It’s May already and multiple seasonal foods are coming into the market! Are you ready?
Three Shrimp Noodles
The cooks would first take out the shrimp brain, shrimp roe and shrimp meat(three shrimp); heat the oil and fry the shrimp brain first, and then put the shrimp meat and roe into the pot and fry. Then the cooked “three shrimp” are put on scallion oil noodles. Remember to mix the topping with the base and stir well.
The noodles are subject to availability as the restaurants have to make sure the shrimps are fresh.
Fengzhen Pork Noodles
The base soup is made up of stewed pork bone, eel bone and fermented rice wine. The pork, usually stewed for more than 4 hours, has a soft texture and is thus very popular with Suzhou locals.
Dumplings with Fried Meat Stuffing
Local people in Suzhou eat the dumplings to celebrate the arrival of summer. The stuffing includes pork, dried shrimps, shelled shrimps, daylily, black fungus, minced bamboo shoots, etc. Meat sauce is usually poured into the dumpling before it is served.
Black Rice
Clean the vaccinium bracteatum leaves, then crush the leaves and strain off the leaf juice; soak the glutinous rice in the juice for one night, steam the rice and you will get the black rice. The ingredients involved in the making of black rice originate from Suzhou’s Qionglongshan Area and Wufengshan Area.
Broad Bean
Broad bean is the most popular seasonal vegetable in Suzhou before and after the Beginning of Summer. Among the varieties grown in Suzhou, the broad beans grown in Wujiang is very distinctive as they are a bit sweet and thin in skin.
Three-colored Amaranth
People in Suzhou like eating three-colored amaranth in summer. As its name suggests, this vegetable comes in three colors, i.e. green, purplish red and greenish purple. Amaranth with different colors may vary a bit in flavors. Red amaranth is the most special one as they are purplish red when fully cooked.
Green Plum
Green plums grown in Suzhou usually come into the market in May, during which the plums are ripe. Many people use green plums for making wine or crisp plums.
Loquat
Juicy and sweet Suzhou loquats melt in the mouth easily. The fruit is very popular in the country and very suitable for summer.
