The first Bencha Delicacy Contest opens at Bencha town, Rudong county, Nantong on Oct 19, presenting 40 dishes made of local tiny seafood. [Photo/ntfabu.com]

The first Bencha Delicacy Contest opened at Bencha town, Rudong county, Nantong on Oct 19, presenting 40 dishes made of local tiny seafood, including razor clam soup, phoenix-tailed prawn wrapped with fried potato shreds, and shrimp balls.

On the day, 20 teams from professional and amateur groups gave full play to their skills for cooking tiny seafood – a specialty of Bencha town. The top three contestants will be named "kings of the kitchen".

Each team had to finish two dishes within a time limit. From a wide variety of ingredients, the cooks happened to choose the same food material – razor clams.

"Bencha razor clam soup has been around for hundreds of years," said Yu Jinjin, an experienced chef. "In Bencha, it is not only a compulsory course for chefs, but also a specialty dish of housewives."

With a longstanding delicacy culture, Bencha was awarded the title of China's Seafood Hometown by China Cuisine Association in May 2007. Different from rare ingredients such as sea cucumber and abalone, razor clams are not a precious ingredient; they can be obtained easily in the local area.

Among tiny seafood, razor clams enjoy the highest reputation, with razor clam soup selected as one of Jiangsu's 100 local characteristic dishes.