Haikou Trip - Local Night Market and Street Food

We were looking for authentic Hainanese food and chanced upon a street which was lined with shops and street hawkers on both sides.

Armed with my list of Hainanese food to eat, I selected a small eatery that sells traditional Hainanese noodles (海南著名地方风味小吃抱罗粉 RMB8) and coconut milk dessert (海南清补凉 RMB8).

It was our first time tasting these food. The noodles (bee hoon) were yummy.... the thick gooey gravy tastes similar to our Singapore Hainanese beef noodle. There are beef, mutton and roasted pork to choose from, but only pork was available that evening. I didn't like the dessert as the coconut milk was too diluted, too many ingredients and too sweet. :P

As we were walking back to our hotel, we discovered many snacks which we had never seen before. Curious we bought small portions to taste and chatted with the friendly hawkers. My hubby had a good practice with his dialect.

dried foodstuff  

We bought some food for takeaway to our hotel. There were half a salt baked spring chicken (RMB6) and 4 quail eggs(RMB1 for 4); mini pineapple (RMB5 each); coconut roll (RMB5 for a slice) and one MacDonald's Darjeeling blended tea (RMB28 - can you believe this!? And the open-24-hours place was packed with customers!).

It was half past six in the evening and this local market was bustling with people. The street vendors were doing a brisk business as locals stopped by to buy vegetables, live seafood, meat or some ready-cooked food for dinner.

local zichar and street food

It is interesting to know that we could buy the ingredients and then popped into a nearby restaurant to request them to cook a meal at a nominal fee.

There were several fruit stalls selling a wide variety of fruits. I was fascinated with the huge mangoes. I bought one mango which weighed slightly more than 2 kg for only RMB22 from an elderly street hawker. The mango was so juicy and sweet. Reminded myself to buy a crate back home on our last day. hahaha....