Guobian Hu (Rice-Paste Soup)

Guobian hu, also called dingbian hu, is made by pouring rice batter in a ring around the rim of a hot wok; the batter steams into thin sheets that are scraped into the soup below and cooked with dried shrimp, razor clams, laver and scallion into a savory broth.

A Qing-dynasty verse on Fuzhou customs already mentions buying clams to cook guobian hu, showing the dish has been part of the city's everyday breakfasts for centuries.

It is eaten hot as a morning meal, often alongside fried dough sticks, shrimp fritters or taro cakes, the tender rice sheets paired with a brisk seafood broth.

Its charm is the signature wok-rim technique: rice sheets so thin and silky that they soak up the seafood broth, a taste woven into Fuzhou mornings.