Chaoshan Raw Pickled Seafood 潮汕生腌海鲜

More traveling eats!  We’re still got more to talk about the absolutely marvelous food we had on our trip to Chaoshan 潮汕 area of Guangdong 廣東.  Oh dear readers, it was so fabulously food fulfilling!  It’s always so lovely to find yourself in a place where everything you eat is delicious, amirite!?

Pssst...check out our other traveling eats posts from this trip, Shantou Street Food 汕頭街頭美食 and Chaoshan Beef Hotpot 潮汕牛肉火鍋.

So this post is about the Chaoshan speciality, Raw Pickled Seafood 潮汕生腌海鲜.  Fresh, fresh seafood pickled in soy sauce, wine and aromatics is a rare delight.  It’s a straightforward process to make, requiring only soy sauce, aromatics, a touch of oil and a bit of time.  The only and important! trick to raw pickled seafood is that the seafood has to be super duper fresh.

We had heard about the famous Chaoshan raw pickled seafood of course.  Oh, how I had drooled away when watching the first season of Flavorful Origins documentary series featuring Chaoshan cuisine.  Omgoshdarnnitall!!  Pickled crabs!  Pickled shrimps!  Pickled every kind of shellfish!  So amazing the raw pickled seafood of Chaoshan!  

Chocolate Lava Mooncake 巧克力流心月餅

Oh chocolate, oh chocolate, how much do I love thee, let me count the ways...

So many ways amirite, fellow chocolate lovers?!  I love chocolate in everything, be it sweet or savory.  Nom, nom...can never get enough of that dark chocolately goodness...  So it was that this year for Mid Autumn Festival 中秋節 I decided that we needed some chocolate to celebrate the moon!

Thus was the birth of a new styled mooncake, a Chocolate Lava Mooncake 巧克力流心月餅, a concoction of moist chocolate flavored filling with a secret heart of molten chocolate ganache, all wrapped in a tender golden skin.  Wasn't too sure how it would turn out, with the lava center and all, but OMgosh it was fantastic.  We were tickled pink with this chocolatey mooncake!  And the center, it was all melty!  Yeah chocolate chocolate!!

Chaoshan Crab Congee 潮汕砂锅粥

Oh, so pretty, amirite?!  We've had lovely, lovely seafood on our minds after our recent trip to Chaoshan 潮汕 where we feasted, among other things, on marinated raw seafood of all kinds, omgosh, sooo good.  (We're still writing that amazing experience up so stay tuned.)  So yummilicious seafood been on our minds alot lately.  

Inspired by our trip and the wonderful food consumed we made this simple congee that is a delectable treat for all seafood lovers.  Just fresh crab and some rice and you're on your way to this authentic super duper Chaoshan Crab Congee 潮汕砂锅粥!

How to Eat Fresh Lotus Seeds 新鮮蓮子

Dear readers, can you guess what this is?  An alien landscape, you say?  Why yes, it does look quite like the weirdly pocked surface of some far off, mysterious planet.  With a gleaming round space pod just landed in the middle of the bumpy green landscape.  

As you've undoubtedly guessed already, this is not at all a glimpse of a far off world .  Rather this is the image of something close at hand, a rather common earth occurrence, its humble beauty perhaps taken for granted.  Tis the closeup of the seed pod of the wonderfully multipurposed lotus flower.  We recently got to try the fresh lotus seed, plucked straight from the pod, for the first time.  Man-oh, it was divine!  Seriously, I would have never guessed that it was so good. 

Pork Floss Cheung Fun 肉鬆腸粉

We’ve made this little dim sum treat before, once using fresh shrimp fillling and once using the dried shrimp and spring onions.  This version is a cheung fun rice roll twist that I discovered online and had to try as I love, love, love Chinese dried pork floss.  Oh it was as good as I hoped it would be, that deliciously intense meaty filling packed the slightest crunch, contrasting wonderfully with the slippery rice sheet wrapping.

These Pork Floss Cheung Fun rice rolls 肉鬆腸粉 are simple to make once you get the trick of making the rather delicate rice wrapping.  But no worries, we’ll show you how to do it!

Shantou Street Food 汕頭街頭美食

More food adventures from our recent trip to the Chaoshan area!  The first night of our trip we arrived in Shantou 汕頭*.  Due to a typhoon affecting the area our speed rail trip was longer than expected.  Arriving, we were tired and hangry as heck!  Luckily we spotted the most gorgeous sight a hungry traveler can see, the gleam of food trucks serving up local street food lighting up the night!  

It was pretty late and the city streets were quiet.  But the crossroads where we spotted parked food trucks was bustling with action.  Most late night food seekers zipped over on scooters while a few drove cars.  We joined in the fun, circling the trucks, sniffing the air, checking out all the food on offer.  Oh man, everything smelled and looked so good!  In no time at all we were on our way back to the hotel, loaded down with yummilicious bags of Shantou street food!!

*Note: The Chaoshan area 潮汕 is located in the province of Guangdong.  Chaoshan area consists of the cities of Chaozhou 潮州, Jieyang 揭阳 and Shantou 汕頭.  For this trip we went first to Shantou and then to Chaozhou.

Chaoshan Beef Hotpot 潮汕牛肉火鍋

Okay, this one was a most pleasant surprise.  We took a trip to Chaoshan 潮汕 and were treated to the local food star the Chaoshan beef hotpot 潮汕牛肉火鍋.  When I first heard about this I have to admit that I rolled my eyes a bit.  Whatever.  I’ve had plenty of beef in hotpots before.  Delicious but how ‘special’ could a beef hot pot be?  

Well, I was totally sucker punched in this one.  We sat down to a Chaoshan style all beef hotpot and it was the most delicious beef hotpot we’ve ever had!!!  I had never even dreamed that beef could be so interestingly yummilicious, each beef cut brimming with flavor and its own unique texture.  It was a powerful food experience, one that I’ll never forget and am already longing to taste again.

Eight Treasures Winter Melon Soup 八寶冬瓜盅

This spectacular traditional Chinese soup Eight Treasures Winter Melon Soup 八寶冬瓜盅 is not only beautiful and decadently delicious but also most excellent for relieving of the summer heat.  The soup is made using all parts of the winter melon: the flesh as an ingredient in the soup and the hollowed out melon itself as the soup 'tureen'.  

With a large sized winter melon this soup makes for a knock your socks off presentation, soup served in a carved and hollowed out melon 'tureen', so cool!  For the home version you can nowadays find the mini winter melon at markets.  We used these to make individual soup tureens of winter melon soup.

Chinese Preserved Plum Lime Soda 話梅檸檬水

This homemade concoction has to be one of the most refreshing drinks ever!  One long slurp of this Chinese Preserved Plum Lime Soda 話梅檸檬水 and you'll be sighing out a long happy ahhhhhh...  It's sooo hot here in HK, endlessly hot, and I'll bet it's like that everywhere these days.  So try out this easy to make traditional southern Chinese summer drink and slough off some of that heat!

Butterfly Pea Flower Drink 蝴蝶豌豆花茶

Goshdarnnit, it's been so hot these days.  Not only in HK but everywhere...sigh.  No fear, HK Cookery to the rescue, here's a refreshing and beautiful drink for you to revitalize your body from the heat!

Are you not tempted?  Isn't this Butterfly Pea Flower Drink 蝴蝶豌豆花茶 just the most sublime color?  Just looking at it makes you feel a bit cooler, no?  This totally natural color is from the amazing butterfly pea flower 蝴蝶豌豆花.  This little blue flower provides color, is packed with antioxidants and is said to work as a mood enhancer, busting the stress and anxiety right outta your life.