Huainan's best-known contribution to Chinese cuisine is Huainan Beef Soup — bai tang niu rou tang, a milky-white broth made by long-cooking beef bones until the collagen renders out and the liquid turns opaque. It's a breakfast dish, served from early morning at stalls throughout the city with fried dough sticks and flatbreads for dipping. The soup has a richness and depth that rewards the early-morning effort required to eat it at its best.
The local tofu, made from spring water specific to this area, is another dish to seek out. Huainan restaurants serve it in multiple forms: silken fresh tofu with soy sauce and sesame oil, pan-fried until crisp, or stewed in a clay pot with preserved vegetables. The annual Tofu Festival in September brings temporary stalls and special preparations that aren't available the rest of the year.
Shou County, within easy distance, has its own traditional food culture based on preserved pork preparations and clay-pot braised dishes that differ from the main city's cooking.