Breakfast: Chaozhou-style Rice Rolls (Changfen 腸粉)
Day two! We got up bright and early because we wanted to catch a traditional Chaozhou breakfast before heading out for the day. We stopped by a traditional breakfast stand close to the Ancient Bridge to eat Chaozhou style rice rolls!
It’s fascinating to watch them make the rice rolls.
The rice roll master pours a super thin layer of rice water paste onto a metal steamer box full of layers of drawers. Toppings (e.g., pork, beef, egg) are added on top, and then the rice roll master rolls up the paper-thin rice sheet into a scroll. Each one is made-to-order, and it’s fascinating to watch a rice roll master keep track of all the different orders.
A Chaozhou style rice roll importantly is served with a mixture of sesame paste and soy sauce. It’s delicious, and so fun to see them make it one at a time.
Like every good Chaozhou meal, we also ordered a clear soup to balance out our saucy rice rolls. I chose the fish ball + bean sprout soup, which was clean and flavorful, with fried shallots and celery notes. Our local friends ordered the pork + pig’s blood (cubes) soup. The pig's blood actually looks like dark red tofu chunks, and taste more like tofu than anything else. I tasted a tiny bit of their soup, and it definitely had a stronger, deeper flavor. I preferred the fish ball soup since it was lighter overall.
Qipan Ecological Tea Garden in Fenghuang Mountain Area
棋盘生态茶园 (鳳凰山）
Our next step was in the Fenghuang Mountain Area, which is outside the city. It certainly feels a lot more remote in these parts. Our destination was the Qipan Ecological Tea Garden, which was about an hour's drive up the mountain from the city center. The roads are a bit windy, so you definitely want an experienced driver.
This Tea Garden has been preserved by the government and set up as a place for tourists to come visit and learn about different types of tea.
There are signs describing the different types of tea that come from different types of tea leaves. We got to smell them, and even took some home.
After walking around the garden area, we entered a little tea house where a tea master served us some of their tea. The tea served in Chaozhou is called "Gongfu" tea 功夫茶 (or "kung-fu"), which literally means "making tea with skill."
This particular style of tea brewing, which arose during the Song dynasty in Chaozhou, does indeed take a lot of skill. The tea master needs to manage the water temperature, steeping time, and when and how to pour the "shots." The tea cups and teapot for gongfu tea are tiny, because you're not supposed to steep it for very long. The tea master continue to brew very small portions, pouring them out quickly as people's cups empty.
It was a fascinating experience, not only to watch the tea master's actions, but also to taste several different types of tea leaves!
There's a pretty walkway that allows you to walk amongst different types of tea plants. Near the tea house, we even saw them making some chicken congee on coal-fire pots!
Chaozhou Lunch
After a morning filled with mountains, tea leaves, and tea, we were hungry and decided we didn't want to drive another hour down into the town to eat lunch. Instead, we went to one of the most popular restaurants in the village near the tea plantations (Fenghuang Mountain area鳳凰山).
You could pick your seafood from a number of tanks, and then they would cook it.
The food was really, really good. Freshly made tofu, locally harvested bamboo, free range wild chicken, fresh seafood, and more.
and pickled vegetable
A Bit of Shopping . . .
Our friend likes to purchase the free range chickens (土雞) directly from the farm here in the Fenghuang Mountain area.
Her mom requests them because these chickens have so much more chicken flavor than supermarket chickens. The price is reasonable, about USD$5 a pound.
Hulong Old Village
On our way back to the city center, we first stopped by an ancient village called Longhu. This village has been around for over 1000 years, built during the Song Dynasty.
It's a small village, with one main road filled with vendors selling locally made snacks, drinks, crafts, and more.
We were actually needing our caffeine fix by then, and stumbled upon a lovely coffee shop situated inside one of these restored ancient buildings. One of the owners happened to be there, and began telling us about the building itself.
This man was actually from Shenzhen, but several years ago co-invested in this location to open up a coffee shop. He preferred the pace of life in this village compared to the hustle and bustle of Shenzhen. He later gave us a private tour of the entire space, which was a fascinating look back into history. It included Mao-era slogans and art painted on the inner walls of the building. The coffee was also quite tasty, and we enjoyed just chilling for an hour or so in this very cozy and comfortable coffee house.
Chaoshan Beef Hot Pot
Chaozhou people LOVE beef. There’s a saying “there’s never been a cow who has left Chaozhou alive.” In Chaozhou they are quite particular about the different cuts of beef. The cuts are different from US cuts of beef, so it takes a bit of studying to understand exactly what part you’re eating.
A typical beef hot pot involves many trays of thinly sliced beef from all different parts of the animal. We also had some intestines, tongue, beef fat, tripe, various cuts of meat, and vegetables.
The beef balls are also really special (you can see them floating in the photo above). These balls are made with hand chopped beef and beaten by hand until they cook up to a very al dente "Q" texture.
We rushed off to the train station to catch the high speed rail back to Hong Kong. Thankfully, the beef hot pot restaurant was right across the street from the train station (which is like an hour from the city center!). Our trip across the street still took like 15 minutes with traffic (!).
Good-by Chaozhou. What a lovely visit to a lesser-known, off-the-beaten path city. It was lovely to enjoy a city with a slower rhythm of life, a deep sense of history and culture, as well as really fantastic food!
Weekend Trip to Chaozhou Day 1
Revisiting Xiamen & Xiamen Street Food Crawl
China Posts (Category)
Yunnan China (Kunming, Jianshui, Xihuangbanna)
