A bowl of wontons in delicious white soup. [Photo provided to en.nantong.gov.cn]

Breakfast in Hai'an, Nantong is not complete without a bowl of hot wontons. This simple and cost-effective dish delights with its rich and savory flavor.

Hai'an natives tend to be partial to seasonal foods, but wontons are popular all year round.

Freshly–cooked wontons with appetizing red soup. [Photo provided to en.nantong.gov.cn]

Wrapping wontons requires a certain amount of skill. The wonton maker holds a bamboo stick or a wooden chopstick in his right hand and slightly scoops in the filling before pasting the filling to a corner of the wonton wrapper and rubbing it with his left hand.

A woman enjoys wontons at a breakfast shop in Hai'an. [Photo provided to en.nantong.gov.cn]

Soup is key for any proper bowl of wontons. Popular choices include bone soup, fish soup and three fresh delicacies soup, with white soup being the most classic and red soup known for its appetizing flavor.

Wontons also feature a large variety of fillings. In Hai'an, the most common is chopped meat wontons, but the long-tailed anchovy wontons eaten in spring are always eagerly anticipated.