1. To eat rice cakes in Cicheng, you should eat water-milled rice cakes from Cicheng, Ningbo. Cicheng Water Mill Rice Cake is purely handmade, using selected high-quality Japonica rice. It is made through ten processes including planting, selecting, soaking, grinding, steaming, pounding and sealing. It tastes delicate, smooth and chewy. The most common method for Ningbo people is to stir-fry in soup and oil. Pickled cabbage and shredded pork rice cake soup is a very authentic Ningbo dish. The soup is rich, salty and slightly sour, and extremely refreshing.

2. Ningbo crabs with red paste are naturally indispensable for seafood. Red paste choking crab is an outstanding representative among them. Since it is called red paste crab, the choice of ingredients is of course very particular. One is to have red paste, and the other is to have live crab. Because it is eaten raw, freshness is very important. Marinate it with salt water at a ratio of 4:1. The time should not be too long, so as not to overwhelm the salty taste. When starting, it is best to dip it in ginger vinegar. Vinegar can sterilize and remove the fishy smell. Ginger can neutralize the coldness of crab and protect the stomach. After all, it is raw food, so people with weak stomachs are best not to try it easily.

3. Ningbo glutinous rice balls are filled with black sesame seeds, lard, and white sugar, stuffed into glutinous rice balls, rolled into balls, and cooked. The round skin is soft and the filling is sweet. When your teeth bite through the outer skin, the sesame-flavored filling instantly hits your taste buds, which really fills your mouth with flavor. With the popularity of glutinous rice balls, there are more and more ways to eat them. Some people like to play tricks on the cooking method and fry the glutinous rice balls before eating them. Others like to use their imaginations with fillings, such as pork filling, durian filling, red bean filling, etc.

4. Taking the freshest out of Ningbo’s three stinky smells probably best reflects the nature of Ningbo’s foodies. Stinky winter melon, stinky amaranth stems, and stinky cabbage hearts are the famous three odors in Ningbo. In Ningbo's saying, the odor can be smelled even "across the water". It is said to have three odors, and it tastes especially delicious. Especially in the summer, when you are tired of big fish and meat, you can serve a bowl of stinky winter melon with a few drops of sesame oil. The salty and sour taste is like a clear spring, refreshing from your mouth to your heart.