The Right Way to Enjoy Changsha's Morning Tea and Late-Night Snacks, You Got It!

📍 Changsha · 👁 1 reads · ❤️ 69 likes

Since the reform and opening-up, the great flow of goods has also brought about a great expansion of culture. By the late 1980s, not only did a large number of Cantonese song cassettes, jeans, batwing sweaters, stirrup pants, etc., enter Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, but from 1988 onwards, Guangzhou-style morning tea and Guangzhou-style late-night snacks (then called night tea) also flooded into Changsha as food lifestyle trends.

Admittedly, unlike the Cantonese who love to sit in morning tea houses from morning till afternoon, many Changsha locals have no concept of morning tea – they simply go downstairs for a bowl of rice noodles with their favorite toppings and call it a day. But if you want to be particular, morning tea actually involves a lot of knowledge and is extremely refined.

Changsha Old Street Fish Lips, a long-established Changsha restaurant, continues the consistent Old Street style. Its decoration thoroughly recreates the bustling market atmosphere of old Changsha, making people feel especially warm. And the skill in making morning tea is also absolutely meticulous, catering to every guest's appetite. With dedication, quality, and high standards, in this downtown location, the breakfast fillings are so generous and the prices are very affordable. Office workers rushing by the shop entrance are surely drawn in by the aroma wafting out and step in to enjoy this morning tea.

The steamed buns have white, shiny skins, lying in the bamboo steamer like cute big white chubby creatures, very tempting. Many customers come from all directions of Changsha, arriving early to secure a spot in front of the shop, brew a pot of tea, take a bite of the bun, then a sip of hot tea – full of fragrance.

And this price is very affordable for being in the prime downtown area –

Many "old Changsha" locals returning from elsewhere also like to do two things first: have a morning tea and slurp a bowl of noodles, just to feel like an "old Changsha" again. Drinking tea in teahouses, watching plays, listening to storytelling, and playing mahjong were the four great pleasures of old Changsha men. Back in the day, Tian Han once brought celebrities from the literary and art circles to Deyuan for morning tea. Besides buns, morning tea can also include Changsha rice noodles and noodles. In spring there are spring rolls, and in autumn a bowl of mushroom noodles – these are the seasonal flavors of morning tea. A cup of tea in the morning lasts until noon; after eleven o'clock, go home for lunch – one cup of tea, and you've stolen half a day of leisure.

But the Cantonese-style morning tea in Changsha was popular for about five years, then its heyday passed, and evening tea became beloved by the general public of Changsha. At that time, the deputy general manager of Yuloudong Restaurant and master of Hunan cuisine, Mr. Xu Juyun, once talked about Yuloudong's evening tea, which is what Changsha people now commonly call late-night snacks.

Changsha has always had late-night snacks, but the new-style late-night snacks in Changsha suddenly erupted in 1989 from the Yuloudong Restaurant then located at Wuyi Square and quickly became popular throughout the entire city.

Yuloudong is a household name in Changsha. At the intersection of Beizheng Street, Yuloudong was packed with diners and extremely bustling. After 24 years, this century-old

China Time-honored Brand has returned to the Wuyi commercial circle. Many old Changsha locals flock to the restaurant to find the taste of their memories.

Its dishes have been developed by successive master chefs of Hunan cuisine. Founded in the 30th year of Guangxu's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1904), Yuloudong has a history of 112 years. The restaurant's interior is elegant and culturally rich, a place where Hunan cuisine is passed down. The service is also renowned – regardless of age or nationality, guests experience a home-like service.

"Spicy diced chicken with soup-bloated tripe, often makes one reminisce about Yuloudong." This couplet was left by Zeng Guangjun, grandson of the late Qing scholar Zeng Guofan, after eating at Yuloudong. Spicy diced chicken and soup-bloated tripe tip are Yuloudong's two famous dishes, and also among Hunan's top ten classic dishes.

In fact, Changsha's morning tea and late-night snack culture has a long history. Every place has its own food culture. What Foodie here introduces is just the tip of the iceberg; there's much more for everyone to discover on their own! Hurry up and get it, and go have morning tea with Foodie!

Travel Diary Directory:

1. Morning Tea

2. Old Street Fish Lips

3. Late-Night Snacks

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