Meizhou Eats: Breakfast
My first morning in Meizhou, I already tried the so-called Meizhou Hakka specialties of yan mian (腌面 “marinated noodles“) and san di ji soup (三及第) in the hotel breakfast. But to be honest they weren’t that tasty, and I figured I needed to head out to the streets to try them again, in my second and final morning in town.
So I headed out from the hotel in search of breakfast, mindful that I had a 9:30am pick up to take me south to an ancestral village and then to Chaozhou.
I passed by a couple possibilities, but they didn’t seem to offer everything I was looking for. I ended up heading for an eatery called Lin Family Breakfast (林家早餐), because I heard it was near a place that sold bamboo rice dumplings (笋粄 sun3 ban3).
The path took me along this street full of activity in the morning.
There was a wet market on one side.
Along this road, I spied a tray full of sun ban! I bought two.
Next to that tray was a steamer cabinet full of cakes made of rice, including these red ones! I bought one of each: red, brown, and white to try.
Just around the corner from this maker of rice cakes and dumplings, turning left…
…was Lin Family Breakfast 林家早餐。
Inside I saw a bunch of people, including what looked like local high school students, having breakfast here. This was a good sign!
A waitress took my order for the yan mian 腌面, and then followed up immediately with what soup I wanted with it. I guess there are a few different varieties of soups, but I of course chose the san di ji soup (三及第).
And here are my two dishes for breakfast. Together they cost just 10 RMB (US$1.42).
The noodles I thought were quite tasty this time. You mix them with some sauce from the bottom.
The bowl from the hotel looked about the same, but perhaps a bit more yellow.
The big difference was the san di ji soup (三及第). This one was quite red, full of meat innards, and fresh, green wolfberry (goji berry) leaves. I’m not super keen on those innards, but the soup was very flavorful!
Compare this soup with the pale, bland version from the caudron in the hotel buffet. I’m so glad I came here to give these two dishes another try!
On my way back to the hotel, I passed by the seller of the cakes and dumplings made from rice, and saw that they were sold out of the dumplings, and also the red version of the cakes. Thank goodness I bought them when I did!
I saw some other interesting stalls on my way back, including this one with stuffed tofu (酿豆腐) and stuffed bitter melon (酿苦瓜). We are really in Hakka country here!
I decided to eat my rice things back in the hotel breakfast room, because that way I could eat them properly on a plate with real utensils. The sun ban (笋粄) came with this tiny ziploc bag of spices.
I sprinkled the seasoning on top like so, because I saw it this way in a picture.
Inside was, predictably, stuffed with bamboo shoots, but also black fungus 黑木耳.
Then I had my three cakes made from rice, fa gao (发糕). The brown one is made from brown sugar, the white one is made from white sugar, so these definitely had different flavors. The red one I think is just red food coloring, but the color might have made me imagine that it tasted more “red” or berry like…
The three rice cakes and the two bamboo shoot dumplings cost just 8.50 RMB (US$1.20).
I finished my breakfast with a packet of Nescafe instant coffee from the buffet.
A nice ending, to a wonderful breakast from the street!
Here’s the location of the Lin Family Breakfast 林家早餐. The seller of rice things is around the corner on the road running east to west, Yihua Road 怡华路.
