| Jiang Nan 江南 (Jiangsu 江苏, Zhejiang 浙江, Shao Xing 绍兴) |
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蹄膀 - ti pang: upper thigh on a pig, usually slow roasted until the skin is chewy and succulent and the meat is falling off the bone; sometimes braised in sauce until the meat melts in your mouth (this photo is 'huang ni wei ti pang' from Wu Ming Ju Restaurant; other styles of the same dish are softer and saucier).
叫化鸡 - jiao hua ji: Beggar’s Chicken; wrap a chicken in a banana or lotus leaf, pack a layer of mud around it and bake it. Crack open hard shell before serving (some restaurants serve this dish with a mallet so you can smash the shell yourself).
狮子头 - shi zi tou: Lion’s Head meatballs in broth
水晶虾球 - shui jing xia qiu: crystal shrimp
东坡肉 dong po rou: the classic Zhejiang cousin to the Hunan hong shao rou is slowly braised melt-in-your-mouth squares of pork belly served in their own juices 
宋嫂鱼羹 song sao yu geng: Auntie Soong’s slightly thickened soup with
small pieces of white fish, generally brightened to taste at the table
with a touch of red vinegar
鱼米之乡 - yu mi zhi xiang: 'rice' fish, this is a very unique dish of fragrant tender morsels of fish shaped liked grains of rice, flavored with southern ham and pine nuts
洪湖麻鸭 - hong hu ma ya: southern style flattened duck which is steamed then fried; mildly spicy and numbing
叫化鸡 - jiao hua ji: Beggar’s chicken (see photo above)
黄泥煨蹄 - huang ni wei ti: slow roasted pork leg (see photo above)
清汤狮子头 - shi zi tou: Lion’s head meatball in clear broth (see photo above) 孔乙己 Kongyiji (Zhejiang > Shao xing 绍兴): 黄酒 - huang jiu: local fermented wine, served hot like sake, not evil like distilled rice wine 
醉鸭 - zui ya: drunken duck in a pot
响油鳝糊 - xiang you shan hu: stewed baby eel dish (sometimes translated
as pudding, but it’s not really, just cooked into a thick saucy dish); yum!
宋嫂鱼羹 - song sao yu geng: Auntie Soong’s fish soup; light broth, enjoyed with red vinegar (see photo above)
酒香草头 - jiu xiang cao tou: vegetable from the region, very seasonal
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Featuring milder flavors with notably less spice, Jiang Nan (literally, 'south of the river') encompasses a region including Jiangxi, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and the municipality of Shanghai. Many star dishes of this region such as Beggar’s Chicken (jiao hua ji), roasted pork thigh (ti pang), or savory cubes of pork belly (Dong Po rou) are slow cooked to develop rich flavors. Other fresh ingredients, including seafood, are cooked very simply to feature the flavor of the central ingredient. Jiang Nan is also famous for the prominent role alcohol plays in cooking, hence a number of “drunken” dishes such as 醉鸭 zui ya, or drunken duck, and appearance of Shaoxing wine in Zhejiang recipes. Shanghai cuisine is a derivative of Jiang Nan styles and flavors, but with a “refined” hand for Shanghai’s cosmopolitan crowd on the one hand, and Benbang cooking (Shanghai's jiachang cai/homestyle cooking) including robust contrasts, with stronger flavors and sweeter sauces. Zhejiang (Hangzhou) cooking's 'hongshao' preparation also has a sweeter regional style which uses plenty of rock sugar in combination with the usual soy sauce base, resulting in a glossy sweet glaze over the savory braise.
