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Shenzhen, March 2026
Five days in Futian district, 9–13 March 2026, at the front end of a work trip that carried on to Vietnam. Almost every identification in this section came off a photographed sign or label rather than a guess — the hotpot chain, the banquet house, the beer hall, the plaque by the door, the drink can — which is why the restaurants here get named with some confidence and the one bowl whose sign I could not read stays anonymous. Every photograph is mine. The best find was not a meal at all; it was a soft drink.
Sister Pei's Chongqing Hot Pot The best story of the trip, and the sign did all the work: 珮姐重庆火锅, with the English on the same panel and a tagline reading "however late you come home, Sister Pei is waiting for you." A divided mandarin-duck pot, a mounded platter of paper-thin beef, and the only restaurant I have ever eaten in that dressed the customers for the job. Explore →
Breakfast at the Hotel Four mornings of photographing my own plate at half past six, which turned out to be the most interesting food photography I brought back. A buffet feeding a room where nobody agrees what breakfast is — and what everyone actually does, mine included, is ignore both categories completely. Explore →
The Round Table One day, two completely different meals: a banquet lunch at 又一楼 with a lazy Susan, and a loud brick-walled dinner under a plaque reading 民以食为天. The turning centre is not about convenience — on a round table there is no head, no served plate, and everybody eats the same meal at the same time. Explore →
Beef Noodles and Plum Soup A clear-broth beef noodle bowl, and a can labelled DARK PLUM SOUP that turned out to be the most useful thing I found in China. Sour, cold, and smoky because the fruit was smoke-dried — and it is the same fruit as Japanese umeboshi, which is not a plum either. Explore →
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