Min Ji Claypot Rice Guangzhou • Just Do One Dish Excellently 民记煲仔饭 (惠福东路) • 一生只爲做好一煲飯 ☎ 020 8306 5679 ☎ 181 4286 9079

Min_Ji_Claypot_Rice_Guangzhou_民记煲仔饭(北京路总店二店)

Claypot rice is a Cantonese food icon and we are glad that we had an excellent one at Min Ji Claypot Rice 民记煲仔饭 during our recent Guangzhou foodie trip.

Min Ji Claypot Rice is highly regarded by Guangzhou locals and tourists alike. The original shop is at Bejinglu Street since 1979, but we went to their Huifu East Road 惠福东路 outlet which has three shop spaces.

The compact interior was bright, clean, simply but comfortably furnished. The vibes were decidedly local though the Huifu E Road Min Ji shops were near to the Beijing Road Pedestrian Mall tourist hotspot. It's very popular as people queuing outside for tables attest.

Typical of casual restaurants in Guangzhou, Min Ji has relatively high ambient noise from customer chatter and banter.

Menu is on the wall. Min Ji serves only one thing - claypot rice but very well made and with lots of variations of the Cantonese icon. Twenty eight variations, various optional add-ons, and soups.

Prices range from RMB22 to RMB 45 - I felt the prices were very competitive (though considered moderately pricey by locals).

Due to the crowd and as Min Ji claypot rice are cooked from scratch on order, they took a relatively long time to prepare and serve.

We had (clockwise from top left) beef & wax sausage 牛肉+腊肠饭, eel & beef 黃鳝+牛肉饭, mushroom with wax sausage & chicken 冬菇滑鸡+腊肠饭 and preserved vegetable & minced pork with salted fish 梅莱肉饼饭加咸鱼.

One thing about claypot rice places is consistency or the lack of it. Sometimes, there is the coveted socarrat 锅巴, that crisp caramelised rice crust at the base of the claypot and other times it isn't there. If it's there, sometimes it is just right, other times it is burnt or charred.

I was delighted that at Min Ji, it was there and was right every time.

They have mastered the art of making socarrat through dedication and commitment to getting the one thing, claypot rice right 一生只爲做好一煲飯. Great control of heat and timing despite the waiting crowd.

At Min Ji, the socarrat was lightly browned not charred, crisp but not hard - consistently across all the four claypot servings we ordered.

Win already lor like that.... .

The soccarat is customarily broken up and tossed with the softer, fluffier long rain rice above the crust. Ingredients like chicken, beef, pork, wax sausage were all fresh, well seasoned and tender to the bite.

I felt the claypot rice we had were well balanced savoury sweet and flavourful enough - I didn't need to use condiments like soy sauce, aromatic oil, chilli sauce, etc., which were provided.

But, the OX dried shrimps were excellent and boosted the dish's umami flavour. Came in jars which we helped ourselves to - very generous of Min Ji.

Kaki kaki and I had one regret. Using Min Ji as the benchmark, we will henceforth have a harder time looking for claypot rice that we will enjoy as much. Life changing he said - I can't disagree 😳

We will continue our search for great claypot rice. Which would you recommend?

If you love claypot rice, do check out Min Ji in Guangzhou. If your idea of a good claypot rice is a good socarrat and balanced, moderately intense flavours from quality ingredients, I am quite confident that you will enjoy Min Ji too.