Can ‘Yihang Cuisine’ Become an Important Characteristic of Yixing Tourism?
Green pumpkin coated with salted duck egg yolk is irresistible, and stir-fried bamboo shoots with broad beans are flavorful.
In Yixing City, Jiangsu Province, agricultural products produced in rural areas are abundant, and the description 'put everything in a basket' is not an exaggeration. A group of renowned Yixing chefs, including Wang Sheng and Zhou Minjie, have been committed to 'making Yixing agricultural products beautiful dishes' in recent years, which has further enhanced the reputation of 'Yihang cuisine' Yixing's catering services extensively explore local specialty agricultural products as the main ingredients for 'Yihang cuisine,' reflecting a theme of 'original color, original juice, original flavor' – 'nutrition, taste, and health.' This satisfies the needs of different consumers, achieving 'innovation, practicality, deliciousness, and health'
A glimpse of the back kitchen of Yixing New Fuchong Hotel
A local's specialty dish relies on the unique natural resources of a place.Yixing boasts abundant agricultural products, and its catering services are noteworthy, with dishes exhibiting distinct regional characteristics.According to Ding Peihua, Chairman of the Yixing Cooking Association, traditional dishes emphasize steaming, boiling, land, and rural agricultural products are the main ingredients. A key advantage of 'Yihang cuisine' is the unique ingredients provided by the special geographical environment, including wild game and lake delicacies, showcasing the local original ecological characteristics. Building on the inheritance of traditional cooking techniques, the next important task is to appropriately introduce some new dishes to meet demand. With the continuous advancement of new technology and new agricultural techniques, the quality of Yixing agricultural products is rapidly improving, becoming an important form of expression for Yixing's local specialty dishes. It is urgent to define the scope of 'Yihang cuisine,' supply ingredients, inherit cooking techniques, and use this opportunity to 'label' Yixing's rural specialty dishes.
Yixing Gaojian Lake Wetland, rich in aquatic products
Spring shoots in Yixing's hilly villages, photographed by Yao Jianqiang
Sprouts from Yixing's Zhangzhu Mountain, photographed by Yao Jianqiang
'Yihang cuisine' is a part of the Jiangsu cuisine system, rooted in Yixing's catering culture, using local healthy and green ingredients to make dishes, refining and elaborating local dishes, and adapting to the catering habits of local citizens. According to Ding Peihua, Chairman of the Yixing Cooking Association, 'Yihang cuisine' is an important part of the 'Huaiyang cuisine' system in China. With the development of Yixing tourism, 'Yihang cuisine' has become one of the important characteristics of Yixing tourism.
Yixing Old Chen's Piglet Cake
Yixing is adjacent to Zhejiang Province and Anhui Province. In terms of cuisine, Yixing belongs to the Huaiyang cuisine system, gradually influenced by Zhejiang cuisine, Anhui cuisine, and especially Suixi cuisine, digesting, absorbing, fusing, expanding, and innovating, therefore 'Yihang cuisine' incorporates the essence of Huaiyang cuisine, Zhejiang cuisine, Anhui cuisine, and Suixi cuisine.As 'Yihang cuisine''s theoretical construction and dish innovation deepen, Yixing's cuisine is increasingly emphasizing regional characteristics and hometown flavors. ( reporter He Xiaobing)
