More traveling eats! We’re still got more to talk about the absolutely marvelous food we had on our trip to Chaoshan 潮汕 area of Guangdong 廣東. Oh dear readers, it was so fabulously food fulfilling! It’s always so lovely to find yourself in a place where everything you eat is delicious, amirite!?
So this post is about the Chaoshan speciality, Raw Pickled Seafood 潮汕生腌海鲜. Fresh, fresh seafood pickled in soy sauce, wine and aromatics is a rare delight. It’s a straightforward process to make, requiring only soy sauce, aromatics, a touch of oil and a bit of time. The only and important! trick to raw pickled seafood is that the seafood has to be super duper fresh.
Sadly in Hong Kong this kind of food is nowhere to be had. I think it’s not allowed. Which is understandable, cuz as I said the seafood has to be damn fresh or else. But shucks, man, it’s still 😔.
Which is why we were in a taxi cruising the night streets in Shantou 汕頭, the first city of Chaoshan area on our trip, hubby’s work (the reason for the trip) done for the day. We asked the nice and chatty taxi driver if there were still any restaurants serving raw pickled seafood open. He chuckled and said yes of course there were (yah!). He drove us to what he promised was one of the best in the city, 長平胖姐. (No official english name, but the translation is “Changping Fat Sister. Cute, eh?”)
Walking in to the front part of the restaurant was a jaw dropping experience. There was a banquet of offerings on display for our choice: gorgeous, gleaming, pickled raw seafood and more, much more. Oh the joy! Counterwise from top left: raw pickled mantis shrimp, raw pickled oysters, raw pickled lobster and raw pickled crab.
Not just pickled seafood but all kinds of Chaoshan seafood! On offer here is famous “Chaoshan fish rice” 潮汕魚飯. This dish evolved from the old times when fishing boats went out to sea for lengthy times. They didn’t have rice with them but rather subsisted completely on the fish that they caught, thus the reason for calling this fish dish “fish rice”. Using the smaller fish that wouldn’t sell, they would brine the fish briefly in sea water, then poach them whole, guts and scales intact. The fish were then allowed to air dry.
Using this method produces sweet, juicy fish meat as all the super fresh fish flavors are retained due to the fish cooked being intact, no broken skin. Genius method, amirite! To eat first peel the skin, scales and all. It should come off quite easily in one go. Then you can gobble up all the sea sweet white flesh to your heart’s content.
Oooo…clockwise from top right: cooked and marinated chicken feet, fishcake, dried and marinated small shrimp, stirfried veggies, etc. So much to choose from!
Neverending seafood! Not totally sure what some of these are since we didn’t try these. My best guess from top left clockwise: three pots of conch? heaped high with both fresh and dried chilies and szechuan pepper (not sure how this is eaten), boiled conch in shell, steamed fish. So many choices!!
We did finally decide, tho it was super hard with all the delectable things on display. I mean, dude, how does one decide between delicious and more delicious? After a bit of dithering we finally were able to leave the shop and head back to our hotel, laden with bags and bags of raw pickled seafood. Midnight feast time!
Okay, now for our yummilicious loot in detail. Back at the hotel we spread it all out on a table. Oooo, just look at this, does not your mouth just drool at the sight of this? Raw pickled sea snails 腌花螺 and raw pickled cockles 腌血蚶 swim in the sweet yet savory pickling marinade of soy sauce, vinegar, wine, sugar, cilantro, chilies and garlic.
We used a toothpick to dig the chewy, garlicky flavor soaked meat from the snails while the cockles were opened already. Just needed to pluck out the plump meat inside.
Note that the pickling marinade is the same for all seafood. However the time of pickling varies depending on the seafood. Some are only pickled for a short time, others are pickled overnight.
This is the star of this pickled show, the raw pickled crab 腌螃蟹. This is my favorite, favorite, favorite!! Using the same lovely marinade described above, the crab is pickled overnight to soak it all in. The result? Crab meat turns translucent and slightly sticky, soaked and flavored through now with the marinade. And the roe! Can you see that beautiful, beautiful red roe? OMG so effing good!
Raw marinated oysters, fresh fresh plump oyster-y yumminess slipping down your throat.
This dish was unusual. A perfect kind of appetizer/snack type of food. Tiny shrimps marinated in two different flavors, then dried out so that the flavors stay soaked up in the wee shrimps. Chewy, shrimpy, flavorful, it was the perfect textural contrast to the softness of the pickled seafood.
Last but not least, another one of my pickled favorites, the raw pickled shrimp 生醃蝦. In shell shrimp are deveined then pickled for a short time. The pickled shrimp meat transforms into the most delicious gelatinous yet chewy texture with the most sea sweet taste. O, tis so good, defo my fav along with crab.
Seafood lovers, don’t forgot to suck all that delectable guck from the head of the shrimps!
Oh, I almost forgot. This is an overlooked part of the proper, authentic Chaoshan raw pickled seafood feast. You MUST have it with a bowl or two of plain congee 白粥. At first thought it seems like an odd and unnecessary part of a seafood feast, amirite?
But once you’ve tried it you will quickly understand the absolute importance of the pure simple white rice porridge to the mix. The bland creaminess provides the perfect counterpoint and balance to the decadence of the pickled seafood. It is the other half, the ying to the yang.
Oh how we feasted that night! It was mega yummilicious! We later had another go at raw pickled seafood in Chaozhou 潮州, the second Chaoshan area city that we visited but, while it was very good, it wasn’t as good as the midnight feast we had in our hotel room that night. I think it’s because the city of Shantou is right next to the sea. Freshness is bestness, amirite?!
If you ever get a chance to go to Shantou or Chaozhou, or any of the other cities of the Chaoshan area, and you’re a seafood lover, do please try out the raw pickled seafood. I promise it’s an experience that you won’t forget. I know we haven’t and are already trying to find excuses to go back and have some more of that seafood amazingness!
