Qian (Guizhou) cuisine, with more than 250 popular dishes, is well-known in China. While many of its dishes are spicy, Qian cuisine is also diverse and complex, delicious and appetizing. With bright colors and beautiful contours, Qian dishes are also regarded as works of art. Every Qian-style dish can be found in the city of Guiyang.
Among the most popular local food and snacks are the following:
Bijie Dumplings
Originating in Bijie County, Guizhou Province, Bijie dumplings are a popular local food with a history of over 50 years. The fine white dumpling flour is made from top-grade glutinous rice. Stuffing is made from ham, sesame, peanuts, rock candy and lard. The dumplings are soft, fragrant and delicious; characterized by their small size, thin skin and thick stuffing.
Siwawa (Silk Doll)
Siwawa takes its name from various "shreds" wrapped up like newborn infants in thin rice-flour pancakes. Place a handful of shreds of vegetables like kelp, radish, bean sprouts, cucumber, zhe ergen (houtturynia), fried soybeans and pasted chili in the pancake. Then roll it up and dip in some hot and sour sauce. It'll strike you as spicy, sour, crisp, tasty, and refreshing.
Love Bean Curds
Love bean curds are a popular snack in Guiyang. They are small pieces of bean curd roasted on an oiled iron sheet or wire mesh over a chaff fire. When roasted to a brown color, oily and swollen, the curds are cut open and stuffed with a sauce of hot pepper, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, monosodium glutamate, chopped green scallions, mashed garlic and ginger. Eaten hot, they are spicy, tender, tasty and delicious.
The snack night market on Hequn Road is very popular. There you can find many hygienic Guizhou snacks at reasonable prices; such as barbecued meat, terrine noodles, siwawa and fried snails. By the way, don't forget to try the tasty Huaxi Wang beef noodles.
Recommended Restaurants
Siheyuan
Siheyuan restaurant, featuring large, red lanterns and brick-and-timberwork rural houses with tile roofs, offers authentic Guizhou dishes and first-class service to customers from home and abroad.
Add: 79 West Qianling Road, Guiyang, Guizhou
Tel: (0851) 6825419
Guiyang Fumanlou
Fumanlou restaurant is in Maotai Mansion on the bustling Cinanmen Road of Guiyang. The restaurant can be reached via bus numbers 5, 6, 7, 23, 64 or 82, and is less than 1 kilometer from the railway station.
Add: Maotai Mansion, Cinanmen Road, Guiyang, Guizhou
Tel: (0851) 5954999, 5954666
Zongjiang Laochuancai
Zongjiang Laochuancai restaurant is in Meitan Mansion on the Beijing Road in Guiyang. It's decorated uniquely and luxuriously, and offers authentic Sichuan-Chongqing dishes, including Chongqing hot pot, as well as other famous dishes, catering to a wide range of tastes.
Add: Meitan Mansion, 202 Beijing Road, Guiyang, Guizhou
Tel: (0851) 6818028, 6871849
Dazhaimen
Decorated in a style reflecting rural northeast China, Dazhaimen restaurant offers dishes of Chuan (Sichuan), Qian (Guizhou) and Yue (Cantonese) cuisines. The restaurant can be reached via bus numbers 72, 81, 84, 95 or 108.
Add: 10 Xinhua Road, Guiyang, Guizhou
Tel: (0851) 5504061
