The top ten famous Shaoxing specialties: pickled duck, Shao Sanxian, stinky tofu, drunken crab, radish pancake, pickled pork with pickled vegetables, moldy amaranth stems, braised pickled pork with pickled pickled vegetables, Magnolia jelly.

1. Sauce duck

The main ingredient of Shaoxing’s sauce duck is fat and tender shelduck or duck. This kind of duck is known locally as the "pearl among poultry". Soak the shelduck in finely brewed soy sauce for four days, turn it several times a day to make the sauce evenly stained, and then hang it outside the window to dry for a few days. The cooked duck in sauce has a rich fat aroma, the skin is refreshing and the bones are fragrant, and the plump and firm meat has a salty aroma that gradually thickens in the mouth, leaving a lingering aroma on the tongue.

2. Shao San Xian

If you come to Shaoxing to taste classic dishes, you must not miss Shao San Xian. The main ingredients of Shao Sanxian are pork skin, fish balls and meat balls, with supplementary ingredients such as chicken, river shrimp, cooked pork liver slices, cabbage, etc., as each restaurant will use slightly different ingredients. This dish is a combination of the best ingredients, bright in color, long in flavor, and mellow and fragrant.

3. Stinky tofu

Stinky tofu is a very famous specialty snack in Shaoxing. Many diners can't stop after tasting it. Indispensable when making authentic Shaoxing stinky tofu is moldy amaranth stem juice, which is the source of the stinky tofu. Stinky tofu can be cooked in various cooking methods such as frying, steaming, and stir-frying, but the most common method is deep-fried stinky tofu. After frying, stinky tofu has a bright yellow color, is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, and has a strong aroma.

4. Drunken crab

The famous Shaoxing drunk crab has successfully captured the taste buds of many diners. There are two ways to make drunken crab: raw drunkenness and cooked drunkenness. The former can retain the delicious taste of the crab to the greatest extent and smell rich in wine.

5. Shredded radish cake

Shredded radish cake is a common snack in Shaoxing. When making it, first mix the refined flour into a batter of suitable thickness, then pour it into a special mold that has been coated with oil, add an appropriate amount of shredded white radish and chopped green onion, then scoop the batter and spread it to a suitable height, put it in a frying pan and fry it until it is cooked. That’s it. The warm shredded radish cake is crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, fragrant and delicious.

6. Braised pork with dried plums and vegetables

Braised pork with dried plums and vegetables is a traditional dish in Shaoxing. The ingredients are selected from the finest fat and lean pork belly and carefully dried fresh and tender prunes. During the stewing process, the oil and water from the pork belly slowly seep into the prunes, giving the dish a rich meaty flavor. The pork belly with dried plums and vegetables brought to the table is bright red in color, crispy and glutinous in the mouth, and not greasy, with a moderate amount of salty and sweet.

7. Moldy amaranth stems

The pickled and fermented amaranth stems are bright and green in color. Although they exude a slight musty smell, it tastes like it when you eat it. It is fragrant, soft, delicious and can be sucked out like jelly. The fresh and refreshing moldy amaranth stems can help digestion and increase appetite, so they are best eaten with meals.

8. Braised pork with dried plums and vegetables

A successful braised pork with dried plums and vegetables pays attention to stewing to add flavor, steaming to make it crispy and glutinous, and winning with its taste. Crispy and glutinous, oily but not greasy, jujube red in color, salty and sweet, with a pastoral flavor.

9. Pickled Duxian

Jiangnan special dish, salty and fresh taste, thick white soup, crispy and fat meat, fragrant and crispy bamboo shoots, strong umami flavor. It is mainly a soup made with spring bamboo shoots and fresh and salty pork belly slices. "Pickled" means salty; "Xian" means fresh; "Du" means stewed over low heat.

10. Magnolia jelly

The "Magnolia jelly", which looks like turtle paste, is crystal clear and lies like tofu in a white steel porcelain basin. There is a whole piece of glass on it. The reason why it is called "Magnolia jelly" is because it is made from magnolia. The process is to put the sun-dried magnolia seeds into a cloth bag, soak them in water, rub them repeatedly, and then squeeze out all the glue inside the fruit and take them out. After leaving the bag for half an hour, the juice will condense into crystal clear "Magnolia Jelly".