Fujian, a coastal province in the Southeast corner of China, north of Guangdong (Canton). We visited the two major cities in Fujian last October, Xiamen and Fuzhou where my wife grew up. Both are coastal cities, so the top priority for foodies would be seafood.
In Xiamen, after some careful research online through hundreds of reviews and photos, I picked 小眼镜大排档(Little Glasses’ Seafood Cafe) named after the owner who wears glasses. They have two locations in the city and we picked the on in the center of Xiamen, in a residential area. If a restaurant can stay in good business in a residential area, it has to be good.
Once you are seated in the restaurant, a waiter will walk you to the “pick you seafood” counter where live seafood can be selected based on your interests. The waiter will suggest the traditional ways to prepare them, and you can ask for special flavors as well.
We ordered seven kind of seafood, shrimps, clams and fish. Either steamed or stir fried with savory sauce. With some pancake for the kids and rice, the total is about 250 YUAN (~$40 USD) without any alcohol. Over all simple flavor which doesn’t over power the fresh seafood taste.
After a couple of days in Xiamen, we took the train to Fuzhou. Now my wife is on her home turf, she wanted to show off her cooking skills 🙂
We went to the open air market where you can find fresh seafood, meats, vegetables and spices all in one trip. The fresh seafood are very tempting, especially the once that you cannot find in the US. Look at how how big those giant tiger prawns are! Two of them can cover my whole hand and only cost about 30 YUAN ($4.50 USD) each.
Over all, we spent about 180 YUAN on the four kinds of shrimp and two kinds of clam, including the so call bloody clam as it contains a drop of red juicy inside.
My wife spent about an hour to cook the dinner. Yes, one hour, that’s how good she is with seafood cooking. The fresh shrimps are just so good, naturally mildly sweet and firm because they are fresh (unlike those frozen shrimps you buy in super market which are bit flaky or powdery).
So either eat out or DIY if you can, do some research or make some local friends, you can sure find good quality seafood with good price.
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