Foshan Tiande Famous Pork Kidney Soup 佛山天德美食 猪腰王 ☎ +86 757 8212 1805

Kaki kaki Daniel had been raving about this pork kidney place weeks before our foodie tour to Foshan, Guangdong, China.

We braved the Foshan rush hour to get to 天德美食 Tiande Food.

Foshan 佛山, a Pearl River Delta city in Guangdong province which isn't that well known overseas, has a population of about 9 million people.

Arriving at the backstreet hidden gem before opening time, we were greeted by this gentleman whose sad duty that evening was to turn away customers because they had sold out their pork kidney 🙄 🥹

So we returned the next evening - we gangster foodies took revenge by reserving ten kidneys 😄

I was quietly wondering to myself how we were going to eat so much kidney, even if they came highly recommended by locals. (Remember we were on a week long, daybreak till night immersive food tasting itinerary 😂 )

Anyway, here we are, the legendary 天德美食 Tiande Food.

I asked the lady boss for the menu and she replied that it was written on the window. Anyway, only four dishes - locals know it all by heart.

This is the type of hyperlocal place I like. No decor, no aesthetics, just sturdy furniture, air conditioning and a clean environment.

They don't even bother to stick a photo or calendar on the wall. The only draw is good food - such confidence!

We left the ordering to kaki kaki Daniel and local chef Foong. Without further ado, without ceremony, we plunged straight into 天德美食's signature pork kidney in ginger and pork soup.

No time to waste as simmering any longer in the bubbling, steamy soup and the prized kidneys will be overdone.

In Foshan, fresh pork kidney are sold whole, cut and cleaned only just before cooking. We had 10 for six of us 🫘 🫣

The pork soup had the distinct warmth and comforting heat of ginger. Tasty and highly drinkable.

The kidney cleaned a la minute was delicately smooth, tender, crunchy 爽脆滑, almost like a custardy jelly. The kidney slices were clean tasting with very little savoury sweet flavour of its own.

The kidney slices were so smell free that I could be stumped, if I did a blind taste or smell test, blindfolded. Only the texture may give it away.

We had no trouble disappearing the ten kidneys with spare tank in our bellies.

Salt and ginger relish 姜蓉, if you want more warmth and heat with your kidneys.

I love this dip of crunchy raw shallot with soy sauce to go with the pork kidney.

A pot of chicken and winter melon soup was waiting for us. China is like that - good affordable food is in abundance.

When the ingredients are good coupled with simple cooking, the dish will be nice.

The clear chicken and melon soup was clean tasting, savoury, sweet, so delicious.

The chicken pieces were tender, slightly chewy, with natural chicky sweetness, the way locals like it. I enjoyed it too.

Simple blanched lettuce, so good!

Kaki kaki Benny love simple noodles stir fried with soy sauce 酱油王炒面. All of us love it too. We had at least two servings of the tenderly crunchy savoury noodles everywhere we went in Foshan. 天德美食's rendition had a little bit of wok hei and was as good as any we had during our trip.

Most people come here just for pork kidney soup and this fried noodle.