When you come to Jiangsu, you will hear locals tell you to enjoy your visit by 早上皮包水, 下午水包皮 Skin wrap water in the morning, water wrap skin in the evening 🤔
eh?!
It means to have a traditional local breakfast in the morning, and a hot spring spa / massage in the evening.
This phrase is often heard in Taizhou (and its neighbouring city Yangzhou as Taizhou was part of Yangzhou until 1996).
We were in Taizhou to experience what is 早上皮包水 Water wrap skin in the morning. It's the amazing Taizhou morning tea breakfast 泰州早茶 you must not miss!
Taizhou is a prefecture level city of nearly 5 million people with history going back to the Spring and Autumn era of China's history (770 - 481 BC) i.e. around 2,500 years old.
We went to 桃園里 restaurant but there are many morning tea places in Taizhou (and Yangzhou). Each restaurant has their own signatures but all follow the customs of Taizhou Morning Tea 泰州早茶.
Traditional Taizhou Morning Tea has many customs.
Each person traditionally has 一茶三点一面 one tea, three dishes and one noodle i.e. it's a hearty five course breakfast 五道.
第一道喝茶水 First course, tea.
第二道应时小菜 Second course, a seasonal appetiser (like this tangy sweet pickled vegetable with blanched broad beans).
第三道烫干丝 Third course, tofu noodle.
第四道吃点心 Fourth course, dim sum.
第五道鱼汤面 Fifth course, fish soup noodle.
The menu for tea, dishes and noodles for Taizhou breakfast is wide ranging but three dishes are considered 泰州三宝 Taizhou Three Treasures - tofu noodle, crab roe soup dumpling and fish soup noodle.
烫干丝 Tofu noodle (finely julienned tau kwa in Singlish) is considered the numero uno of the Three Treasures of Taizhou Morning Tea. Taizhou locals will judge whether a restaurant is good or not based on how well they do their 烫干丝 tofu noodle.
It is dry tofu cut into slender strands that look exactly like wheat or egg noodles. It's a test of the chef's knife skills - one of the signatures of Huaiyang cuisine.
The noodles may be served in soup or dry with soy sauce, vinegar, aromatic oil (sesame oil), garnishes like coriander, julienned ginger, preserved mustard, etc.
I love it. The tofu strands felt like good wheat noodles with spring and crunch to the bite. But, it has the distinct soy bean taste of tofu. It delightful with an element of the unexpected, especially when tasting it for the first time.
蟹黄汤包 Crab roe dumpling. It is a pork dumpling with crab roe wrapped with a thin wheat dough sheet (skin). The steamed dumpling trapped the umami savoury sweet juices, the most sought after part of the dumpling.
There are even all soup, no meat dumplings. This is literally "skin wrap water" 皮包水. With or without meat, with the bigger soup dumplings, a straw is sometimes provided to suck up the soup.
I never liked this approach as the soup is best when scathing hot, and sucking it up with a straw is just asking to get the roof of our mouth burnt 😦
Another method is to have the soup dumpling set in a shallow bowl. The dumpling is bursted and its soup allowed to collect in the shallow bowl. Drinking from the bowl is just as enjoyable with very little risk of burning our tongue.
At 桃園里 restaurant we were served an all vegetable soup dumpling. I like the soup bowl serving style and the savoury soup was delicious.
Fish soup noodle 鱼汤面 is often the delicious finale. The soup is made by boiling pork and fish, usually eel bones till cloudy and white. The slightly viscous soup tastes well balanced umami savoury sweet.
The slender wheat noodles in the soup were lightly springy and enveloped with umami sweet flavours from the soup.
It's a tasty dish!
Taizhou morning tea breakfast 泰州早茶 was one of the most memorable experiences from my seven day, six city tour of Jiangsu.
When you are in Jiangsu, whether in Taizhou or Yangzhou, treat yourself to a 皮包水 skin wrap water breakfast. Your visit is incomplete without it.
Written by Tony Boey on 2 July 2024
吃到最后我会变成皮包骨😄
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