Hainan Delicacies: Danzhou Rice Noodles

Danzhou noodle

When I was back in Hainan, I stayed in Haikou for a few days. Every morning, I was spoilt for choice when it comes to breakfast. When it comes to the popular Hainan rice noodles, there are seven versions. That solve my breakfast problem for the whole week! 😄

Danzhou noodle

In Danzhou (located on the northwest of Hainan), the residents are used to a bowl of Danzhou milan (Danzhou rice noodles) plus a bowl of piping hot pig blood and lung soup for breakfast.

I chanced upon this quaint Danzhou restaurant with its wide range of traditional Danzhou and Hainan delicacies. Most of the food were alien to me. But after tasting some of them, I began to like these rare Danzhou delicacies.

Diners could find traditional Hainan rice dumplings, jin dei (fried rice balls with peanut filling) and yi buah here too.

Danzhou noodle

Making the traditional Danzhou rice noodles is a laborious task. First, the rice grains are soaked for a day and ground into a slurry. It is passed through a specially made funnel, creating strings of snowy white rice noodles which are cooked immediately in a pot of boiling water. The cooked noodles are scooped up and placed into a basin of cold water.

The rice noodles are eaten cold with thinly sliced beef or pork, dried shrimps, fried peanuts, bean sprouts, diced celery,  spring onions and mixed well with their special seasoning, vinegar and fried shallot oil. The noodle dish smells aromatic and is appetizing with a sweet and sour taste.

Pig blood and lung soup

The bowl of pig blood and lung soup has pieces of pork ribs, blood curds, lung, intestines and radish double boiled together. It's flavorful and I couldn't help buying one dough fritter to soak in the soup. Diners can also help themselves to conch soup at a corner of the resttaurant.

The restaurant is pretty neat, clean and prices are reasonable.


儋州米烂小铺
No 28 Lantian Road, Meilan, Haikou, Hainan.
海南省海口市美兰区蓝天路28号，名门广场南区B栋1层

海南特色美食：儋州米烂

Danzhou noodle

在海南海口吃早餐，有太多选择了。单单一个海南粉，就有几种：海南粉、抱罗粉、陵水酸粉、后安粉；儋州米烂、炒粉、伊面汤等，刚好是一周的早餐 😄

Danzhou noodle

在儋州，人们早餐就习惯一碗凉米烂，一碗热骨汤。我在海口就找到这家口味正宗的儋州米烂餐厅。

店里除了儋州米烂、猪血猪肺汤。还有许多不熟悉的的儋州传统小吃, 品种丰富，味道也十分不错。另外还有蒸蛋糕、糖水、煎堆、粽子等。

Danzhou noodle

米烂的制作方法复杂，是先将大米浸泡后磨成米浆，用金属制成的“米烂镜”（漏斗）漏进沸腾的开水里，变成一条条柔软雪白的米丝，然后，捞上来放在冷水里。

吃时配上牛肉丝、猪肉丝、虾米、炒花生米、豆芽、芹菜丁、葱花、炸蒜头油、醋等混合搅拌。他家的酱料调锝很香，微甜咸香的口感，特别是加了醋，提味不少，更加酸甜香。

Pig blood and lung soup

猪血猪肺汤有满满的猪骨、猪血、猪肺、猪肠和白萝卜，炖的很有味道。店里还有卖油条，我买了泡在汤里吃。餐厅也提供海螺汤让食客自助。

餐厅环境优雅，干净，价格公道。



儋州米烂小铺
海南省海口市美兰区蓝天路28号，名门广场南区B栋1层

Coconut Chicken Steamboat @ Hainan Island 海南原味椰子鸡火锅

When in Hainan, must try this coconut chicken steamboat. I ate this in Haikou on a cold, rainy night. A piping hot and healthy steamboat made a cold night bearable.

First we boiled a big pot of coconut water together with strips of old coconut meat for 3 minutes. Then we put in one Wenchang chicken which had been cut into pieces. We added a few side dishes of crunchy pearl chestnuts, yamaimo (Japanese mountain yam), tofu and vegetables.

The soup became sweeter as it boiled. Despite boiling the Wenchang chicken meat in the coconut water for an hour, it tasted tender and delicious.

Dipped the chicken meat in a tasty concoction of chilli, galanga, chopped garlic, sesame oil and spring onions before eating, simply delicious.

来海南当然要尝试一下有特色的美食店 - 海南原味椰子鸡火锅。

汤底是用3个海南大椰子的椰青。 将必点的海南野生珍珠马蹄和椰肉条倒入汤中大火烧开。再将鸡肉块加入汤中，盖上盖子，大火煮两分钟，关小火煮即可。

第一次吃椰子鸡汤, 汤很鲜甜, 好喝! 特别喜欢这汤水，喝了好几碗呢！鸡肉质嫩油脂少, 好有口感，有弹性、 清淡爽口很鲜甜！健康养颜美食哦。

自己调配吃椰子鸡必备的点蘸佐料 : 将指天椒碎、沙姜碎、葱花放入自制酱油拌匀，最后将小金橘的汁挤到调料碗里。

It was 13℃ in Haikou when I went out for dinner that evening. It had been raining for two days. I enjoyed the chilly weather but disliked the wetness.

Located in Longhua district, there were several large shopping malls in the area and this area gets crowded at night.

在海口当天晚上出去吃饭, 是13℃。 我住在龙华区, 有好几家购物商场, 夜间挤满了购物者, 很热闹。那两天一直下雨。我喜欢寒冷的天气，但不喜欢潮湿。

Haikou Qi Lou Food Court 海口骑楼小吃

Haikou Qi Lou Food Court (海口骑楼小吃) was strongly recommended as a place for good traditional Hainanese food. I checked up on the location and decided to take a public bus the following morning,

The guide books I bought were not useful, fortunately the map I took from the hotel listed detailed bus routes to various places of interest. The bus fare costs only one RMB per person per trip. *Wow!*

Besides the public bus, one can also hire the 3-wheel vehicle to get to your destination. The food court was a mere 15 minutes bus ride from my hotel.

It was still early when we reached this huge food court. We went round the building and took a look at the food. There were over 2000 types of dishes to choose from! We were very excited by the variety of food and they looked yummy.

We had to purchase a card which we paid 150 RMB (refundable 10 RMB deposit and whatever money left). At each food stall, we ordered the dishes and the cashier would deduct the price from the card.

There was so much choice .... everything looks delicious and reasonably priced. I have to control my purchases in order not to waste food. We tasted 15 dishes. I particularly like the Black Chicken Coconut Soup, coconut ice cream, salt baked pulled chicken and the savoury steam cake.

The hawkers come from all over Hainan Island, they do not have to pay rent, utilities nor service charges. To keep costs down, there is centralised purchasing of ingredients and a kitchen for preparing the food, profits are shared with the food court owner.

The food court is clean and no unpleasant smells, the food looks safe to consume, we were told there is no risk of gutter oil, LOL

This place gets very crowded from 11 am. We were there early, so we were able to get a table and eat comfortably,

After our yummy brunch, we walked to a nearby street on the left of the food court. It was the Tailong Taipei Food Street (泰龙台北小吃街). There are some stalls selling Taiwanese food and most of the stalls sell food from all over China. We just tried a Hainanese prawn fritter as we were too full.

We took a walk around the neighbourhood and took a bus back to our hotel for a nap.

We showered before going out at 4 pm to the street behind our hotel. On both sides of the street are long rows of eateries and shops. We met many locals who offered us tea and chatted with us.

We had dinner at a Hong Kong cafe which serves delicious soups and roast meat. They serve good milk tea too. Prices are cheap when we convert to SGD. :D

Spotted a Taiwanese Yong He Soy Bean Eatery (永合豆浆) on the second storey of a building, probably could have lunch here with my brother-in-law before leaving for Sanya the next day.