Yangzhou Travel Guide

Yangzhou morning tea: blanched shredded dried tofu, three-dice steamed buns, jade-green shaomai, thousand-layer oil cake, crab roe soup dumplings (drink the soup with a straw!). Time-honored establishments: Fuchun Teahouse, Yechun Teahouse, Gonghechun. Huaiyang cuisine: Wensi tofu (knife skills at their peak), lion's head meatballs, braised shredded dried tofu, Yangzhou fried rice. The flavors are savory-fresh and light, very refined, not spicy.

D1: Slender West Lake (Five Pavilion Bridge + Twenty-Four Bridge, 3h+) + Daming Temple + Dongguan Street Historical District; D2: Ge Garden (Four Seasons Rockery, one of China's four great gardens) + He Garden (the finest garden of the late Qing Dynasty) + Yangzhou Twin Museums + experience Yangzhou morning tea (Fuchun/Yechun). Budget: 700-1500 yuan. Yangzhou's old town is not large; walking + shared bikes are best.

Da Zhu Gan Si (Braised Shredded Dried Tofu) = The simpler something looks, the more it reveals true craftsmanship. Yangzhou large white dried tofu (specially made thick firm tofu) is horizontally sliced into at least 20-30 sheets (each sheet as thin as paper!), then cut into shreds the thickness of matchsticks. Just the step of slicing the dried tofu requires a chef to practice for at least a year. After the shreds are cut, they are blanched three times in boiling water (to remove the bean odor + loosen the shreds). The stock is made by simmering hen + ham + marrow bones over low heat for more than 6 hours, with the clear broth skimmed of foam. The shreds go into the stock, along with shrimp + shredded ham + shredded chicken + shredded bamboo shoots + hearts of bok choy, and are simmered over low heat until the shreds have absorbed the umami of the stock. The finished dish is half soup, half dish; the shreds are tender, smooth, and soaked with juice, and the soup is fresh and savory with a sweet aftertaste. Yangzhou Da Zhu Gan Si vs. Sichuan Mapo Tofu = the northern and southern extremes of Chinese soy products — northern tofu is rugged and braised in soy sauce, southern tofu is refined to the smallest detail.

Wensi Tofu = the ultimate expression of Huaiyang cuisine's knife skills. Created during the Qianlong era by the monk Wensi at Tianning Temple in Yangzhou. A block of silken tofu (the softest inner lactone tofu), cut into thousands of fine shreds—each about 1mm thick, uniform in length, dropped into clear broth where they bloom like chrysanthemums. The preparation is more nerve-wracking than an NBA three-point contest—the chef's knife must be honed to where it can split a hair blown against it, the hand must be steady and the breathing calm, and the tofu must not tremble when the blade comes down. Once cut, the tofu shreds are gently pushed into the stock (clear chicken broth, which must not turn cloudy), and the shreds scatter and drift apart in the water, garnished with shredded ham + shredded shiitake + shredded greens. The finished dish has broth clear as water and tofu shreds fine as hair. Want to try it at home? Don't! Without ten years of knife skills, don't even think about this dish. Even when eating it at a restaurant, make sure you pick the right chef—many restaurants use machine-cut shreds (uniform in thickness but lacking the liveliness of hand-cut ones). Yangzhou recommendations: Shizilou / Yechun Teahouse.