CHINESE people are always concerned with what they eat, especially from a seasonal aspect - eating the proper food in the proper season is a principle that should be adhered to. For most Chinese, the most delicious food will also taste bad if it's out of season. For example, now it's perfect time to cook fresh vegetables such as clover and bamboo shoots, which grow and mature in spring.

Located in Jiangnan (region in the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River), tourist are attracted to Jiading by its typical folk food, such as clover cake, white garlic and luohancai. In addition, mutton in Jiangqiao Town and dim sum from Xishengyuan Restaurant are also two popular food to taste in spring. The dishes typical in Jiading are not only delicious, but also display the area's historic culture, which tourists can experience with their tongues.

More than meat, it's a taste of heritage

Zhang Dacheng

Eating mutton and mutton soup is the biggest happiness for me every winter. I believe in our ancestors' suggestion that eating mutton is good for health, and I do feel cheered up after eating it.

Living in Shanghai for years, I've learned a lot about mutton in Qibao Town and Fengxian County, but knew little about Jiangqiao mutton until I tried it with my friend recently.

Dongming Mutton Restaurant in Jiangqiao Town has a history of more than 100 years. My friend Lao Li told me that the sliced white mutton here is fresh from famous Huyang sheep raised in Zhejiang Province. It is boiled in soup stock, tastes crisp and savory, but not greasy, and leaves you with an endless aftertaste.

Mutton is actually one of the intangible cultural heritages of Jiangqiao Town. In ancient years, breeding Huyang sheep had already become a tradition for Jiangqiao people. Since 100 years ago, Dongming Restaurant started to cook the lamb with the unique recipe they developed. Now, the current proprietor Zhu Dongming is from the third generation of the restaurant.

Zhu started the business in the 1980s under the suggestion of a friend. Originally it was only a stall beside the street, but Zhu's mutton sold so well that it became a big restaurant years later. Now, Zhu has two restaurants serving mutton in Jiangqiao, and the Dongming Restaurants of 1,500 square meters have become a popular dining venue in the town.

Mutton served in Dongming Restaurant varies a lot -sliced white mutton, stewed mutton in soy sauce, sheep liver, lamb tripe, mutton soup … every customer can find his or her own favorite here.

Jiangqiao mutton is like an accretion of culture and history. It shows the tales of the past and the beauty of the tradition. Of course, it's not easy for a restaurant to enjoy both a long history and a good reputation, but Dongming obviously succeeds.

Sought-after vegetable is a local specialty

Yu Junli

An old overseas Chinese surnamed Zhan searched all over the city for a wild vegetable called luohancai, or penny cress, when he returned to Shanghai. His hunt took him to many famous restaurants in the city, from the City's God Temple to famous food streets of Huangpu Road and Zhapu Road, but all in vain.

Zhan told his friends that he used to taste luohancai in his childhood and never forgot the taste. One of his old friends, famous diplomat Gu Weijun, was also keen on this vegetable. Gu regularly mentioned that he wanted to taste this vegetable before he passed away but never got the chance to. Zhan said he didn't want to experience similar regret.

But what is luohancai exactly? How could such a kind of vegetable be so deeply admired by old Chinese like Zhan?

Luohancai happens to be one of the specialties of Nanxiang Town. It's said to be one of the tributes to ancient emperors, and from the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) to the 1950s, it had been pretty popular among Shanghainese.

Unlike most vegetables with green leaves, luohancai has to be pickled before you taste it, for fresh one tastes very bitter. After being washed, the vegetable is salted in a can for half a month. When the green vegetable turns yellow, it's the ideal moment to experience its real daintiness.

When you first put it into your mouth, it won't taste very special, as there's still a little bitterness left in it. However, the aftertaste will be an unforgettably sweet and refreshing experience.

The vegetable gradually disappeared from table in the 1950s for no particular reason. But now in Nanxiang Town, it has reappeared - a woman in her 80s in Liuxiang Village has been planting luohancai for years. Every April, she salts the dry luohancai together with other vegetables. "The egg soup with salted luohancai is always my favorite," she said.

From fertilizer and pig feed to fried delight

Zhu Liyan

Spring is always the best season to eat clover, and it has been a popular herb with Shanghainese for a long time.

Clover was originally introduced from Iran. However, it was only used as fertilizer and pig feed when it was initially introduced. Even today in some areas, it is only used as pig feed. Once, a friend of mine from Anhui Province visited my home and the stir-fried clover on the lunch table surprised him. "In my hometown it's used to feed pigs," he said. But after he tried it on my strong recommendation, he changed his opinion immediately.

There's another way to eat clover which is quite popular in Jiading - clover cakes. Clover cakes are most welcomed during the Tomb-sweeping Day, or Qingming Festival on April 4th or 5th, because clover is most fresh and tender at that time. However, it's a tradition for Jiading people to eat clover cakes on the day of Summer Begins (one of the 24 Chinese solar terms, usually on May 5 or 6). It's because at that time, the clover isn't as fresh as it was in April. Therefore, local residents will make the last clover cakes to symbolize a farewell to spring.

It's said that originally, the clover cake was made as the lunch for farmers. They mixed the clover into flour and fried it to make cakes. Cakes were packed in cloth and taken to the field, so the farmers could eat them whenever they felt hungry.

Soon, the clover cake became a popular rural dish. Today it's mostly cooked by rural families only and seldom available in stores and restaurants. I used to see one store named Jimeitang selling clover cakes in Nanxiang Old Street, with the queue of buyers stretching a long way. At 2 yuan (30 US cents) for one cake, I can happily taste the spring in them.

Now, clover cake is not simply fare to fill the stomach, but rather a delicious rural dim sum with the wisdom of ancestors.

Garlic leaves a lasting memory and not just an undesirable smell

Xing Ji

As the weather gets hotter, it evokes memories of Jiading's white garlic, as it's the time for the plant to flourish. Jiading's white garlic is big, fresh and crisp, enjoying a good reputation all over the world.

The history of Jiading white garlic is said to have originated in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). In the 1940s and 1950s, the planting area of white garlic in Jiading expanded rapidly, as the district was selected as the national export base of garlic.

At that time, many rural families planted their own garlic. Every June and July, farmers started to gather garlic from the fields and exposed it to the sun for a couple of days. When it was around the Great Heat (one of the 24 Chinese solar terms, usually on July 23 or 24), people started to strip the coats of the garlic. Eventually only one or two pure coats were left outside the bulb before taken to the market.

In my childhood, the happiest moment for me was neighborhoods gathering in the lane, stripping garlic skin and chatting with each other. When the season approached, all family members would be called up to get involved. The stripped garlic would be separated depending on its size. Big ones may be exported abroad; medium ones sold to food factories as raw materials; and the small ones would be used as seasoning or preserved to make "sweet and sour garlic" as relish.

Sweet and sour garlic is a favorite enjoyed by all ages. The garlic is put into a jar with some sugar and vinegar, and sealed for one to two months. The result is a sweet, acidic and spicy garlic. The good thing back in that time was that no one would be really bothered by the garlic smell so I could eat as many as I wanted.

But now, things have changed. You have to try your best to avoid talking to your colleagues directly if your breath smells of garlic. With the development of urbanization, less and less families are planting garlic in fields, and those scenes of people gathering together and stripping garlic skins may only be a distant memory for some.

Steamed buns at dim sum diner have royal history

Huang Shunfu

Located on Fengzhuang Road in Jiading District, the Xishengyuan Dim Sum Shop has enjoyed a history of more than 100 years. It was said to be originally established in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, by an escaped royal chef and two local people from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in 1900, and the original recipes were all from the royal palace.

Now, Xishengyuan has several branches in Shanghai and Suzhou, and it plans a restaurant in Hong Kong in the near future.

Wonton and little steamed buns (xiaolongbao) are the two specialties of this restaurant. The shepherd's purse wonton is a favorite for many customers. The tasty filling perfectly mixes the daintiness of both meat and shepherd's purse, as the soup also tastes extremely delicious with egg crepe and laver in it, well worth its price of 10 yuan (US$1.53). There is also celery wonton (8 yuan) and dried shrimp wonton (6 yuan) available. The dried shrimp wonton can be served with spicy soup, but it's not as spicy as Sichuan dishes. If you don't favor soup wonton, you can order dried stirred wonton.

The little steamed buns of Xishengyuan is pretty big in size with thin wrapper and filled with gravy. There's a special way to eat such steamed buns - when you pick one up, first blow to cool it a little; then, bite a narrow opening on the steamed buns, suck out the gravy before eventually put the entire dumpling in your mouth. This will prevent the gravy from squirting everywhere.

Xishengyuan's steamed buns costs 6 yuan for four. You can also buy a pack of 30 uncooked buns for 45 yuan. Try to cook them by yourself and see if you can reproduce the daintiness.