Cooking styles in Hefei are mainly of the frying, roasting or braising varieties. The food here is generally slightly spicy and salty. Many of the dishes are related to famous Anhui characters who used to live here. Particularly interesting is the Caocao chicken and Li Hongzhang hotchpotch.

Luzhou Roast Duck 
Featuring golden yellow shininess, crisp skin and tender meat, moderate fat and salt, rich taste, and plentiful nutrients. 

Mabing (sesame cake) , Honggao(baked cake), Cunjin (sesame cookie), Baiqie (white sesame slices)
These specialties are prepared with refined, shelled sesames compounded with choice white sugar, flour and benne oil, and treated with a special technique. Characteristics: crisp, sweet, and fragrant.

Wushan Tribute Goose
Bred in Wushan Town of Changfeng County, characterized by its tender meat and delicious taste. 

Caocao chicken (Caocao ji)
Strange as its name sounds, it is essentially a chicken cooked with traditional Chinese herbal medicines. It was so named because this course was first invented by a chef of Caocao, the notoriously devious warlord that lived mostly in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220AD). After seeing his master buried in fighting almost everyday, the chef applied numerous kinds of nourishing herbs and spices in the stewed chicken. After sampling this specialty for a few days, Caocao became much healthier, which might have been a major reason for his success in unifying all the small warring states around into the powerful Wei Kingdom (220-265 AD).

Li Hongzhang hotchpotch (Li Hongzhang dazahui)
Like Caocao chicken, this is another popular dish named after one of Anhui's famous personages. Li Hongzhang was a top official of the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 AD). When he was in the saddle, he paid a visit to the US and hosted a banquet for all his American friends. As the specially prepared dishes continued to flow, the chefs, with limited resources, began to fret. Upon Li Hongzhang's order, the remaining kitchen ingredients were thrown together into an impromptu stew, containing sea cucumber, squid, tofu, ham, mushroom, chicken meat and other less identifiable food materials! Thus appetites were quenched and a dish was created.