In the poem "Looking at the South of the Yangtze River", a queque in Qing Dynasty chanted Yangzhou folk customs, it was written: "Yangzhou is good, and the guests of the tea club can be invited, adding dried silk to pile up thin strands, laying down seedlings in cooked copper tobacco bags, and shochu crystal dishes."

This word is like an old Yangzhou genre painting, which depicts diners drinking and smoking, eating meat and cooking dried silk. It's not hard to see the chef's skill of cutting.

Anyone who has eaten in Huaiyang-style restaurants will know that such a dish-boiled dried silk will always be on the menu in these restaurants. The origin of this dish can be said to be well-known. It is said that when Emperor Qianlong went down to the south of the Yangtze River, he ate Jiusi soup in Yangzhou, which was made of pure local chicken soup with shredded chicken, shredded ham, shredded bamboo shoots and other fine ingredients, and boiled white and tender shredded tofu.

No matter the origin, in the eyes of Yangzhou people, a perm-dried silk, a cup of tea and two or three steamed buns are their usual breakfast. However, if you want to eat authentic perm-dried silk, you have to follow Yangzhou locals to their usual breakfast places. If you eat around those scenic spots, to be honest, many of them are in name only.

Scalded dried silk and boiled dried silk are the famous dishes of Huaiyang cuisine, which originally originated in Yangzhou. It is not difficult to perm dried silk. First, soak dried silk in boiling water, pour it into a dish, stir it with sesame oil and soy sauce, and sprinkle with shredded ginger. Because dried silk and boiled dried silk are nutritious, light and delicious, they have become the dishes that people often eat on the table. When you go to the hotel teahouse in Yangzhou for dinner, you will basically order a plate of boiled dried silk or perm dried silk. Some old Yangzhou people, with a bottle of wine and a plate of dried silk, are satisfied, which shows the attractive charm of Yangzhou dried silk.

Dried shredded pork is also called dried shredded chicken with fire. This dish has very strict requirements on knife skill and heat. The raw material of dried silk is a piece of dried bean curd, which requires the chef to cut it into even slices, and then slice it into silk like a matchstick. Then the dried silk is superheated to remove the beany smell, then mixed with auxiliary materials such as shredded chicken and bamboo shoots, and fired with chicken soup seasoning. When cooking dried silk, first use a big fire, then turn to a small fire, and stew it carefully for a while before you can taste it. When serving, add shrimp, shredded ham, bean sprouts, etc., with bright color and unique taste.

The original name of boiled dried silk is "Jiusi soup", which is made by boiling dried tofu and shredded chicken together. Dried bean curd is finely cut, stewed in chicken soup, and mixed with all kinds of umami flavor, so it has a unique taste. In the Qing Dynasty, there was a record about boiling dried silk in Tiaoding Collection.