The beloved Nanchang clay-pot soup has captured the hearts and taste buds of locals and visitors alike, making the traditional soup a brand of the eastern Chinese city.

The classic clay-pot soup menu boasts egg and patty soup, lotus root and pork rib soup, and old duck soup, while the Nanchang clay-pot soup is made with various ingredients, with chicken, duck, fish and pork all great ingredients.
Premium ingredients and water simmer craft a remarkable taste in the soup, setting the foundation for its widespread adoration among people of all ages.
Zheng Weidong, who has been cooking the soup for 40 years, attributes the popularity of the soup to Nanchang's location.
"Nanchang is known as a 'City of Water,'" said Zheng.
Nanchang boasts an intricate network of over ten rivers and countless lakes. This abundance of water, coupled with winding mountains and refreshing air, graces the city water of distinct quality with a delightful and lingering sweetness.
The key to cooking a perfect bowl of the clay-pot soup is the simmering. Usually bowls of the soup are arranged in a giant clay pot simmering for eight hours over a charcoal fire.
"Small pots are put in a big vat, and are slowly simmered over a charcoal fire for better flavor," said Zheng.
The clay pots used for simmering the soup are designed to be insulating yet permeable, allowing them to absorb water and oil. These unique properties enable the vibrant flavors of the ingredients to intermingle in the tiny 300-milliliter clay vessels.
The soup is cooked with two hours of high heat and six hours of low heat, before it is simmered to let the proteins and the ingredients to dissolve completely.
The beauty of the simmering process lies in the preservation of the nutritional values and essence of the ingredients.
The clay-pot soup boasts savory, spicy and mellow flavors, a blend embodying the geographic uniqueness of Jiangxi, which borders Hunan, Hubei, and Anhui in the northwest, as well as Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong in the southeast.
"The clay-pot soup is crafted by the unique geographic position of Jiangxi," said Zheng.
Mixing freshness, spiciness and mellowness, Jiangxi cuisine emphasizes using fresh ingredients, skills, and colors to make a sublime experience.
Spiciness is the soul, while the aromatic allure embodies the character. Rather than taste, the olfactory experience is the emblem of Jiangxi cuisine.
The cornerstone of Jiangxi cuisine is its mellowness, or the lingering rich flavors that emerge from rice wine and yellow wine.
Another characteristic that sets Jiangxi cuisine apart from others is its adept utilization of the stewing technique.
Influenced by population migration, economic and trade interactions, and cultural openness, Jiangxi cuisine continuously evolves and innovates, assimilating the essence of diverse regions, resulting in a distinctive culinary system.