Hakka cuisine

Shenzhen’s sizeable population of Hakka people have added their own unique dishes and flavors to the region. Hakka food is rustic and straightforward, making extensive use of pork, tofu, soy sauce and rice. Dishes are salty, fragrant, and strong-flavored without being spicy.

Hakka dishes to try

Stuffed Tofu 酿豆腐

One of the most famous Hakka dishes, square-shaped “dumplings” of tofu are stuffed with a filling of pork, mushrooms or shrimp, then braised in a rich sauce. The dish is said to derive from the Hakka people’s migration from northern regions to the South. Finding no flour to make dumplings, they had to use tofu instead.

Poon Choi 盆菜

A festival dish once enjoyed in Guangdong’s fortified Hakka villages and residences, this is a casserole-like feast usually cooked in a huge pot, and comprised of multiple layers of meats, seafood and vegetables. Generally reserved for special occasions, the biggest versions can feed dozens of people at once.

Chicken Stuffed in Pork Tripe 猪肚包鸡

This hotpot-style treat consists of a whole chicken squeezed into a pig stomach, boiled, then sliced up and served in a rich, peppery soup. Ingredients like vegetables can be dipped in the soup the same way as a Sichuan-style hotpot.

Traditional vegetarian cuisine

China’s vegetarian tradition goes back more than a millennium to the Taoist and Buddhist philosophers — including Confucius himself — who abstained from eating animals. But with an equally long history of poverty and famine, eating meat is today a sign of status and many Chinese regard vegetarianism as a Western concept.

In Shenzhen, you can try vegetarian fare in Luohu District at Yunlaiju Vegetarian, which serves delicious mockmeat dishes. You’ll see the occasional monk popping in for a bite.

Staples rice is the primary staple of southern cuisine. Sparkling paddy fields glitter across the South — the humid climate, plentiful rainfall and well-irrigated land mean that rice has been farmed here since the Chinese first populated the region during the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.–A.D. 220).