Fennel-Spiced Broad Beans

Fennel beans are a classic Shaoxing wine snack: dried broad beans (locally called 'luohan beans') simmered low with fennel, cinnamon and salt until the wrinkled green-yellow skins give way to soft, savoury-sweet flesh.

Once a cheap everyday treat kept on hand year-round by taverns, the bean became a cultural emblem through the scene in 'Kong Yiji' where the down-and-out scholar shares his fennel beans with neighbourhood children.

It is usually eaten as a foil to warm Shaoxing wine, or simply chewed slowly as a nibble, releasing its five-spice fragrance.

A saucer of fennel beans with a pot of aged wine is the most iconic pairing of the Xianheng Tavern and Shaoxing's old streets.