Shantou hop day 2: criss crossing the city

Pin It

We needed two things this morning: coffee and breakfast. We went downstairs to the café at WhyTime Hotel (怀棠府邸酒店) to see what the free breakfast was like, but they were pretty full with other guests... and besides, the food didn't look particularly local. So we ventured out across town to a place recommended by a friend.

It's raining a little this morning, and we got dropped off at the general area for our breakfast spot. Well, the street address listed on Dianping (大众点评) wasn't the correct one, so we wandered around a little to see if it's hidden in an alley somewhere. And indeed it was! This was LITERALLY A HOLE-IN-THE-WALL... The so-called signage was actually that of a defunct real estate agent, and that's where the open kitchen is. The dining room is accessed by duck around the corner through a doorway. OK, then...

Flat rice noodle soup (粿条汤) with different cuts of pork and pig offal are what's on offer, so we order up 3 different cuts... with trotter tendon (猪脚筋), paddywhack (猪板筋), and "crispy pork (酥肉)". The noodle comes with bean sprouts, wood ear, Chinese celery, and pickled mustard stem (咸菜).

We're in the scorching summer heat, and a bowl of piping hot broth definitey didn't help, but there was something very comforting about this bowl of soup noodles... especially with the fried garlic lending their flavors to the MSG broth. The pickled mustard stem was also much appreciated with their acidity.

The paddywhack (猪板筋) is a rare cut around the sides of the tenderloin. Kinda springy and crunchy.

The trotter tendon (猪脚筋) is more common, but always loved.

This so-called crispy pork (酥肉) was OK.

Foursheets doesn't enjoy offal, which was why we completely bypassed the 豬下水.

We went back to Old Town to hit a cafe I was curious about. Pickles and Coffee (咸菜咖啡) has two outlets near our hotel, and serve a variety of interesting coffees featuring unorthodox ingredients - including those common in Chaoshan cuisine such as pickled mustard stem. So OF COURSE I had to order up the namesake drink! Pickles coffee (咸菜咖啡) was made using a base of Yunnan (雲南) single origin coffee, and mixed with a mash up of lemon with pickled mustard stem, then a dose of syrup made with rock sugar (冰糖). Finally, the drink is garnished with a lemon leaf and a big piece of pickled mustard stem. One is meant to take a bite of the pickle along with a sip of coffee.

I'll be real honest here... I LOVE this coffee! The fragrance of lemon works very well with coffee, and the savory profile of the pickle - tempered with the syrup - just made this complex and outstanding. I'd love to have me another cuppa.

I was greedy and wanted another funky drink, so I asked for this Chaoshan salted plum Americano (潮汕咸梅美式). A lot less interesting, which was kinda surprising. Oh well...

Lunchtime came around and I decided to hit Wu Ji Fu Yuan (吴记富苑) - another place that everyone seems to rave about. But here's where my lack of homework got us into trouble. I didn't check the opening hours, and didn't realize that the flagship restaurant only opens at 5 p.m. - until we arrived and found no one there.

Funnily enough, they have a branch in Old Town, not far from our hotel... so that's where we ended up for lunch. As they lay out a bunch of dishes window-side for everyone to see, they took our order outside the restaurant before seating us upstairs.

Stir-fried white jute (炒麻叶) - a traditional vegetable in Chaoshan cuisine, with distinctive bitterness in the young shoots. Stir-fried with Puning bean sauce (普寧豆酱). Interesting that they squeezed the juices out of the leaves. I do like that it bears some textural similarities with sweet potato leaves, as both feel rough on the tongue.

Shelled Senhouse's mussels (薄殼米) - Senhouse's mussels (薄殼) is a delicacy beloved by people in this region, so naturally I had to order this...

...especially when they've already been taken out of their tiny shells so it took no effort to eat. Just scoop up a spoonful and shove it in your mouth.

Blanched prawns (白灼虾) - these were OK, but not exactly a local specialty.

Marinated goose liver (卤水鹅肝) - now THIS is classic Chaoshan cuisine. They do eat a lot of marinated goose, so the livers also get marinated in the same masterstock (卤水). This liver wasn't so soft and fluffy, but at these prices I ain't complainin'.

Braised pig trotters (卤猪手) - the flavors were fine, and the skin was pretty crunchy. The sauce was definitely more salty than I had expected, with a spicy kick.

Golden threadfin bream (紅衫魚) - having "fish rice (魚飯)" in this region is de rigueur. The fish had already been seasoned with salt, and for me the Puning bean sauce is almost never needed.

Deep-fried shrimp pancake (虾饼) and deep-fried prawn balls (虾枣) - the prawn balls had a very nice and fluffy texture. Love the sweet dipping sauce, of course.

The shrimp pancakes were made with many, many tiny little shrimp. When it comes to shrimp, it's usually the smaller the better for me. I want a higher shell-to-meat ratio.

Yes, I want them THIS small. Perfect.

This was a nice lunch, but we definitely ordered too much food. So... we decided to walk a little and explore Shantou Old Town (汕頭老城). We just love the architecture of the area, with most buildings built in the 1930s in an East-meets-West style. The relief details around the windows are especially nice.

This is arguably the city's main tourist area, and it was pretty crowded today. Many people lined up to snap photos of themselves in front of the historical site of Shantou Hotel (汕头旅社旧址) - the first hotel built in the city after the founding of the PRC.

It was VERY hot today, so I grabbed myself a cup of sugarcane juice (甘蔗汁) from a street cart. I don't drink enough of this stuff in Hong Kong.

Foursheets decided to go get herself a massage, so I trekked back east and paid a visit to the Shipaotai Park (石炮台公园). The Qilu Cannon Fortress (崎碌砲台) is the main structure inside the park, and it's surrounded by a moat. It was completed in the fifth year of Emperor Guangxu (光緒皇帝)'s reign, whih was 1879. So it's just a few years' shy of its 150th birthday.

One can enter the center of the fortress and climb to its upper level. The middle is now covered in grass.

The "cannons" are modern day replicas and no longer fire. But they still face the harbor meanancingly.

I still had time before cleaning up for dinner, so I went on two missions. I failed miserably at the first one, but I did make it to Xiti Renhe Bakery (西堤仁和饼家) where I bought an absolute shit ton of traditional baked goods like Chiuchow style flaky mooncakes. After lugging a few heavy bags back to the hotel, I discovered to my dismay that there was another branch within walking distance...

Foursheets loves Indian gooseberry juice (油柑汁) and took every opportunity to enjoy some while we were here. She knows how much I like the distinctive flavors and fragrance of wampee (黄皮), so she got me a bottle of wampee / Indian gooseberry juice. Pretty good! I definitely got the distinctive fragrance of wampee here. A refreshing drink before we leave for dinner.