northern Zhejiang is sweet, eastern Zhejiang is salty, western Zhejiang is spicy, and southern Zhejiang is light.

1. Speaking of sweetness is mainly in Hangjiahu area in the northern plain of Zhejiang Province. Like southern Jiangsu and Shanghai, they all like sweet mouth, but the sweetness is not as good as Suzhou and Wuxi. Eating sweet in the whole Taihu Plain should be the result of transporting sugar from Guangdong to the south of the Yangtze River and then to the inland after the industrialization of sugar in Ming and Qing Dynasties. In ancient times, the cost of sugar was high, and eating sweet was a symbol of economic prosperity. Braised pork and smoked fish with sugar are typical home-cooked dishes with sweet mouth.

2. Salt is mainly in Ningshao Plain in eastern Zhejiang, that is, Shaoxing and Ningbo. Ningbo also has the title of salty camel. Ningshao eats salty, mainly because this place is close to Hangzhou Bay, with vast sandy land, suitable for salt making and a long salt culture. Eating salty is not only about adding salt, but also about the preference for pickled products. Xiaoshan dried radish, Shaoxing dried plum is. It is worth pointing out that in addition to the salty mouth in eastern Zhejiang, southern Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang and eastern Zhejiang all have a hobby of using soy sauce, and soy sauce itself is salty. This may be related to the first application of soy sauce in the Southern Song Dynasty.

3. Spicy food is mainly in Quyan area around Jinqu Basin in western Zhejiang. That is, today's Quzhou, Laoyanzhou area. The taste is consistent with Jiangxi, which is adjacent to the west. Qu Yan eats spicy food, mainly from the expansion of the southern inland spicy food area centered on Guizhou to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the Qing Dynasty, which is also the eastern boundary of this area. Qiandaohu fish head and Quzhou duck head are typical spicy things.

4. Shuo Dan is mainly in the area of Wentai in the southeastern plain of Zhejiang, which is the part south of Xiangshan today. Eating light in Wentai, first of all, is related to the closed terrain and less condiments such as sugar and soy sauce. Secondly, although there are saltworks that eat seafood, compared with Ningbo, the saltworks are smaller and the proportion of seafood is larger, and seafood has its own salty taste, so it has not formed Ningbo's salty style. The distribution of light-eating areas should be small, and they should enter the coastal areas of Fujian and Guangdong in the south, because they are close to sugarcane producing areas, but they eat sweeter.