The city of Nanjing is centrally located relative to many other major cities in China, making it a prime location for all the flavors from different parts of the country to merge. This blend of flavors makes food in Nanjing unique from that in any other city. It even differs quite a bit from the food in neighboring cities like Shanghai. Nanjing takes on a lot of different food culture influences and along with its rich history and abundant resources, it's no wonder that Nanjing used to be the capital of China during most of the country's ancient history!
The food that stood out to me the most was a dish called 口水鸡 (kou shui ji), which translates to “mouth-watering chicken” or “salivating chicken!" However, rather than chicken, this dish was made with duck meat. In China, there are many oddly named dishes. They are often named this way either for aesthetic purposes when writing the name or to describe the feeling one should get from eating the food.
The reason why the dish is named “salivating chicken” is because the meat is served cold and has a noticeably salty flavor to it. The salt in the dish will make you salivate! There is no chicken drool in the dish, so no need to worry about that!
