What delicious food can you try in Changde?

Located in northwestern Hunan, Changde cuisine inherits the fine craftsmanship and diverse ingredients of Hunan dishes. Combining the classic flavors of Hunan food — crispy, sour, spicy and tender — with local food culture, it has formed its own unique style and greatly enriched the Hunan culinary tradition.

Spiciness is the defining feature of Changde dishes. There is a local saying: Ginger burns your mouth, garlic stings your chest, and chili leaves you speechless. Scallions, ginger and garlic are indispensable in local cooking. Another hallmark is that most dishes use locally produced ingredients.

With a long history, Changde rice noodles are famous across Hunan Province and a must-try for every visitor. Made purely from rice via special techniques, the noodles are white, round, slender and springy. Simply blanch them in boiling water, add seasonings, and you can enjoy the smooth, savory delicacy with a distinctive local flavor.

The beef rice noodles served at Jinshi Beef Noodle Houses are spicy, hot, aromatic and fresh. The braised beef topping is well-cooked with balanced saltiness. Its preparation follows extremely strict standards:

Fresh beef is hung up with iron hooks right after delivery, then cut into chunks of around 500 grams sorted by toughness and fat content. The chunks are soaked in clean water — longer in winter and about one hour in summer — then repeatedly rinsed and squeezed to remove all blood. Afterwards, the beef is stewed with a blend of over 20 aromatic spices, including star anise, amomum fruit, cassia twig, licorice, dried tangerine peel, clove, Chinese prickly ash and spikenard.

Mugwort cakes are a traditional local snack loved by people across Changde for their one-of-a-kind taste. Every March, locals pick fresh young mugwort leaves, wash them and mix with japonica rice flour and glutinous rice flour. The mixture is steamed over high heat, then pounded thoroughly in a stone mortar. Sesame seeds and chili sauce are added next.

The dough is divided into small pieces and pressed into wooden molds carved with auspicious patterns to make flat, round cakes. Chewy, sweet and tasty, these cakes are a seasonal treat. On the third day of the third lunar month, every household makes mugwort cakes while singing the folk ballad: On the third day of the third month, snakes come out of their dens; we make cakes to block the snakes’ eyes.

Changde’s halal cooking boasts unique presentations, aromas, colors and flavors. Ingredients are carefully selected: all main ingredients such as fresh beef, ox tongue, beef tripe and beef tendons are slaughtered by imams. Common side ingredients include dried bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms and eggs.

Seasonings feature typical southern flavors: ginger, scallions, garlic, chili, pepper, star anise and pickled vegetables. A wide range of cooking methods are adopted, including steaming, braising, pan-frying, stir-frying, simmering, stewing, crisping, quick-frying, deep-frying, mixing, scalding, boiling, roasting and marinating.

Drinking pounded tea is a time-honored custom among people in Hanshou, Dingcheng, Wuling and Taoyuan areas. Locals enjoy a serving of pounded tea all year round, whether in the sweltering summer or freezing winter.