Susan Blumberg-Kason

  • Home
  • Bio
  • Books
    • Good Chinese Wife
    • Hong Kong Noir
    • Instructions for Chinese Women and Girls
  • Articles
  • Press
  • Blog
  • Contact
    • Book Group Request

Wuhan street food

February 21, 2011 By Susan Blumberg-Kason 3 Comments

Wuhan street food

Last week I boiled up some tang yuan for the 15th day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, otherwise known as the Lantern Festival.

I meant to post something about tang yuan, or gooey chewy rice flour balls filled with red bean, black sesame, or peanut paste. But I ducked out the night of the Lantern Festival to attend Amy Chua’s reading and didn’t have time to write about this delicious dessert I first sampled in China many years ago.

Tang yuan isn’t very exciting to look at (if you’ve seen one white rice ball, you’ve seen them all), but if you click on this link, you can view them for yourself.

Instead, I’ve posted this photo of two delicious dishes central to Wuhan street food.

Why Wuhan?

Well, I have vivid memories eating tang yuan while staying with my former in-laws out in Hubei province. Wuhan was the closest city–albeit two hours away–from their home.

On trips into Wuhan, I couldn’t wait to dig into the dish on the right, re gan mian, or hot dry noodles. The hearty noodles are mixed with soy sauce, chopped chives, pickled vegetables, sesame paste, and chili oil. I’ve never found these noodles outside Wuhan.

The other dish famous to Wuhan is dou pi, shown on the plate on the left (the bowl in the back looks like a type of rice porridge, or congee). Dou pi is made from a thin bean paste skin, stuffed with sticky rice and minced beef.

I once went to a modest restaurant the size of a small gymnasium where the Chairman himself was known to indulge in this local delicacy–even though he once said that revolution is not a dinner party.


Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Asian Food and Drinks, China, My Family's Travels

Comments

  1. Lewis Liu says

    March 3, 2011 at 8:13 pm

    I love this post!

    I dream, dream, dream of eating Wuhan street food again. The breakfasts with re-gan-mian. The tan-yuan with rice wine. The food of my childhood.

    Sadly I’m stuck in silly old rainy England right now without any of those!

    Sigh…

    Lewis

    Reply
    • Susan Blumberg-Kason says

      March 3, 2011 at 11:40 pm

      Thank you so much, Lewis!! I am stuck in the US and have never found re gan mian or dou pi. I can buy tang yuan in the grocery store, thank goodness. Maybe one day Wuhan cuisine will become as popular as Hunan or Sichuan restaurants outside of China! We can only hope…

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Tweets that mention Wuhan street food « Susan Blumberg-Kason -- Topsy.com says:
    February 22, 2011 at 2:28 pm

    […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Wendy Tokunaga, Jocelyn Eikenburg. Jocelyn Eikenburg said: Yum! Wuhan #China Street Food (by @Susan_BK) http://bit.ly/g40ojH […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

 

Recent Stories

Book Deal News!

Book Review: China Hand by Scott Spacek

Book Review of Anne Salton Eisen’s Pillar of Salt

Copyright © 2023 Susan Blumberg-Kason · Design: Ilsa Brink

 

Loading Comments...