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I had originally wanted to take a break from traveling this weekend. There was an invitation to an extremely hard to book restaurant in Yunnan, but with two big meals earlier in the week and a few more next week before traveling for work the following weekend, I politely declined... much to the shock of my friend.
But Foursheets was restless. I had been doing ALL of the traveling lately, and maybe she felt a little left out. It
is true that other than our quick trip to Beijing at the start of the year, the only place she's been to outside Hong Kong has been Taipei. After weighing our options close to town, she decided that we should explore Shantou (汕頭). We had long heard about the amazing food scene in the Chaoshan (潮汕) region, so this would be our first peek.
There was lots of drama before our departure, as Friday night traffic almost prevented us from getting to the train station on time. In my rush to get to the train platform, I actually dropped my wallet as I went through the border checkpoint. Thankfully it was recovered just a minute later... and we made it onto the train with just a couple of minutes to spare.
The 2½ hour journey was relatively uneventful, and our taxi driver drove us across the city so that we could check in to
WhyTime Hotel (怀棠府邸酒店). Foursheets chose this boutique hotel in the old town area that had been converted from a historic banquet hall. I must admit that it is very charming.
But it's nearly 11 p.m. and we haven't had dinner. So we crossed back to the eastern side of town, almost back to the train station, for some supper at
Shuang Sheng Bu Ye Zhou (双生不夜粥). This is a very popular place that opens till the wee hours, and would be perfect for us right now.
It was still kinda late, and the restaurant had run out of a lot of dishes by this hour. I was tempted by the goose head, but there was no way that the two of us could finish it...
Raw marinated clams (生腌车白) - Chaoshan cuisine is famous for their seafood which is raw marinated, so we thought we should try some while we were here. Given it's summer and the weather is scorching, we also thought we should limit ourselves to how much of it we would eat - especially at this hour, long after the food was initially prepared.
Giant Thai mantis shrimp tempura (泰国大虾姑天妇罗) - this was, honestly, pretty good. I liked that this came with roe.
Giant whelks are always a premium ingredient in Chaoshan cuisine, so I was never willing to spend money on it in Hong Kong. But we're in Shantou and prices have been at least halved, so this became an itch I thought I'd scatch. Besides, there's even a show where they pour whiskey on it so it gets covered in flames...
And they made it a point to show that it's
Bowmore 18 Years that they doused and lit up in flames.
Flaming charcoal-grilled whelk (威士忌炭烧响螺) - the sauce for marinating the whelk had plenty of white pepper in it. The shellfish itself was more chewy and springy compared with abalone. We also had some of the liver, whose flavors were more intense and bitter.
Oh, and we do eat all this food with
plain congee (白粥), which is free and comes with unlimited refill.
Stir-fried short-necked clams with basil (葱头金不换炒大红蛋) - I thought we needed a little more food, so I picked out the giant short-necked clams. It was naturally sweet and amazing fresh, with a lovely texture that was just the right balance between tender and springy. The flavors of the Thai basil (金不換) were very nice. The presentation, though, was a little simplistic and underwhelming.
I had found this can of water chestnut drink and thought it would help me cool off. Unfortunately there were very few bits of water chestnuts inside, and the flavors were also weak. This fell far short of what I normally get from Yeo's (杨协成).
This was enough food to satisfy us without getting outselves stuffed, which worked out perfectly. We've got a lot of eating ahead tomorrow...
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