China has so many amazing dishes to choose from but here are my favourite 5 from Yidu.
Hotpot / Huo Guo
There are different styles of hotpot but what makes the difference is the soup base. As a chili flake myself, my go to soup base is a spicy soup. There are milder options, for example, tomato soup, mushroom soup, sour fish soup, pork belly and chicken soup.
Wait for the soup to boil, then add what you want to the pot. Depending on what kind of food you put in, a delicious meal would be ready within seconds or minutes.
Thin sliced lamb or beef only takes 30 seconds to boil, tripe even faster, 15 seconds it's done. Vegetables sliced into a larger piece will take slightly longer to cook, but more or less within 3-5 minutes. One of my favourite dishes is duck's blood, you can check if it's fully cooked by breaking it up to see if the inside has changed colour, if it has, then its ready to eat.
I also like flower sausages, which are sliced on one end, when boiled it will open like a flower. These sausages are a mix of crispy skin and tender meat inside. You couldn't ask for anything better. Hotpot isn't just meat, we put various vegetables in hotpot too! Potatoes, winter melon, seaweed, beansprouts, mushrooms, all sorts of tofu, noodles too.
My favourite is frozen tofu. After the tofu is frozen, there will be lots of holes formed inside the tofu cubes. These holes are good at sucking the soup up and the flavour. My advice is do not eat it whole, it might burn the roof of your mouth.
Cold noodles
In summer, some places in China can be very hot and sweaty, 40 degrees throughout a week. If you cannot cope with the heat like me, cold noodles is your best choice for breakfast. Hint in the name, these noodles are served cold.
It's not just plain noodles, its well seasoned with different kinds of sauce, tahini, vinegar, soy sauce, chili oil, garlic water and usually spring onion sprinkled on top. Most of the restaurants will provide a selection of pickles, such as parsnip, soya beans, sea weed and cow pea. They are free, isn't that lovely. Add what you fancy to your cold noodles and make it your own styles.
Read the rest at Top 5 dishes to try in Yidu, China (thetraveler.org)
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