Ningbo, with its harbor connected to the world and a collection of ancient and modern books, is nestled between mountains and the sea and is rich in tourism resources.

And Ningbo’s delicacies are something you can’t miss when visiting Ningbo. So what are the delicacies in Ningbo?

1. Cicheng rice cake: To eat rice cake, you have to eat water-milled rice cake from Cicheng, Ningbo.

Cicheng Water Mill Rice Cake is purely handmade, using selected high-quality Japonica rice. It is made through ten processes including planting, selecting, soaking, grinding, steaming, pounding and sealing. It tastes delicate, smooth and chewy.

The most common method for Ningbo people is to stir-fry in soup and oil.

Pickled cabbage and shredded pork rice cake soup is a very authentic Ningbo dish. The soup is rich, salty and slightly sour, and extremely refreshing.

2. Chopped Crab with Red Paste: Ningbo’s dishes are naturally indispensable for seafood.

Red paste choking crab is an outstanding representative among them.

Since it is called red paste crab, it is natural to pay attention to the selection of ingredients. One is to have red paste, and the other is to have live crab.

Because it is eaten raw, freshness is very important. Marinate it with salt water at a ratio of 4:1. The time should not be too long, so as not to overwhelm the salty taste.

When starting, it is best to dip it in ginger vinegar. Vinegar can sterilize and remove the fishy smell. Ginger can neutralize the coldness of crabs and protect the stomach.

After all, it is raw food, so people with weak stomachs are best not to try it easily.

3. Ningbo glutinous rice balls: Mix black sesame seeds, lard, and white sugar as filling, stuff into glutinous rice balls, roll into balls, and cook.

The round skin is soft and the filling is sweet.

When your teeth bite through the outer skin, the sesame-flavored filling instantly hits your taste buds, which really fills your mouth with flavor.

With the popularity of glutinous rice balls, there are more and more ways to eat them.

Some people like to play tricks on the cooking method and fry the glutinous rice balls before eating them.

Others like to use their imaginations with fillings, such as pork filling, durian filling, red bean filling, etc.

4. Ningbo’s Three Odors: Taking freshness out of the odors probably best embodies the true nature of Ningbo’s foodies.

Stinky winter melon, stinky amaranth stems, and stinky cabbage hearts are the famous three odors in Ningbo. In Ningbo's saying, the odor can be smelled even "across the water".

It is said to have three odors, and it tastes especially delicious.

Especially in the summer, when you are tired of big fish and meat, you can serve a bowl of stinky winter melon with a few drops of sesame oil. The salty and sour taste is like a clear spring, refreshing from your mouth to your heart.

5. Thousand-layer cake: Fenghua’s thousand-layer cake, peach and taro are called the “Three Treasures of Fenghua”.

Thousand-layer cake was created during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty and has a history of more than 200 years. It is a famous snack in Zhejiang and a symbol of Xikou, famous at home and abroad.

Thousand-layer cake is made from flour, added with sugar, sesame seeds, peanuts and an appropriate amount of moss powder, and is carefully baked through 12 steps.

It is about two centimeters thick, and each piece has more than 27 overlapping layers. It is crunchy and non-sticky in the mouth. It is sweet and salty, salty and sweet, and there is a lingering fragrance in your mouth after eating.

6. Langxia Soybean Milk: The status of soybean milk in China is like that of milk in the West.

To stand out among such a widely popular food, Ningbo Yuyao's Langxia Soybean Milk is naturally unique.

Different from other places, Langxia soybean milk is shaped like egg custard just out of the pot. The juice is mellow and delicious. It is a snack suitable for all seasons.

To make soy milk like Langxia, soybeans and water must be carefully selected, and the production process of soaking the beans and boiling the milk must not be missed.

Beef soy milk and mutton soy milk are its special flavors, attracting many diners from all over the country.

7. Fenghua Taro Head: Taro head is Fenghua’s signature dish and is very famous in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Fenghua's taro heads are spherical, with brown skin and pink tops. They are large, weighing more than 1 kilogram each, and the big ones are about 2.5 kilograms. No wonder Fenghua City is jointly selected by the Development Research Center of the State Council, the Chinese Agricultural Society and the "China Specialties News"

Named "Hometown of Chinese Taro Head".

Fenghua taro scalp and thin meat powder is fragrant, glutinous and delicious. It is delicious whether it is baked, grilled, fried, steamed, boiled or poured into soup.

8. Dried sheep tail bamboo shoots: It is one of Ningbo's famous local specialties. It is made from selected high-quality bamboo shoots and asparagus bamboo shoots as raw materials, removed from the shells, added with salt and water, and steamed and roasted.

It is white in color and yellow in color, and tastes delicious. It is known as the "hundred-day vegetable" and can be eaten all year round.

When eating, rinse it with cold water, add some sugar, MSG, and sesame oil to make a fragrant cold dish.

Or use it to put soup, which can also increase the deliciousness of the soup.

9. Sanbei Bean Crispy Candy: Originated from the Qing Dynasty, it was created by a master named Yin from a southern tea shop called "Qianfeng" in Lubu Town, Yuyao.

It has a soft texture, sweet taste, melts in your mouth, does not stick to your teeth, has no sugar residue, and the light soybean flavor lingers for a long time after eating.

As soon as Dousu candy was launched on the market, it was enthusiastically sought after and caused a sensation for hundreds of miles around. People came in an endless stream. Later, it spread more and more widely and became one of the most representative snacks in Ningbo.

10. Ninghai Oyster: "Ninghai County Chronicle" records: "There are two islands in the Tiejiang River, called Shikong Shuangshan. Thirty-eight miles from the county, the two islands stand like seals. The inner island is flat, and the ancient temple is there.

Feng Tangying, a Jinshi of the Song Dynasty, hid here to avoid chaos. He saw oysters growing on the rocks and taught the residents to gather rocks to raise them. "This shows that Ninghai began to cultivate oysters more than 700 years ago.

The shallow water quality in Xidian Town is unique and suitable for the growth of oysters.

The oysters cultured here are fat and tender, rich in protein, vitamins, riboflavin and other nutrients, and are known as "milk of the sea".

This is the introduction to what Ningbo food has to offer.