Nanjing runs on duck, and the cheap versions are the good ones

Salted duck — cold, pale, faintly sweet — is sold by weight in shops all over the city and is the thing to take back to your room with a beer. Duck blood and vermicelli soup is the other one: available at any hour, gentler than it sounds, and about the price of a coffee.

Add pan-fried guotie or tangbao for breakfast and sesame cakes from the ovens near the Confucius Temple. You do not need a famous restaurant for any of this.