Huaiyang Lion's Head Meatballs 淮扬狮子头
Huaiyang Lion's Head Meatballs is featured among the local specialties of Jiangsu.
Huaiyang Lion's Head Meatballs (淮扬狮子头) are large pork meatballs, a traditional dish of Huaiyang cuisine (淮扬菜) from Yangzhou (扬州) and other parts of Jiangsu.
How it is made
The meat is good-quality minced pork, about three parts lean to one part fat by one account, one third fat to two thirds lean by another. It is chopped together with additions such as water chestnut, crab meat and roe (蟹粉) or minced shrimp into a fine paste and shaped into balls the size of a fist.
The meatballs are simmered slowly over a low fire, and they can be steamed, stewed in clear broth or red-braised in soy sauce. A dish made of just four of them is called four-joy meatballs (四喜丸子).
Where it comes from
The dish has several other names: sand-pot lion's head (砂锅狮子头), sunflower meatballs (葵花肉丸), Yangzhou zan rou (扬州赞肉) and sunflower chopped meat (葵花斩肉). A legend tells that when Emperor Yang of the Sui dynasty (隋炀帝) came south to Jiangdu (江都), four dishes were made after four Yangzhou sights, and the one named for Sunflower Ridge (葵花岗) was sunflower chopped meat.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.
Image credits & notes (1)
- Reference photo of a similar dish · 同类菜品参考照片A similar preparation is pictured; the local version may differ. 同类菜品参考照片，当地做法可能不同。Photo: MCB (Michael C. Berch) · CC BY 3.0Resized for the web; the photo itself has not been edited. Thumbnails may show a cropped view.
