Zhejiang Cuisine: West Lake Fish, Dongpo Pork and Hangzhou Flavors

The lakes and the table

Zhejiang's cooking is defined by water — the West Lake at Hangzhou, the rivers, the long coast. The flavour profile is fresh, mild and subtly sweet, often finished with Shaoxing wine, vinegar or a scatter of spring onion. It sits between Huaiyang's refinement and Shanghai's richness, lighter than both, with fish and bamboo at its heart. If you want to understand the elegance of eastern Chinese food, Zhejiang is the clearest introduction.

West Lake fish in vinegar sauce

Xihu cuyu (西湖醋鱼) — West Lake fish in vinegar sauce — is the dish of Hangzhou. A grass carp is poached whole, then glazed with a sweet-sour sauce of dark vinegar and sugar, the flesh kept silky and the sauce sharp. It is simple on paper and brutal in execution; only a handful of kitchens do it well. Order it at a restaurant that specialises in it, not as an afterthought.

Dongpo pork and the poet

Dongpo rou (东坡肉) is braised pork belly named for Su Dongpo, the Song-dynasty poet-governor of Hangzhou, who is said to have invented the method: slow-braise in Shaoxing wine and soy until the fat is glossy and the meat soft enough to cut with a chopstick. Served in a clay pot with a square of meat per person, it is rich, aromatic and — unlike its fiery cousins — completely gentle.

The rest of the Hangzhou canon

• Longjing xiaren (龙井虾仁) — freshwater shrimp stir-fried with the city's famous Dragon Well tea leaves; floral and delicate.
• Jiaohua ji (叫花鸡) — beggar's chicken, baked in lotus leaves and clay and cracked open at the table.
• Song sao yu geng (宋嫂鱼羹) — a vinegar-sharp fish soup with an imperial backstory.
• Youtiao gui (葱包烩) — scallion-stuffed flatbread, the city's favourite snack.

Bamboo, tea and the southern pantry

Zhejiang's bamboo shoots — especially the spring chun sun (春笋) — are the best in China and turn up braised, pickled and stir-fried through the season. The province is also the home of Longjing (龙井) tea, drunk alongside the meal and used, famously, in cooking. The coast adds its own chapter: Ningbo's raw-cured seafood (宁波咸呛蟹) and Shaoxing wine (绍兴酒), the cooking wine that perfumes half the region's braises.

Where to eat it

Hangzhou is the essential stop — West Lake fish, Dongpo pork and Longjing shrimp in one city — with Ningbo and Shaoxing adding the seafood and wine. Our Hangzhou page pairs the food with the lake, the temples and the tea fields, and a local guide will find a kitchen that still does the vinegar fish justice.

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