Chaozhou: Late Night Eats, and Congee x 3

One of the things I loved about Chaozhou was just how late people eat!

Our first evening after arriving, we went in search of lu’e (卤鹅), braised goose, one of the specialties of the Chaoshan region. I had that there was a well-known lu’e place on Xima Road (西马路), but there was a bit of a wait there, and the line didn’t seem very well-managed. Well, just around the corner were a few other lu’e places, and I wonder if they’re probably all good quality places. Things were still bustling around 8pm here…

The place we chose was the style where you order in the front,…

…and then you find your own table to eat at.

We of course got the lu’e, which was savory and succulent!

Also a plate of stir-fried morning glory (空心菜), which was cooked with the fermented yellow beans - another signature of Chaoshan cuisine, according to the Netflix series Flavorful Origins!

Rice was self-serve. It seemed most people ate it with congee, which was readily available. My friend waited for the regular rice to come out, but it was continuously “almost ready.”

My friend also ordered a bowl of beef balls, which is another typical dish of the region, though perhaps not necessarily this lu’e store.

The next evening, we had congee twice, and even later. This first restaurant was at a clay pot congee place, where they cook the ingredients in the congee, to make it all more flavorful. This was around 9:45pm.

Here we got shrimp and oysters congee.

And a plate of spinach, again with the little yellow beans.

After that meal, my friend wanted to go for drinks. There oddly seemed to be many coffee shops open very late, but only one place for alcoholic drinks in Chaozhou… where you could also order coffee. In fact, the name was 杵臼山COFFEE·WHISKY (chujiushan)! I liked that the late night scene is not centered around alcohol. My theory is that Chaozhou people actually drink coffee late at night, to fuel even later night eating adventures!

This place was pretty nice; I had a drink that was kind of like a Moscow Mule.

After our drinks, we came to our final stop of the evening - at 12:30am! This place splayed onto the sidewalk was called 枫春白粥 (fengchun white congee). Yes, another place with congee!

Here, the system is that you point at what you want in a big buffet, and they ask how many portions you want.

Seriously a lot of variety here!

You can also order some dishes to be freshly cooked.

And everything is eaten with plain congee. This is free!

Ah yes, and here’s the dishwashing station!

Here was our midnight feast. If I remember correctly, the clams were cooked-to-order.

Here was the scene, still busy when we left at 1:10am!

The name of the place, Fengchun White Congee, is so called because it’s near the Fengchun Market. The taxi driver who took us there told us that starting at 1am, there are stalls at the market cooking the freshly caught fish. We went in search of these stalls, but couldn’t find them.