When it comes to a halal diet, people will always think of a series of delicacies made from beef and mutton. However, there is such a restaurant that uses the most common fish, duck, prawns and eggs in Nanjing as ingredients, applying new ideas and a unique style to make dishes with both halal flavours and Jiangnan characteristics, which has won the recognition of many diners.  Welcome to Ma Xiangxing, an icon of the city's cuisine in the minds of Nanjingers for over 100 years. When I strolled along Yunnan Bei...

We all know what the larger Fuzimiao area is like in the lantern season. Much as we are proud of it, we often have to avoid that area due to the crowd. It would be nice if there is a quieter corner, or in Xin Qiji’s (辛弃疾; 1140-1207) words, “Somewhere the lantern lights are sparse”, somewhere we can enjoy a bowl of yuanxiao at ease. That is why I am writing this with mixed feelings; not yet known to many, there is indeed such a place right inside the Laomendong...

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...

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"....