What Delicious Dishes Are There in Foshan?

In Foshan and Nanhai, nine-layer rice cake is an indispensable homemade treat for festive occasions, especially the Lunar New Year. It symbolizes lasting happiness and steady advancement in life.

This delicate sweet rice cake requires elaborate craftsmanship. Locals soak white rice thoroughly, grind it into fine rice batter with a stone mill, then blend it with sugar water. A thin layer of batter is poured into a copper tray and steamed solid; new layers are added repeatedly until nine tiers are formed. The finished cake features distinct layers and a silky, pleasant texture. Some cooks add food colouring to create alternating red and white layers for an eye-catching look.

During festivals, the steamed cake is cut into diamond-shaped chunks. Four pieces are stacked on a plate — three at the bottom, one on top. People first offer them to deities and ancestors before the whole family shares the cake for auspicious blessings. While pine cakes, New Year rice cakes, fried glutinous rice balls and crispy oil dumplings are customarily given as New Year gifts to relatives and friends, nine-layer rice cake is never shared with outsiders. Folklore holds that giving it away dilutes your own good fortune.

Shaped like a full moon, the cake carries the lovely symbolic meaning of a perfect, harmonious life. Locals in Xiqiao present it as a gift for weddings, family visits and all major festivals.

In old times, a bakery in Minle Market near Xiqiao Mountain made the finest Xiqiao giant flat cake. Their version boasted a sweet, mellow aroma and fluffy texture, and would not crumble when sliced. It could sit on a table for ten days or half a month in hot summer without spoiling. Merchants from Guangzhou and Foshan tried to copy the recipe, yet none could match the authentic cake’s colour, fragrance and flavour. Even with countless modern pastries available today, genuine Xiqiao giant flat cake remains widely popular.

Foshan braised pork trotters come in two styles. The first uses an entire pork trotter slow-simmered whole. The second method involves slitting the trotter skin, removing tendons and bones, then wrapping layers of fatty and lean pork inside the skin before braising. "Braised" here means simmering and soaking over gentle heat. The whole-trotter version involves fewer steps, while the stuffed one requires complicated procedures, yet both are beloved by Foshan locals. Since the stuffed variety is tied with water grass before simmering, it is known as "tied trotters".

Heji Blind Man’s Biscuits rank among Foshan’s most famous local specialties, named after its blind inventor. Unlike ordinary baked goods mostly made with wheat flour, these biscuits are exquisitely crafted purely from glutinous rice blended with premium ingredients: sugar, peanuts, sesame seeds, pork and raw vegetable oil.

The pork filling is prepared with exceptional care: fine white sugar cures the pork for months (at minimum several days) before being incorporated into the dough, yielding sweet, crisp and wonderfully tasty biscuits.

Master Chef Che Jian of Foshan innovated this dish by reinterpreting two classic recipes passed down in his family: the "Gold and Silver Goose Webs" created by his grandfather, an imperial kitchen chef, and the "Crinkled Silk Goose Webs" invented by his father. He transformed the traditional stewing method into roasting. The dish retains the signature crinkled-silk texture, tender yet refreshing bites, with fall-off-the-bone tender meat infused with rich, savoury fragrance.

Created over a century ago by celebrated Chef Liang Heng of Dechang Restaurant in Foshan, this dish delivers a sweet, aromatic and crisp taste. Elegant and delicious, it suits all seasons.

Invented more than a hundred years ago by Chef Liang Sen of Ruzhen Restaurant, these rolls smell sweet and melt crisply in the mouth, with a crunchy outer layer and smooth, juicy chicken liver inside bursting with savoury sauce.

This century-old signature dish was first developed at Yingju Restaurant by renowned Chef Lü Changchuan. It tastes fresh, sweet, fragrant and velvety.

This iconic signature dish originated at Shiwan Pottery Capital Restaurant. The front half of the fish is deep-fried to a golden crisp, seasoned with sweet-and-sour five-shredded vegetable sauce. The rear half is steamed tender and smooth, light and non-greasy. Diners enjoy two completely distinct textures — fried and steamed — from one single fish.

Fish puffs are a renowned Shiwan specialty. Those served at Pottery Capital Restaurant use premium ingredients and unique production techniques. Golden in colour, soft, smooth and richly savoury, they work perfectly in soups or braised dishes