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By Zhang Xueying
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Wenchang Pavilion in central Yangzhou. Photo: China Today
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In contrast to neighboring Shanghai and Nanjing, Yangzhou City looks like a small town that has recently begun to prosper. Its central commercial street is lined with various restaurants, teahouses, and barber's shops, rather than skyscrapers and modern shopping malls. It is hard to imagine that 300 years ago it was home to large numbers of rich merchants. These days few local people are willing to work outside Yangzhou, and those obliged to leave their hometown in order to work return as soon as they have made their fortune.
Yangzhou dishes may be one of the reasons why the people of Yangzhou are so infatuated with their city. They have an appealing color, aroma, taste and also appearance. The original color of each ingredient is preserved after cooking, and no oily sauce is added, so as to retain the fresh savor of the food.
In Yangzhou all dishes, whether cheap or expensive, are elaborate. Cooks will not scrimp on their work, even with Zhugansi (stewed sliced dry bean curd), a popular dish that costs only a few yuan. Dry bean curd is made by each restaurant that serves it, so the flavor is guaranteed. The cook slices the 1-cm-thick curd into 30 shreds, each one paper-thin but none broken, and then stews them for hours with chopped bamboo shoots and shelled shrimps in chicken soup. In this way the dry bean curd shreds can soak up the flavor of the other ingredients, and the soup is clear but savory. It is not only Yangzhou cooks but also the ordinary people who are conscientious about cooking.
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The dock used exclusively by the emperor during the Qing Dynasty.
Photo: China Today
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Yangzhou people are particular about ingredients. They eat river clams in the early spring, bamboo shoots in April, Hui fish (leiocassis longirostris) in May and June, and crab in the autumn. The whole year becomes a series of gourmet delights as each season brings own culinary specialty.
In Yangzhou one can enjoy a good meal for a hundred, or just a few yuan. The restaurants in Yangzhou fall into three categories: star-rated hotels, restaurants of traditional fame, such as the Yechun Teahouse and Fuchun Teahouse, and popular eateries, which are generally of spartan decor, but serve typical and economical dishes. The Xingshuo Restaurant on the Guoqing Road is famous for its snacks, while the Wanwan Chicken Restaurant is noted for its chicken soup. In order to try various styles of food, a stroll along Gourmet Street, where there is a concentration of some 100 restaurants of various grades, is strongly recommended.
Public baths are another feature of Yangzhou. Although showers have found their way into all local households, the custom of going to the bathhouse still prevails in Yangzhou, particularly among the younger generation.
source:
China Today
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