Chaohu Cuisine & Local Delicacies

Chaohu boasts a time-honored culinary culture featuring an extensive, diverse range of distinctive dishes. Its local cuisine falls under the Huizhou School of cooking, which attaches great importance to precise knife skills and elaborate preparation. Dishes deliver rich, fresh broths and achieve perfect harmony of color, aroma and taste.

Visitors can sample world-famous delicacies including the Three Treasures of Chaohu Lake (silver fish, crabs and white shrimp, celebrated since ancient times) and the Three Fresh Delicacies of the Yangtze River. Other renowned local specialties include Dongguan Old Goose Soup, Wuwei Cured Duck and Xiangxue Brand Cured Duck, as well as savory deep-fried sparrows from Hexian County. Four iconic set feasts — the Fish Feast, Goose Feast, Game Feast and Home-Style Feast — will leave you with unforgettable culinary memories.

Also known as Sangaitang Old Goose Soup of Hanshan County. Mature geese are slaughtered and cut into chunks to simmer into a rich soup. Beyond basic seasonings such as salt, ginger and rice wine, a secret proprietary blend of special ingredients is added. The finished soup is reddish and clear; the goose meat falls off the bone yet holds its shape, and the broth is rich with fat without being greasy, boasting an exceptionally delicate flavor. A complete serving of Hanshan Dongguan Old Goose Soup features a tureen of goose soup paired with stir-fried side dishes made from goose offal and goose blood for a full, refined goose-themed meal.

A signature traditional pastry exclusive to Lujiang County, formerly known as rice dumplings, with a history spanning over 200 years. Fully fried dumplings turn golden yellow. Their outer crust offers a slight crispness when bitten into, wrapping soft, flavorful fillings, making them an ideal breakfast staple.

The trio consists of shad, hairtail anchovy and pufferfish. The Yangtze waterways within Wuwei and Hexian Counties produce abundant stocks of these three aquatic treasures. Each is famed nationwide for its unique flavor, and their short annual fishing seasons render them even more precious. Pufferfish hits the market in early March of the lunar calendar, followed by hairtail anchovy around the fourth lunar month, with shad arriving in early May. The supply window for pufferfish and shad lasts merely about 20 days, while hairtail anchovy’s seasonal availability is slightly longer.

Endemic to Chaohu Lake, silver fish feature cylindrical, scaleless, translucent, smooth bodies and are hailed as the "Queen of Chaohu Lake". Large silver fish measure 15 to 20 centimeters long, while smaller ones range from 4 to 7 centimeters. Their bones are soft and thorn-free, with tender, succulent flesh packed with nutrients. Popular silver fish dishes include steamed silver fish with egg, scrambled silver fish with egg and silver fish soup. A renowned signature Chaohu preparation is Chrysanthemum Silver Fish. Other common recipes include silver fish braised with tofu and dried silver fish (yan gan).

A historic local specialty of Hexian County. Premium wheat flour is blended with salt, sugar, green onions, pure aromatic duck fat and sesame seeds. After being shaped into dough via traditional procedures, the cakes are baked in custom charcoal stoves, making them a perfect snack for morning tea.

Also called rice vermicelli, meticulously crafted from high-quality rice. They have a glossy surface, chewy, silky texture that resists breaking and clouding soup, with an appealing uniform shape. They can be served as a staple carb or in broth-based soups, quick and convenient to prepare.

Originally named toad crisps or mini crisps, a famous pastry from Wujiang Town with a 2,000-year heritage. Legend says Xiang Yu, the Overlord of Western Chu, retreated to Wujiang after defeat at Gaixia, exhausted and starving man and horse. An elderly peddler selling small crisps offered him several pieces to fill his stomach. Xiang Yu ate them and exclaimed repeatedly: "Delicious crisp treats, wonderfully crunchy!" Later, locals renamed them Overlord Crisps to honor the hero’s bravery. The crisp is made from wheat flour…

With a history of over 600 years, Hexian deep-fried sparrows earn the laudatory title "The Most Fragrant Delicacy Under Heaven". The preparation process: skin and clean sparrows, air-dry thoroughly, sear to seventy percent doneness over high heat, deep-fry in oil for five minutes then scoop out to drain excess grease. Return the sparrows to the wok with water and seasonings, simmer, then cool and soak in sesame oil for one to two days to finish the savory dish.

A classic distinctive pastry of Anhui with more than 250 years of history. Originally named steamed buns or oil-sugar shaomai, they are elaborately made from fine wheat flour, glutinous rice, white sugar, lard, kumquat and sweet osmanthus. Shaped like blooming pomegranate blossoms, they get their name from a small dot of edible red pigment dabbed on the top.

Legend dates them to the Tongzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty. Wu Xiaoxuan, a renowned Qing army general native to Shahu Village in Lujiang County, was dispatched on military campaigns. His personal hometown chef often prepared these pastries for him