Su cai (苏菜, Jiangsu cuisine) is one of the Eight Great Cuisines — the cuisine of the most economically and culturally prosperous region of China for much of its history. Jiangsu cuisine encompasses several sub-traditions: Huaiyang (扬州 Yangzhou) cooking — perhaps the most technically refined of all Chinese regional cuisines, associated with the wealthy salt merchants of Yangzhou; Nanjing (capital) cooking; and the more rustic preparations of rural Jiangsu. The defining characteristics: meticulous knife work, a preference for sweetness in seasoning (particularly rock sugar), very precise control of texture (meat that falls from the bone without being mushy, tofu that holds its shape with silk-like texture), and an insistence on the freshest seasonal produce from the Yangtze River delta.
The defining preparations of Huaiyang cuisine: Yangzhou fried rice (扬州炒饭, yang zhou chao fan) — the most famous fried rice in China, using three-day-old cooked rice with egg, spring onion, and an array of finely diced protein and vegetables. Wensi tofu (文思豆腐) — a display of extreme knife skill, in which soft tofu is cut into 1mm-thick threads without breaking, then placed in a clear stock. Squirrel-shaped mandarin fish (松鼠鳜鱼, song shu gui yu) — a whole fish scored in a complex crosshatch pattern, then deep-fried until the cuts open up and the flesh fans outward like a squirrel's tail, then doused in a sweet-sour sauce at the table. Lion's head meatball (see separate entry).
Fuchsia Dunlop, Land of Fish and Rice (2016); Fuchsia Dunlop, Invitation to a Banquet (2023)