"It's an old and oft-repeated story that this dish—a big, round meatball surrounded by cabbage and noodles—got its name from its resemblance to the shaggy mane of a lion. (The Chinese language is nothing if not descriptive.) However it was named, I love this dish because it’s one my mother made a lot. Lion’s Head is a Shanghai specialty, although two towns with a friendly rivalry, Wuxi (my parents’ hometown) and neighboring Yangchou, also claim to have invented the dish. Yangchou, I have to admit, has recently become something of a food-lover’s destination. The food of Shanghai and its region is renowned for deeply flavored, slow-cooked and braised dishes. Although Lion’s Head is a rustic and hearty home-cooked dish, I used to serve it at banquets at The Mandarin, particularly to Shanghainese expatriates, who, like me, missed it terribly." - Cecilia Chiang

Reprinted with permission from The Seventh Daughter, by Cecilia Chiang, copyright 2007, published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.