Chongming has turned into a cold season.

In the cold weather, some warm memories haunt my mind.

For example, I take a spoon to carefully taste the hot soup in the pot.

The soup in my mouth is a touch of warmth in the cold winter.

01 Chongming Mutton Soup

When the cold wind blows, the mutton is fat and delicious. Every winter is a good time to taste mutton in Chongming. Chongming’s white-goat mutton is delicious, and a bowl of mutton soup tastes uniquely mellow and fresh. Chongming’s mutton keeps the layer of skin. The stewed skin instantly melting in your mouth is fat but not greasy. The mutton soup with cabbage, green vegetables, taro, and white radish is yummy.

02 Pearl Lake Fish-head Soup

Chongming foods are naturally fresh and high-quality. They are nourishing, mellow, and delicious. The fishhead soup from Mingzhu Lake in Chongming tastes great. The big fish head is freshly delicious, and the tofu in the soup is tender and tasty. It provides protein with high nutritional value to nourish your stomach and body.

03 Free-range Chicken Soup

Chongming chicken soup is characterized by its original taste. The free-range chicken is stewed with a little salt and some pieces of ginger, without any other embellishment. The raw materials are so good that they make the chicken soup refreshing and appetizing.

04 Chongming Duck Soup

Duck soup is a traditional dish of the Han nationality. The soup is clear, fragrant, and delicious. The duck fat is yellow, and the duck meat is crisp and mellow. It has the functions of health keeping, body nourishing, and dieting. Chongming Duck Soup is more delicious as the meat is mouth-watering and nutritious by offering protein, vitamins, calcium, phosphorus, iron, and other trace elements for the human body. It is a winter tonic.

05 Fish and Mutton Dish

Fish and mutton dish is a simple home-made food, rich in nutrition, and suitable for all ages. As a winter delicacy, the dish is salty and sweet, fresh and mellow. The Chinese character "delicious" is composed of "fish" and "sheep". The mutton and the fish are cooked together with refined salt, onion, ginger, rice wine, and pepper, which taste so delicious.

06 Sweet Potato Noodle Soup with Chinese Cabbage and Egg Dumplings

The soup is made of sweet potato noodles with Chinese cabbage and egg dumplings. When frost falls on the earth, green vegetables and Chinese cabbage will produce their sweetness, which adds a special flavor to the soup. The combination of Chinese cabbage and sweet potato noodles is not nutritious enough for their children, so parents will make several egg dumplings with pork meat in it to help them withstand the long winter night.

07 Tofu Soup with Shredded Radish

The radish freshly plucked from the field is so “crunchy” that it is mouth-watering. The tender tofu is freshly produced by the villagers. The shredded radish and tofu soup with a handful of garlic leaves is clean and refreshing. On a winter night, the father serves home-produced rice, and the mother serves tofu soup with shredded radish. The homely taste is better than any delicacies.

08 Bone Soup with Taro

The pork in Chongming is different from other places. If you ask me why it is different, I ask you to have a try. The best way to stew the big-bone soup is to simmer it with dry firewood on a large stove to turn the bone marrow into juice with a thick layer of grease. Chongming's taro is also different from other places. It is granular, fragrant, and glutinous. When the big bones are stewed soft, I put the taro into the pot to simmer together. During the stewing time, I will bake a sweet potato and two handfuls of beans on the stove, which reminds me of my childhood.

09 Bacon and Soybean Soup

When it comes to food, the Chongming people are proud of themselves. The city dwellers mistakenly hold that soybeans are born yellow. In fact, yellow soybeans are turned from green ones after they are dried. In the soup, the homegrown and dried soybeans are fragrant, not to mention the fresh and salty bacon. Soybeans absorb the essence of bacon, and the soup absorbs the fragrance of the soybeans and the pork. The savory bacon and soybean soup is most suitable on a winter night.

10 Egg Soup with Silver Sillago

Blessed are the children who grow up by the river as the freshest fishes and shrimps jump into their bowls. Chongming people don't cherish big fishes, as small fishes and shrimps are their favorites. At this time of the year, silver sillago is plump, tender, and delicious. Thinking that his daughter will come back for dinner tonight, father rides a bike to catch two silver sillago from the river even though it is very cold after work. He cleans the fish carefully and adds two eggs to the soup to make it more delicious. Seeing her daughter eat more rice with the soup, he doesn’t feel the chill anymore.

The river, the wind, and the soil make up a quiet and lonely land in Chongming. The smells of the river, the wind, and the soil are reminiscent of nostalgic feelings.

A bowl of soup is the warmest on a winter night.