The cities of Shanghai and Hangzhou are at the crossroads, climatically, between north and south, so they blend elements of all the country.

One thing characterizes all eastern cooking is the liberal use of sugar to sweeten dishes and intensifies savoury flavours, especially when used in addition to the ubiquitous soya sauce. This is the famous ‘red-cooking’, the process of slowly simmering meat in dark soy sauce, and the resultant reddish tinge of the dish.

Food in the east is generally lighter and less oily than in the north, and wines and vinegar add complex flavours to many dishes while complementing the sweetness. Eastern cuisine is also known for its use of alcohol in cooking, so dishes such as drunken prawns or drunken chicken paired with salted meats and preserved vegetables attract attention when they appear on menus.

TRIVIA: Tour guides love to ask visitors: ‘Were Adam and Eve Chinese?’ They then answer ‘No! Because if they were they would have eaten the snake first and then the apple.’

LOCAL FLAVOURS: This region produces and uses both wheat and rice in its cuisine – a culinary bridge between the wheat- flour dominated noodle and dumpling dishes of the north and the rice-based ones of the south, with the obvious addition of many varieties of the abundant local seafood.
A PLACE TO EAT: Nan Xiang Dumpling House at Shanghai Old City, near the Yu Yuan Gardens. Join the queue and watch hundreds of dumplings being made.