellow taste; Make good use of heat in cooking, pay attention to firepower, and be good at stewing, stewing, stewing, steaming, burning and frying; Most of the raw materials are aquatic products, which are fresh and mild in taste. Huaiyang cuisine has not only the fresh, crisp and tender characteristics of southern cuisine, but also the salty, colorful and strong characteristics of northern cuisine, forming its own sweet and salty flavor. Because Huaiyang cuisine takes fresh food as raw material and pursues lightness in seasoning, it can highlight the original flavor of raw materials. Huaiyang cuisine is developed in this extremely luxurious situation, with exquisite materials, exquisite workmanship, dazzling and wonderful combination. It has become an unattainable aristocratic dish with top cooking skills, which is completely incomparable to other cuisines.
Appendix: 8 classic dishes of Huaiyang cuisine
1) Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish
Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish is a traditional local dish in Suzhou. After the fried mandarin fish is served on the table, it is immediately poured with steaming marinade, which squeaks and gets its name because it looks like a squirrel. After cooked, this dish looks like a squirrel, crisp outside and tender inside, orange in color, sweet and sour, and has a loose red fragrance.
2) Crab powder lion head
The main raw material of crab powder lion head is meatballs made by chopping crab meat and pork into fine powder. Yangzhou people commonly call it "chopping meat". Boil the lion's head in the hot soup in a casserole for a while. After the soup boils again, simmer for about two hours. Cooked lion's head is fat but not greasy, tastes soft, fat but not greasy, and melts in the mouth.
3) Soft-shelled long fish
Soft-fried long fish, also known as "soft-fried eel", is the most famous dish in Huaiyang cuisine. Huai 'an people are very kind to Chinese and foreign guests, and they like this "fresh, tender, beautiful and special" dish best, so that guests can taste it early and praise it. Tian Shumin and his son, famous chefs in Huai 'an, can cook 108 kinds of delicacies with eel as raw material, which is the famous "all-eel banquet". Soft-shelled eels are the best products in eel mats. This dish was carefully cooked with a thick pen eel around the Dragon Boat Festival. The eel's back is black and bright, soft and tender, fresh and refreshing, and full of garlic flavor.
4) Three sets of ducks
Three sets of ducks are traditional dishes in Yangzhou and Gaoyou. The cooking skills of the three sets of ducks are mainly marinated vegetables, which are salty and delicious. "Three sets of ducks" are tender, the wild ducks are fragrant, and the pigeons are crispy and delicious. Some people praised this dish for its charm of "getting off the horse when you smell the fragrance, but stopping when you know the taste". In the Qing Dynasty, "Tiaoding Ji" recorded a set of specific methods for making ducks: "Fat ducks are boned, dried salted ducks are boned, stuffed in the belly of domestic ducks, and steamed completely." Later, the chef of Yangzhou restaurant boned the wild ducks and stuffed them into domestic ducks, and the pigeons boned them and stuffed them into wild ducks, creating a "three sets of ducks". Because of its unique flavor, it soon became famous all over the country.
5) Crystal Yaorou
Crystal Yaorou, also known as Crystal Eta Ursae Majoris and Zhenjiang Yaorou, is a traditional dish in Zhenjiang. The meat is red and white, smooth and crystal-like, so it has the reputation of "crystal". When eaten, it has the characteristics of lean meat crisp, fat but not greasy, crisp and tender, and it has a unique flavor with ginger and Zhenjiang balsamic vinegar.
6) Boil dried silk
Boiled dried silk, also known as boiled dried silk in chicken sauce, is a traditional dish in Huaiyang, which has been promoted as delicious on the table and a housekeeping dish in Huaiyang cuisine. The raw material is mainly Huaiyang square dried bean curd, and the requirements of knife work are extremely fine. After cooking, the umami flavor of various condiments is compounded into dried tofu, which is refreshing and appetizing and extremely delicious. This dish is delicious, and the delicious taste of ham and Kaiyang permeates into the extremely fine dried tofu, which is full of threads. However, there is not a drop of oil flower and no smell of beans, which is a delicious masterpiece.
7) Huai 'an Tea House
As early as the Warring States period, there were tea cakes in Huai 'an, and some people called them "thin circle cakes". It is made of white fine flour, fine flour like hemp thread, and wound into a collar more than four inches long and more than one inch wide. These rings are connected in a comb-shaped and chrysanthemum-shaped network pattern and fried in a sesame oil pan. Crispy texture and delicious taste. Tea can be eaten dry or soaked in water. When eaten dry, it is mostly used as a seasoning for wine. When it is eaten in water, it only needs to be brewed in boiling water for a few minutes, and it can be eaten after it is completely soaked.
8) Yangzhou fried rice
Yangzhou fried rice is a classic snack in Yangzhou. There are many varieties, such as "gold wrapped with silver", "fried rice with mixed eggs" and "fried rice with green vegetables". It is said that it originated in the Sui Dynasty and was developed through the gradual innovation of chefs and the characteristics of Huaiyang cuisine. During the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, Yangzhou Governor Yi Bingshou began to add shrimp, diced lean meat and ham to fried rice with chopped green onion and eggs, which gradually evolved into a variety of assorted fried rice with eggs, which was more delicious. Subsequently, Chinese who made a living by doing business overseas, especially Yangzhou chefs, spread Yangzhou fried rice to all parts of the world.