Charming Anhui

Wuhu specialties

Updated: 2010-06-12 14:58

Wuhu and Anqing are noted centers of the Yanjiang cuisine. It specializes in freshwater fish and poultry, and features special techniques of chopping, shaping, and colouring. The flavour of Yanjiang dishes is often enhanced by sweetening and smoking.

Among the most famous local delicacies, namely Dao fish, Shi fish and wine-preserved crab, with the gradual distinction of the first two fishes, the crab, the soft-shelled turtle and the shrimp are still plenty in productuion. They are famous for different cooking tastes and what impresses people most is the traditional crab spawn dumplings and shrimp roe noodles.

Crab spawn dumplings are characteriszed with thin wrapper, thick soup, plenty and tender meat, yellow oil and delicious flavor. After steaming, it is half transparent. While eating, make a little bite on the wrapper, sip the soup, dip it into the vinegar mixed with ginger, you will find it fabulously dilicious.

There are hundreds of great places to eat in Wuhu. Phoenix Street, a popular restaurant hub among youngsters is where you can find a wide variety of restaurants, particularly shops specializing in local Wuhu cuisine.

Gengfuxing, a local restaurant with a histotory of 90 years, is well-known for its shrimp roe noodles which, boiled and put into a bowl, are poured with shimp roe, lard, chopped scallion pieces and soy sauce. They are not to be missed by visitors to Wuhu.

Other well-known local restaurants on the street are Tongqinglou, sijichun and Mayixing; they coexist with restaurants of Canton flavor, Anhui flavor, Sichuan flavor and Hunan flavor.

The duck in Wuhu is distinctively featured with its deliciousness and various cooking methods, such as dried salted duck, “lute” duck and “butterfly” duck.

In Wuhu, breakfast is a large variety, including steamed bun stuffed with juicy pork, won ton, and steamed black rice. The most special one is baked flacky cake coated with seseme seeds produced by Gengfuxing. It is well baked after making wrapper, flacky skin, and stuffing.

The best choices of Wuhu snacks are lotus root gruel, adsuki bean paste, glutinous rice dumplings in fermented rice wine and freshwater snails with five spicies.

1. Huizhou wine-preserved crab

It is cooked with condiments including soy sauce, Huizhou wine, garlic, ginger, rock sugar, pepper, salt and sorghum. The crab is stored in a jar for a week to give it its wine-like taste. It is popular among local people and a nice gift for friends.

 

Crab Dumplings in Soup (Xie Huang Tang Bao)

Wuhu is bountiful with fish and crabs. Some great restaurants such as Tongqinglou, Zuichun, Yipinxuan have long boasted their crab dumpling soup.

As a popular snack, the crab dumpling in soup taste delicious with fresh crab stuffing and translucent skin. When served at the table, the dumplings give out an inviting flavor with thin with its snow-white skin and rich and tender stuffing.