Situated on the edge of the busy business district in Jiangning, this branch of a chain of restaurants stands quietly. I've never been too interested in chains, because I don't think they guarantee the quality of the food and so I almost walked on by, but its slogan made stop in my tracks. "Representative brand of Jiangsu Huaiyang cuisine" I pride myself on being a person who has grown up eating Huaiyang cuisine for more than 20 years, so I was really curious about the level of this so-called "representative brand"....

We are not expecting Nanjing to have the finest restaurants when Shanghai is only 1.5 hours away by train. That said, when it comes to Huaiyang cuisine, one of the eight major culinary traditions in China, Nanjing is certainly blessed with some top-tier restaurants in the field. Huaiyang (淮扬) cuisine in its broader sense is also known as Jiangsu cuisine (Sucai 苏菜). Strictly speaking, however, it refers to the culinary tradition that originated from Yangzhou, a city about 90 kilometres from us which used to be the Manhattan of imperial...

There is a Chinese saying that goes, “Nothing feels better than lying down; nothing tastes better than dumplings.” The problem is, not all dumplings are created equal. Some of them taste absolutely better than others. This holds true even if we suppose they all have the same fillings, because the wrappers and the way they are cooked already make considerable differences. In my view, the better types of dumplings are fried dumplings. That should not sound too controversial, because, let’s face it, oil is the secret to deliciousness. Yet again, fried dumplings...

You know there is a sort of restaurant in every city. They often look small and unpretentious from the outside, despite their long-standing reputation in the community. They specialise in local favourites; nothing too fancy, but simply tasty and comforting. The prices are affordable, the vibe casual and friendly. Inside, surrounded by glasses clinking, people chatting and perhaps kids crying, you peek into the everyday life of locals and as the night goes on, eventually find yourself becoming part of them. It might get too loud sometimes, but having...