HUAI’AN in East China's Jiangsu Province, hometown of the late Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, has been selected as one of the new cities to be added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Creative Cities Network, thanks to its rich history of gastronomy.

UNESCO published its list Monday, with 49 cities added, including Huai’an. The city is now the fifth in China on the list, after Chengdu, Shunde, Macao and Yangzhou.

Sitting on the North-South divide of the country, the geographical location has not only given the city a combination of both northern and southern Chinese cuisine, but also dragged it into a gastronomic battle with Yangzhou.

The city lies alongside the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, making it an important water transportation port. It is also one of the main birthplaces of Huaiyang cuisine — a general term for dishes from Huai’an and Yangzhou.

Huai’an food has been influenced by the 2,500-year history of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.), the canal was built around Huai’an, and local food and snacks from the city were brought to other areas.

In the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), with the dredging of the canal and its more developed water transportation, Huai’an cuisine spread to northern parts of China including Beijing.

In the Qing Dynasty, Huai’an flourished as a center for many industries. The city’s cuisine also started to absorb specialties and cooking methods from across the country. Now Huai’an has more than 1,300 kinds of dishes, including many featuring ingredients of crawdads and hairy crabs.

Fish is another star ingredient of Huaiyang cuisine, which often has a mildly sweet flavor and preserves the original taste of the ingredients. Local dishes regularly feature in national banquets.

Based on a book recording the history of Beijing Hotel where the first national banquet was held after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the “grand national banquet was completely based on Huaiyang cuisine.”

“The hotel hired nine chefs, including Zhu Dianrong, Wang Dukun and Sun Jiufu from the Yuhuatai restaurant in Beijing. Yuhuatai is a high-end restaurant specializing in authentic Huaiyang style dishes,” according to the book.

The honor led to an invisible tug of war between the residents of Huai’an and Yangzhou. Yangzhou has also claimed to be “hometown of Huaiyang cuisine,” and in 2019 it was added to the UNESCO list.(SD-Agencies)