Guangming Roast Pigeon

Guangming roast pigeon is a traditional speciality of the Guangming area in Shenzhen, celebrated for crisp skin, tender meat, fragrant bones and juicy flavour, and popularly hailed as the finest pigeon under heaven.

The dish rose with pigeon farming in the local Guangming farms and became one of the few homegrown poultry specialities to win wider fame in Shenzhen, now a must-try for visitors heading to Guangming.

The key is to steep the young pigeons in an aged brine simmered from many herbs, a brine that grows more fragrant the longer it is kept; once flavoured the birds are roasted to colour and are best eaten hot.

Its signature is the layered aroma the aged brine gives the meat, set against the contrast of crisp skin and tender flesh, a calling card of dining in Shenzhen's outskirts.