Revelation! Changfen (常粉) in Chaozhou (潮州)

Our first breakfast in Chaozhou was guozhi (粿汁), or kuay chap as it’s known in Teochew dialect. I had read about this one store that had appeared in some TV shows, and apparently they still make and dry the rice sheets themselves.

I actually didn’t know what guozhi was about, but the lady cooking and serving was quite patient with me. Basically you get a bowl of the dried rice sheets (looking like tortillas in the picture below) which are then cooked again in water like congee, and you get a separate plate of accompaniments, which you can choose from in the other metal bowls.

She recommended the la chang (腊肠) dried sausage, which she said was homemade. I also had the bean curd strips. It was a very tasty breakfast, but I’d have to say the guozhi felt very doughy and heavy for breakfast.

On the way to the guozhi eatery, we passed by not one, but two different changfen (常粉) restaurants. Netflix has a series called Flavorful Origins (风味原产地), and they have a whole season specializing in this region. One of the episodes is dedicated to changfen, so I really wanted to try that.

The changfen that I had eaten before has been in dimsum restaurants, and they’ve always been these kind of steamed rice tubes, with shrimp or char siu inside. I’d always found them kind of doughy and bland, so they were never my favorite to order for dimsum.

Nevertheless, I wanted to try this specialty in Chaozhou. So the next morning, I went back along the path to yesterday’s guozhi place in search of breakfast.

The first restaurant was this place, which not only offers the regular white rice changfen, it also has black rice changfen.

This place seemed quite promising, with families having breakfast inside.

The changfen are made in these little metal boxes, set over a steamer.

The metal boxes have these drawers, onto which the rice slurry is ladled, and then steamed.

I ordered the black rice changfen, which turned out this pretty purple color. It’s covered in this sesame sauce, laced with a kind of Maggi sauce. I could already tell that this changfen was very different from the thick tubes I’d had before in dimsum restaurants. The gossamer layers were so delicate, they bunched up and wrinkled up so.

Inside was a mixture of cabbage and egg. So delicious, and light!

This eatery doesn’t even show up in the maps app, but here’s its approximate location.

The changfen was light enough, that I felt confident I could have a second one. So I continued down the street and turned right. This second changfen place was just a few doors before the guozhi eatery from the previous day. Outside, there was this guy washing fresh cilantro. This next place tops their changfen with cilantro!

Here’s the exterior of the restaurant, with the metal box of drawers to the right.

Here’s the guy at work, with his box of drawers, stacks of plates at the ready, and also lots of eggs for the filling.

The other side, showing the steaming contraption. The rice slurry comes from the red bucket!

And here’s the changfen. Once again, the layers are so light and thin, that they kind of have a drapery effect. Again, it’s topped with the sesame sauce and the black Maggi-like sauce.

This second place also seemed quite popular. I didn’t realize until after finishing my changfen, that one can serve oneself tea with cups from the blue cabinet.