Hainan Cuisine and Local Snacks
7 min readOrdering”Chinese food”when visiting Hainan International Tourism Island of China can be an overwhelming task.Chinese cuisine culture has a long history，and since ancient times there are eight traditional Chinese cuisines：Shandong cuisine，Sichuan cuisine，Fujian cuisine，Zhejiang cuisine，Hunan cuisine，Jiangsu cuisine，Cantonese cuisine and Anhui cuisine.During the time of theirvisiting Hainan International Tourism Island，visitors will soon discover that Hainan Island is the perfect place to savour all of these and even more.Hainan is attractive to many tourists not only for its beautiful natural scenery，but also for its excellent food.Food in Hainan，especially the seafood，is featured by its freshness，richness and reasonably low prices.Although celebrated for its super fresh and inexpensive seafood delights，Hainan is also noted for its”Four Best-known Dishes”-Wenchang Chicken，Jiaji Duck，Dongshan Mutton and Hele Crab.The special cuisine of Hainan，prepared with local products，is known far and wide，and deservedly so.Qiongzhou Coconut Milk Dish and Hainan Chicken in Coconut Milk have won gold and silver medals in culinary competitions.Other favorites and”must-try-dishes”include Qiongzhou Coconut Pot，Coconut Milk Chicken，Lin’gao Roast Porket，Qukou Seafood, Plum Blossom Trepang, Sea-ears, Lobster, Wanquan Carp, Mountain Beef, Salt Red Fish, Nada-flavor Meat, Li People Sweet Ale, Bamboo Shaft Rice, Five-color Glutinous Rice, Hainan Vermicelli, Hainan Chicken Rice, Hainan Glutinous Rice Dumpling, Hainan Chaffy Dish, Coconut Sticky Rice Cake and Dongshan Pancakes. Hainan is also the right choice for vegetarian dishes, Japanese, Korearand western cuisine and a wide assortment of tropical fruits including coconut, mango and litchi.
The seafood on this tropical island is superb. Some people from Beijing and other areas would fly to Hainan just for a day of seafood and they would say that their air tickets cost no money considering the prices they will pay for the same meal in their hometown. Next we would like to invite the tourists from domestic and abroad to enjoy the famous dishes in Hainan.
Wenchang Chicken: Wenchang is a city in Hainan. Therefore, from the name Wenchang Chicken, we can know it is the most famous dish here. The dish is known in and outside China. It is the first of the four famous dishes and one of the best kinds of chicken in China. In Hainan it is often said that it doesn’t become a party if there isn’t Wenchang Chicken.
The reason why Wenchang Chicken is special is that the key of this dish is the main material-the chicken. It is quite different from the traditional chicken which is raised by rice. It is a type of free-range chicken, fed with particular food and it is not large. This variety of small, fleshy chicken eat mainly the banyanseeds and get fatty, and then they are free range for around four months, put inthe place without any light for 50 days, and fed with the peanut cakes and bran, coconut meat silk, sweet potato, hot rice, etc. to become fatty. During the last two months before going to market, they are kept in coops above the ground.
There are many varieties of this dishes, such as Yeziru Chicken, Shu Chicken, Zhazi Chicken, etc. It is normally boiled in the water. Just cut the boiled ones into pieces, and eat them after dipping the pieces in a mixture of spices includingsauce, tangerine, garlic, chopped ginger and other spices. Smooth skin and tender chicken meat, nobody could forget the daintiness of Wenchang Chicken. The authentic Wenchang Chicken looks oily but if you have a taste, you will find that the bone is soft while the meat is very delicate. It tastes smooth but not oily, and it smells fragrant but not ordinary. It is so delicious that you will not get tired of it.
Dongshan Mutton: Dongshan Mutton is another one of the four famous foods in Hainan. With the same reason for calling the dish, Dongshan is a mountain in Wanning City, which is the birthplace of Dongshan Goats. Dongshan Mutton has been famous since the Song Dynasty, and was once listed as tribute to the court. The local Dongshan Goat is different from other breeds of goats. It is featured with oily black hair-the color is uniformly black. As to the mutton, it is featured with tender meat and thick soup. It tastes freshand is free of any unpleasant smell and you will find it’s so refreshing in your mouth. The delicious mutton can be prepared in a variety of ways such as frying, steaming, stewing, baking, braising, boiling and hot pot. It is widely available in any of Hainan hotels and restaurants.
The reason why Dongshan Mutton is so tender and delicious is that Dongshan goats are raised on the slopes of Dongshan peak in Wanning City. The mountain’s tender Zhegu tea-leaves are the favorite food of the goats. The mutton is aromatic and non-greasy. It tastes delicious and can be made into rich soup. The mutton when prepared in Hainan style is cooked with individual seasoning and ingredients. The finished course is appealingly red in color and savory to taste. It is so favorable that it is a must for Hainanese to treat their honorable guests.
Jiaji Duck: Jiaji Town is famous for the duck. It is in Qionghai City of Hainan Island. It is said that this kind of duck was introduced by the overseas Chinese from Malaysia 300 hundred years ago, so it is also known as “foreign duck”. Jiaji Duck, also called “Fan Duck”, is different from both the local duck and Beijing Duck. The duck has yellow and red hat, and the feather is black and white to be alternate. The method of the feeding of Fan Duck in the region of Qionghai City is extremely different from other places, so its chest is big, the skin is thin, the bone is soft, the meat is delicate and the fat is little. It feels fatty but you are not fed up with it, and its nourishment value is high, so people call the Fan Duck which are fed in the region of Jiaji “Jiaji Duck”.
The reason why Jiaji Duck is so popular: on one hand, the breeding way of them is special. They are raised along the Wanquan River in Jiaji Town, QionghaiCity. As they grow, firstly, the ducklings are fed with some tiny freshwater fish, shrimp or worms and cockroaches. Then about two months later, when the duckling feathers begin to come out, this special breed is kept in coops or cage-feeding narrowing the scope of its activities. And cramming feeding will start. The detailed raising method is that at the first beginning, mix cereal, rice, grain, sweet potato, chaff, bean cake and pollard together and operate a blender to mince the feeding stuff. And then squeeze the feed into small dumplings by hands, and cram the small edible dumplings into its mouth.20 days later, the beak and claws of the duck whiten, and fat penetrates deeply into flesh that tastes delicious. Ducks raised in this way are called the genuine Jiaji Duck. The Jiaji Duck is favored by local people for thin skin, little fat, tender and tasty flesh, soft and brittle bones, which is entitled one of the Four Fantastic Dishes in Hainan Province. Recently, over 100 thousand ducks have been raised per year. Natives in locality adopt duck breeding as a way to augment household incomes. They usually keep 100-200 heads of ducks, which are sold locally. On the other hand, the way of cooking Jiaji Duck is also particular. There are varieties of cooking methods for Jiaji Duck such as sliced boiled duck, stewed duck, pressed salted duck and roast duck. The best one is sliced boiled duck, through which the original taste is well kept. The traditional way to prepare the duck is to boil the duck in water, dice it into pieces, and dip it in a kind of seasoned mixture before eating. The seasoned mixture is made up of the original soup mixed with chopped ginger, chopped garlic, orange juice, salt, sugar, chili sauce and sesame oil. What distinguishes this kind of duck from others is that the fat between its skin and flesh has a special fragrance. Jiaji Duck is fatty but you won’t get fed up with it.
The folks of Hainan believe that the Jiaji Duck can make people strong and healthy. In winter they will stew the duck with Chinese caterpillar fungus to nourish the body. Stewed with the sea cucumber, it has even larger nourishing effect. Duck porridge made with duck and the sticky rice together can keep the stomach warm, increase the blood, and promote the body fluid.
Hele Crab: Hele Crab is another of the four famous foods in Hainan. Its birthplace is in the area of Hele Town in Wanning City.
Hele Crab’s paste is extraordinarily complete and full; its golden yellow ointment is glossy and oil bright, like the yelk of salted duck eggs, with the flavor greeting nostrils and abundant nutrition. Compared with the river crabs in the hinterland, Hele Crab has two characteristics. First, almost all of its ointment covers its back; the cream quality is strong, while the cream quality of the river crabs in the hinterland is lousy and soft, and is in form of pieces. Second, the meat quality of Hele Crab is more and better than the river crabs in the hinterland.
There are varieties of cooking methods of Hele Crab such as steaming, stewing, frying and baking. The best method is steaming, which can maintain the original taste of the crab. Together with the ready-made juice of ginger, garlic, vinegar, the crab tastes especially fresh and delicate.
