“The beginning of husband’s rituals begins with food.” Huaiyang cuisine, rooted in Jianghuai culture, has a long history and profound accumulation. As one of the "Four Major Cuisines" in the country, Huaiyang cuisine is "harmonious, exquisite and fresh" and "wonderful to suit all tastes". It has the characteristics of "using local materials, carefully preparing local dishes, blending five flavors and creating by the people", and has won the title of "No. 1 in the Southeast". Delicious food, the most beautiful in the world". Huai'an is one of the main birthplaces of Huaiyang cuisine. As the earliest place for human settlement in Jiangsu, Huai'an has a moderate climate, surrounded by rivers and lakes, and abundant food, which provides a material basis for the creation of delicious cuisine. Huai'an has archaeological evidence of food civilization, which can be traced back to the "Xiacaowan Culture" in the late Paleolithic Age, about 40,000 to 50,000 years ago. In the long process of the evolution of food culture since then, the pursuit of health and longevity and the use of food to maintain health and happiness have gradually become rural customs. In his masterpiece "Qifa" (Qifa), Meicheng from Huaiyin in the Western Han Dynasty listed China's earliest dietary therapy menu for the Prince of Chu, which shows the rich diet and high cooking skills of the nobles at that time. If the old peasant woman who was likened to Piao Mu by Li Bai and her "wine-braised yellow chicken" became a famous Huai cuisine dish with great hospitality, she may have benefited from the great writer, then "one chicken and nine meals" can be seen Real skill: The clever daughter-in-law of a poor scholar's family slaughtered the only chicken she had for entertaining guests, and used its different parts to quickly make nine delicacies. To this day, "Xuyi hand-caught lobster" and "Hongze small fish pot stickers", which are popular at home and abroad and known as "Chinese fast food", are also transplanted and improved from the tables of farmers and fishermen. These gourmet cultural traditions and the exquisite cooking skills of “home-cooked dishes” in thousands of households are the inexhaustible source of living water for the development of Huaiyang cuisine.

In ancient times, Qinghe played an important role in the prosperity of Huaiyang cuisine. Especially in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, as the "thorough of nine provinces" and "the center of salt production", wealthy officials, merchants and businessmen gathered here, with boats from the south to the north. The flourishing flow of horses has greatly promoted the innovation of cooking techniques and promoted the prosperity and development of food culture. Today, Qinghe, as the central urban area of ??the "Hometown of Huaiyang Food" and the main venue of the annual Huaiyang Cuisine and Food Culture Festival, assumes more responsibilities and plays a greater role in promoting Huaiyang food culture.