Ningbo Rice Cake

Ningbo rice cake is a water-milled cake pressed into bars from late-season japonica rice: white, fine-grained and springy, with an unusually delicate rice fragrance, the version from Cixi being the most celebrated.

Rice cake is eaten nationwide, but Ningbo's stands apart thanks to its rice and water-milling craft; Cixi has a long cake-making history, and households still pound cakes at New Year for the auspicious pun on "rising higher each year."

Ningbo people mostly stir-fry it or serve it in soup: stir-fried with rape shoots, shepherd's purse or swimming crab is finest, while rice-cake soup with potherb mustard and pork is everyday comfort food.

It holds its shape through long cooking yet stays smooth and absorbs flavor well, marrying savory seasoning with a clean rice taste that locals never tire of.