Wheaten prawn soup is actually a kind of dough drop soup whose name comes from the fact that the cut powder pulps are shaped like prawns. [Photo/WeChat account: meilitaizhou_]

Two culinary skills in Taizhou, East China's Zhejiang province, were recently selected as candidates for the list of Zhejiang traditional culinary skills, according to the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism.

The shortlisted items are expected to be exhibited at the 12th Zhejiang China Intangible Cultural Heritage Exposition and promoted online in September.

A traditional snack-making skill in Taizhou prefectural city, or the ancient city in Linhai county, enjoys a history of more than 1,000 years. Traditional snacks in the prefectural city mainly include wheaten food, which is also the primarily breakfast food and dim sums for locals.

For example, wheaten prawn soup is popular among local residents, which actually is a kind of dough drop soup. The soup is made by cutting well-stirred powder pulp little by little with a chopstick and adding it to a pot of soup with shredded meat, shii-take, bamboo shoots, turnip strips, and prawns. The snack's name comes from the fact that the cut powder pulps are shaped like prawns.

Although fish skin-related snacks in Yuhuan are not complicated to make, they do employ a rather unique technique.

First remove the skin and bones off sea eels, knead the fishmeat into balls and then beat them with a stick while spreading powdered tomato to prevent the fish from sticking to the cutting board.

To make fish skin noodles, put the well-beaten fish skin into a pan to bake and then cut into strips; to make fish skin Wonton, wrap the well-beaten fish skin around a meat filling. Both of the snacks are Yuhuan's special delicacies.

Workers are busy processing fish skin at a workshop in Yuhuan. [Photo/WeChat account: meilitaizhou_]