Yu Qian Hainan Vinegar Hotpot

📍Location

🌍 Address: Sunshine Science and Technology Innovation Center, Nanshan District (Enter from the independent parking lot next to the bus stop beside Zheshang Bank)
🚇 Metro: Lilin Station, Exit C

🍴 Dining Experience

Speaking of sour soup (Suan Tang), “Tom Yum Goong” and “Guizhou Sour Soup” usually come to mind. It was my first time hearing that Hainan also has “Sour Soup” Hotpot 🍲. I went with a “give it a try” attitude, but it turned out to be unexpectedly delicious 😋.

Three of us ordered the 164 RMB 2-person set, and I also ordered extra White Clams, Beef, and Pig Intestines. The only staple food was a piece of flatbread from the set, but three guys were all full. Also, writing a review on Dianping gets you a free dish.

Vinegar Soup Base 🍲: 👍👍👍 Highly recommended. The sourness is very rich and “just right”. Just when you think it’s too sour, the sourness fades, followed by the sweetness of fermented rice wine 🍷. The flavor is different from Guizhou Sour Soup and Tom Yum Goong, each having its own merits. Before the dishes arrive, have a bowl of sour soup—warm and appetizing 🤤.
Wenchang Chicken 🐔: 👍👍👍 Also highly recommended. As expected of Hainan’s famous chicken 🐔, the meat is tender, firm, and chewy, not dry at all. After boiling, the chicken absorbs the flavor of the sour soup. Paired with the soul-dipping sauce, take a bite while it’s hot. At that moment, I saw 👀 the life of this chicken—it was a chicken that loved vinegar 🐔.
Pig Intestines 🐷: 👍👍👍, a must-eat. The intestines were ordered separately later, and they were absolutely delicious 😋. Foodies must order a plate. The intestines are chewy and bouncy, with “intestinal wall fat” exposed at both ends. When your teeth chew on these parts, they get more fragrant the more you chew. They are excellent with either the dry dip or the oil dip 😋.
Beef 🐮, Sea Vegetables, Kelp, White Clams 🐚, Golden Pompano 🐟: These are quite standard but delicious 😋. The ingredients themselves are fresh, and boiling them in the sour soup makes them even better. Let me mention the Sea Vegetables—black, thread-like, resembling perked-up seaweed, but thinner and crispier. When eating, slurp them up with the sour soup like noodles—sour and crispy. After cooking the beef, white clams, and pompano for a while, their umami blends into the sour soup, giving it a different flavor if you drink a bowl then.
Hotpot Veggies 🥬: Kelp, noodles, baby cabbage, and bell rolls (响铃卷) were all standard but took on a unique flavor with the sour soup. Especially the bell rolls—soaked in the rich broth, pure enjoyment 😎.