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| Posted: 25 Sep 2013 04:11 PM PDT As the ancient capital of a nation obsessed with its food, Nanjing maintains a royal culinary standard  The emperors may have left town, but their chefs appear to have stuck around. That's the best explanation for the delicate and delectable options found on tables across Nanjing. Jiangsu Province -- Nanjing is the capital -- is home to one of the most influential cuisines in China. More on CNN: Nanjing mini-guide Typified by exquisite shape and cut, Nanjing's own homegrown dishes provide some of the tastiest examples of Jiangsu cuisine. Here are 8 essential orders in Nanjing. 1. Sweet and sour Mandarin fish
The fish is de-boned and sliced in grids before going into the wok. Boiling sweet and sour sauce is combined with ingredients such as shrimp, nuts and mushrooms and poured onto the fish, creating a squeaking sound. The result is a plate of fish shaped like a squirrel, hence it's common name, "squirrel fish." Best at: Ma Xiang Xing, 32 Yunnan Beilu, Gulou district, Nanjing; +86 25 8328 6387/6388; 6:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m. 2. Salted duck
As the local saying goes, "Without duck, it's not a proper meal." Salted duck is a cold dish usually served as an appetizer or snack with alcohol. More on CNN: Around China in 31 dishes Plum Garden's salted duck is marinated in a special brine that keeps the meat tender and imbues it with a slightly salty flavor. Best at: Plum Garden, 2/F, Jinling Hotel, Xin Jie Kou Square, Nanjing; +86 25 8471 1888 (ext. 4204); open daily 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 6-10 p.m. 3. Pan-fried beef dumplings
Pan-fried beef dumplings are considered one of Nanjing's eight traditional Qinhuai treasures, as designated by government-sanctioned experts in 1987. The original dumpling mentioned as a Qinhuai treasure comes from Jiang You Ji restaurant, which is still located in an alley in Nanjing's Confucius Temple area. Liji Halal Restaurant is another popular local choice for the dumplings. For the complete experience, pan-fried beef dumplings should be accompanied by beef soup, or niu rou tang. Best at: Jiang You Ji, 313 Qin Hong Lu, Qin Huai District; +86 25 5262 2265 Liji Halal Restaurant, 1 Dading Xiang, Pingshi Jie, Baixia District; +86 25 5225 7736 4. Tangbao (soup dumpling)
The sight of chicken broth and pork wobbling inside a paper-thin wrapper -- assuming a chopstick hasn't accidentally pierced the tender wrapper -- is sheer heaven for many locals. The most famous places for the dish is Yinshi Jishi Tangbao restaurant, though the flavor can be too sweet for some. If you prefer your dumplings less sweet, Liu Changxing restaurant is recommended. Best at: Liu Changxing, 506 Zhongshan Dong Lu, Baixia District; +86 25 8441 1031 5. Duck blood vermicelli soup
It's said that duck blood vermicelli soup was brought to Nanjing by a traveler from Auhui, a neighboring province. But the dish has become a Nanjinger favorite cheap eat. You can find duck blood vermicelli soup as easily in Nanjing as you can find kebab stands in Berlin. Best at: Yadebao, 11-12 Chaozhi Xiang, Baixia District; +86 25 8452 4820 6. Jinling roast duck
According to one legend, Ming Dynasty emperor Zhu Di brought his favorite roasted duck chefs with him from his Nanjing palace when he moved the capital to Beijing. Though less celebrated internationally, Jinling duck is hardly inferior to its northern counterpart. Crisp and greasy duck skin with juicy and tender flesh is the standard formula of the satisfying dish. Best at: Chen Lin, 5-1 Diao Yu Tai (Near Zhonghua Gate) 7. Hairy crab
This makes sense -- about a third of the county's area is occupied by Gucheng Lake, one of the country's top breeding grounds for hairy crabs. The crabs are meaty and sweet, with a paste inside that has a rich, buttery texture. The best season for hairy crab is autumn. Chinese believe that the ninth month of the lunar calendar (usually mid-September) is the best time for female hairy crabs and the tenth month (mid-October) is best for male hairy crabs. Best in: Gaochun county in mid- to late September
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| Cool video shows amazing South American scenery Posted: 22 Sep 2013 09:11 PM PDT Five minutes and 30 seconds of travel envy coming up  Three filmmakers have made the coolest video we've seen in a while of the South American landscape. Stefan Templer, Clemens Krüger and Vincent Urban -- all German filmmakers in their early 30s -- armed themselves with a few cameras and a Land Rover and spent three months driving through Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay and southern Brazil. The result -- the second part of a series that even if it weren't sponsored by a tour agency, would be hard to beat as a pitch for traveling this picturesque continent. CNN: Looks like you had some serious wind to contend with … Vincent Urban: A day can certainly start better than with your cereal being blown out into the desert after a night in an enormously loud tent due to the nonstop-flapping sidewalls. There were many memorable moments but the most memorable thing about Patagonia in general is the wind. We had strong, constant winds for weeks, without any break. You realize how hard life can be without any walls to protect you from Mother Nature's constant whistling. As a kid from the city, I never felt nature that intense.
Urban: Haha. Because we're from Germany and no one wants to listen to German chatter! No, seriously, we don't make documentaries. We don't tell a story. We just want to spark the emotions with music and atmospheric sound to make it a very personal experience for the viewer. No words, just moments that everyone can easily understand and empathize with. We don't have that much useful to say anyways, we're just travelers, like everybody else. How many times did bad things happen? You get robbed or bitten by snakes? Urban: We've always been very lucky. There are so many people warning you about all the bad things that can happen, all the bad people that want to rob you and all the bad animals that want to bite you. I'm not saying that's bogus, the world can surely be a dangerous place sometimes but we happened to be pretty good at avoiding these situations. The only real troublemaker was our car. He's a very moody individual with all his little irrational problems that come out of nowhere. We spent many days in local workshops trying to explain our mechanical problems with our hands and feet as we don't speak Spanish at all. Did the trip turn you into an Earth hugger? Urban: I'm not really one of those guys that comes back from a trip demonizing our Western society, being all cocky to my friends about how bad they're behaving by shopping at H&M. But, of course, you learn a lot on trips like these. You get to experience so many different ways of life and you quickly realize that our Western one is not the necessary one. You question all the things that seem so important in your life, like fame and possessions. And, of course, you start to care about the environment a lot more than you did before. It'll sure help if more European and U.S. citizens would travel to other parts of the world to raise their own awareness to global problems so we can actually use our wealth and education to fix stuff -- and not keep making things worse.
Urban: Stefan Templer, 31 years, event-technician -- my best friend since birth and we grew up together. I basically spent all my holidays with him for the first 20 years of my life. He's the real adventurer; he drives the car and knows what to do when it breaks down. Generally, he's the one fixing everything everywhere and those trips would never be possible without him. Clemens Krüger, 30 years old, is a cameraman and we worked together making snowboarding films for some years when we were younger. Now we still work together on different commercial projects. Stefan and Clemens shared an apartment for many years. My name is Vincent Urban, I'm 30 years old as well and I'm a filmmaker and video editor for commercial productions. We're all from Munich. Leave us with a profound thought? Urban: Great stuff happens if you just let go of your expectations and plans and see what's coming to you.      |
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