I enjoyed so much going for food to this street and it offers so many snacks that you won’t look for a real dinner afterwards. The wide range of food is truly astonishing and for every kind of taste, from light to spicy, healthy to unhealthy, salty to sweet, dreamed aroma to stinky and “normal” to weird.
If you are adventurous you’ll want to try a bit of everything, but trust me that is a really difficult task, so if possible try to get some friend or friends to join you since there are several servings which you won’t be able to finish and at least myself, I really don’t like wasting food.
How to get there? It has a subway station right at the south entrance on line 6 or line 8 (north) so convenient.
1. Durian & cheese bread
Durian is the famous stinky fruit, to be honest if you have it any other way than raw it doesn’t feel that stinky. In my opinion, there are much better ways to eat Durian but I had to try this one. Unless you really like cheese you may consider missing it, the serving is quite big and it took a lot of space that I could have saved for other dishes I missed.
2. Deep fried scorpion, starfish, sea horse, worms and spiders
This isn’t really something that many locals have, but if it is there then it is because there is some demand. I only tried the small scorpions and I’m pretty sure all the other ones should taste the same, crispy, salty and a bit of oil flavor.
3. Chou doufu (臭豆腐) Stinky tofu.
Well, it is stinky, you’ll notice when you walk nearby. I have to say I actually enjoyed this dish a lot although it does gives you a kick while having it. I prefer the white one instead of the black one. It comes with scallions, chili oil and potatoes in some gravy. Don’t be so afraid of it, you might actually like it.
4. Grilled skewers (Calamari, octopus, duck tripe, …)
Most pan fried dishes will taste similar as they all use the same spice mix, it is salty and a bit spicy. If you try one it is almost the same as if you tried them all but with a different kind of meat, of course there are a few that are quite different like the ones made of duck tripe.
6. Sichuan style Hot pot skewers
Again a lot of different kind of meats on a stick that are dipped and boiled on a hot spicy soup (also a non spicy option is available), although they usually have much more variety than the grilled skewers. You can try fish balls, sausages, duck or pork tripe, pork meatballs, squid, shrimp, mushrooms, …
7. Chinese takoyaki
Although the name is Japanese, in china this is also a pretty popular dish. If you have not tried it before then you should. It is a grilled seasoned batter mixed with squid or some other meat, topped with sauces and a mix of different flakes depending on where you have them.
8. Crab dumpling
This version was not a good one, soup dumplings are way better. Still, it could have been bad luck with the place I chose, so here it is if you want to try it yourself or go ahead and skip this one place.
9. Pork feet
There are different variations of how pork feet could be prepared but the best I tried is called Hong Shao Rou or red braised pork. It has a sweet sauce and really soft texture so it just melts in your mouth. You can find pork belly or pork feet. I was not able to try the ones on the picture above because I couldn’t eat anymore that day and those were big, still I would give them a try another time.
10. Dang Tat (Egg tart)
This baked sweet treat is really good, go ahead and enter any bakery you can find and give a try to the very different baked options of what we have in America. This egg tart has actually some influence from Portugal and is really popular on southern provinces.
I definitely have not gone through everything that you can possibly find here, you’ll have to walk around and explore every store that catches your attention. For example, there is a café for cat lovers (filled with cats), tea houses or tea to go, candy stores where you can have free samples and many more. You will want to give at least 2 hours to walk through this street.
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