The local cuisine in Xuzhou is a blend of many of the flavours of northern and southern China, as a result of the location of Xuzhou. It is known for a number of dishes, including those below, and various dog meat dishes.
Xuzhou's cuisine tends to be high in fat and salt. Restaurants use a lot of oil and salt in their cooking, including vegetable dishes and soups. Meat is often very fatty, and it tends to be chopped up with the bones still in it.
In the history of Jiangsu diet culture, Xuzhou cuisine not only occupies an extremely important position but also is one of the birthplaces of the whole Chinese food culture. It reflected the earliest Chinese cooking theory and witnessed the formation of the Chinese cuisine.
China covers a vast geographic area with 56 nationalities, hence a variety of Chinese food with different but fantastic and mouthwatering flavor. Each area has a distinct style of cooking, for example, northern Chinese food is salty, simple, fewer vegetables with wheat as the staple food; Western China food is hearty halal food with lamb the main meat, etc1.
Xuzhou in China's Jiangsu Province, also known as Pengcheng, has more than 3000 years history. It is in a special geographic area, which located in the line of the Qinling -Huaihe (the line separated north and south of eastern China) and also is the junction of Beijing, Shanghai, Longhai and other railways.
| English | Traditional Chinese | Simplified Chinese | Pinyin | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xuzhou-style popiah | 烙饃 | 烙馍 | lào mó | A foodlike burrito in some way, in Xuzhou dialect sounds like luǒ mó |
| Wok braised chicken | 地鍋雞 | 地锅鸡 | dì guō jī | |
| Strung pork belly | 把子肉 | 把子肉 | bǎ zǐ ròu | |
| Diced meat with vegetables | 千刀肉 | 千刀肉 | qiān dāo ròu | |
| Stuffed fresh fish with square mutton | 羊方藏魚 | 羊方藏鱼 | yáng fāng cáng yú | |
| Stewed dog meat with soft-shelled turtle | 黿汁狗肉 | 鼋汁狗肉 | yuán zhī gǒu ròu | The Asian giant soft-shell turtle, namely "鼋" in Chinese, used to serve as the ingredient,
has been replaced by common soft-shell turtles as the former became endangered in modern era, but the Chinese name of the dish still retains the character "鼋" |
| Xuzhou-style spicy soup | 辣湯 | 辣汤 | là tāng | Different from Henan's, its main ingredients are chicken, pig bone, swamp eel, gluten, pepper, spring onion and ginger |
| Sha soup | 𮨻湯[note 1] | 𬲱汤[note 2] | shá tāng | According to legend, this chicken soup was invented by the legendary Peng Zu in ancient times. In order to make the broth, chicken is stewed for 3 hours with chops before it is removed. The chicken meat is sliced and added to the broth together with hulled wheat, ground star anise, ground chili, onion and ginger juice. Then after two more hours’ brewing, the starchy sauce is added to thicken it with more seasonings including ground pepper, vinegar, sesame oil and the sliced chicken meat. |
| Soup of assorted ingredients | 燒雜拌 | 烧杂拌 | shāo zá bàn | Usually only be treated in local banquet |
| Tadpole-like liangfen | 瓦魚（~兒） | 瓦鱼（~儿） | wǎ yú （~ér） | Be made from the starch jelly. Its name nearly was written as "蛙鱼" nowadays, namely the frog in Chinese[1] It is soft and gelatinous. The broth is a little sour and it is better with spice |
Others include: