"We don't replicate all of his recipes. But it gives us hints as to su cuisine's most-delicious dishes."

The cuisine features a lot of aquaculture, since Jiangsu is known as "the land of fish and rice".

Subangyuan serves the "three whites of Taihu Lake"-tullibee, shrimp and whitebait. It only serves tullibee that weigh between 1.5 and 2.5 kilograms. It takes the whitefish at least three years to grow to this size.

The tullibee is marinated before it's steamed over chicken soup.

The whitebait have no scales, bones, intestines, swim bladders-or even a fishy smell. They're fried with scrambled eggs and chopped spring onions.

The shrimp is boiled before it's marinated in huadiao liquor. It becomes transparent like jade after the thin shell is peeled off.