Pierced by winding rivers and dotted with ponds and lakes, the Jiangnan region in China’s lower Yangtze area is famously the home of Shanghai, the country’s biggest city. But Jiangnan is just as well-known for its verdant land and fruitful waters.
“The first time I heard Jiangnan referred to as yu mi zhi xiang – the ‘Land of Fish and Rice’ – was as my family and I sped along a small road by Taihu, ‘Lake Tai’, with a beautiful golden field of rice swaying gently with the breeze on one side,” writes Betty Liu in her gorgeous cookbook, My Shanghai: Recipes and Stories From a City on the Water.
