Huaiyang cuisine, one of the major components of Chinese cuisines, consists of the styles of Yangzhou, Nanjing, Suzhou and Zhenjiang dishes. It is very famous in the whole world for its distinctive style and taste. It is especially popular in the lower reach of the Yangtze River.

Known as "a land of fish and rice" in China, Jiangsu Province has a rich variety of ingredients available for cooking. Jiangsu cuisine has the characteristics of strictly selected ingredients, exquisite workmanship, elegant shape, and rich culture trait. The typical raw materials are fresh and live aquatic products. It highlights the freshness of ingredients. Other cooking ingredients are often carefully selected tealeaves, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, pears, and dates. Its carving techniques are delicate, of which the melon carving technique is especially well known. Due to using the methods of stewing, braising, quick-frying, warming-up, stir-frying, wine sauce pickling and adding some sugar as condiments, Jiangsu dishes taste fresh, light and mellow.

Jiangsu dishes can be classified into that of Suzhou-Wuxi style and Zhenjiang-Yangzhou style. The feature of Suzhou-style dishes is their natural flavor in original stock and a mixture of salty and sweet taste. The characteristics of Zhenjiang-Yangzhou style food are best described by the saying that "the soup is so clear that you can see the bottom of the bowl and the sauce is so thick that it turns creamy white".

Huaiyang dishes are famous for its delicate cooking methods. The cooking techniques consist of stewing, braising, roasting and simmering. Stewing and steaming are most popularly applied. The flavor of these dishes is light, fresh and less salty, thus they enjoy widespread popularity across the country.

Main Huaiyang dishes like stir-fried eel, fried cattails with dried shelled shrimp, Pingqiao bean curd, crispy young pigeon, as well as snacks with a special flavor like crabmeat buns, Hongze Lake fried dumplings with fish sauce and Xuyi crawfishes all enjoy high reputations.