Only recently did I realize Youbu is an actual place, located in Lanxi, Zhejiang. The ancient town of Youbu, by the Qu River, is the origin of Youbu Soy Milk.
Let me tell you, this ancient town that birthed Hangzhou’s top-notch breakfast spot really has something special!
In the Jiangsu-Zhejiang area, ancient towns are not uncommon, and the somewhat homogeneous development models can honestly be a bit aesthetically tiring.
However, what’s hidden in Youbu Ancient Town is the buff of the “No.1 Morning Tea Street in Jiangnan.” Every day, it bustles like a temple fair; anyone who visits gets hooked.
The morning tea stalls on Youbu Old Street start operating as early as 4 a.m. The breakfast list here is quite lavish: meat dumplings, tofu balls, rice cakes with egg, sweet potato meatballs… plenty of items you’ve never tried before, with a variety of carbohydrate-heavy dishes that make your head spin!
Even considering all of Zhejiang, I think it’s impossible to find another place with such a strong morning tea atmosphere.
Just for this spirited approach to breakfast, I believe it deserves the title of ‘No.1 Morning Tea Street in Jiangnan.’
Morning tea is truly about the lively atmosphere. Like when I previously went to Guangzhou, sitting in a tea restaurant alongside the locals, formally warming the cups and reading the morning paper—even if I didn’t eat anything, just this setup gave me a sense of integration.
In Youbu, when old tea aficionados sit at long tables at the entrance with a cup of coarse tea and a bowl of rice cake with egg, that vibe described by Wang Zengqi, “all tea affairs in the world are nothing but a bowl of earthly fireworks,” just naturally falls into place.
Craving something uncontainable, let’s just go. Departing from Hangzhou, self-driving for 2.5 hours, driving here for breakfast tea over the weekend, and strolling around the ancient town—isn’t it delightful?
If you’re getting up at dawn for morning tea, it must be in Youbu!
Let’s give a brief introduction to Youbu Ancient Town.
It used to be one of the seven major commercial hubs in Zhejiang, full of shops and bustling with merchants. Traders from all directions would come to town with their goods even before dawn, and the teahouses that sprang up were perfect places for them to exchange ‘intelligence.’
Today, the commercial hustle and bustle have faded, but the teahouses remain lively as ever.
Local old tea enthusiasts report early every morning. The tea they drink isn’t anything fancy, just locally produced Mao Feng, costing four or five yuan a cup. With a thermos of hot water, a teacup, and some breakfast snacks, they can spend the whole morning idly passing time.
Nowadays, more travelers from other places come to enjoy morning tea, and they can chat and exchange information as well, continuing the function of a community information center.
We usually go to Youbu for morning tea, primarily to the morning tea street. This street has a great reputation among Lanxi people, almost everyone knows it: “Oh, oh, oh, go there for snacks, it’s the most concentrated!”
Although the morning tea street isn’t very long, it’s packed with tea houses. So, I didn’t rush to sit down and order immediately; instead, I took a stroll around first.
Every tea house entrance was bustling! Meat balls, tofu balls, and egg cakes, all uniquely Lanxi snacks, were on display.
The food preparation was not hidden; everyone made and sold their snacks right on the street. Some were rolling balls, others were stuffing meat into eggs, as if I had stumbled into a craftsman’s competition, mesmerizing to watch.
If you ask locals which place is the best, they’ll find it hard to answer. Regular tea drinkers have their favorite one or two tea houses out of habit. To sum it up: all are old brands, have been around for a long time, taste good, and collectively made Youbu’s snacks famous.
Fortunately, there were many types of snacks, and I sampled some from every stall I walked past, each one being a pleasant surprise.
Youtiao & Rou Dai Bing
Having been trained at the Youbu Soy Milk Shop in Hangzhou, I was familiar with the combination of youtiao and crispy cakes.
At Hao Zailai, the boss makes crispy cakes on a long table at the entrance, while his partner handles the youtiao inside, a clear division of labor.
Rou Dai Bing is long and rectangular; the boss makes one long strip on a wooden board and then cuts it into smaller pieces.
The set of youtiao and crispy cakes costs just 6 yuan. The boss even helps by splitting the cake open and wrapping the youtiao inside. Locals don’t rush off after buying it, preferring to eat it right there.
Taking a big bite, you get a satisfying combination of crispy youtiao and savory meat cake, a carb explosion of contentment!
Tofu Balls
Tofu balls are prepared fresh, the process is quite dynamic. Tofu mixed with minced meat and eggs is mashed into a coarse texture. The vendor takes a small portion of the tofu, places it in a bowl, and rolls it around until it becomes roughly spherical before putting it into a soup pot.
Tofu balls are very soft and need to be handled gently. They remind me of the fish balls from my hometown in Wenzhou, which have a similarly soft and slippery texture.
I bought the sweet bean paste version of Guanxiu Su, the most common type. The bean paste was not too sweet, instantly gaining favor.
Eating it results in crumbs falling everywhere, which is a bit messy, but its crispy texture breaking apart is quite charming.
Rou Chen Zi
In the ancient town of Youbu, there are many unique snacks, one of which is “Rouchenzi”. From its name alone, you can’t tell what it is. Simply put, it’s minced meat stuffed into raw eggs.
The minced meat, known locally as “stuffed meat,” is a mix of lean and fatty meat that has been marinated in advance.
I thought that given how small the yolk is, just a bit of meat would be enough. However, people in Youbu can stuff chopstickfuls of minced meat into the egg until it reaches the size of a cup.
It’s said that this is a snack Lanxi people use to welcome their sons-in-law. The more meat stuffed in, the more satisfied they are, causing the “Rouchenzi” to keep “expanding” over time.
The lady stuffing the meat does so with intense concentration, filling it to the brim before carefully placing it along the side of the pot. The basic requirement is that the egg remains intact and comes out of the pot as a whole.
Compared to simple boiled eggs, it boasts a richer texture. The broth, with added soy sauce and lard, shimmers with an enticing glimmer, making it very comforting to drink.
All the ingredients are fresh, reminiscent of the sincere homemade snacks your family would prepare when you visit home.
### Chicken Coated Cake
Chicken Coated Cake is also quite magical. If you told me the vendor didn’t have some kind of magic up his sleeve, I wouldn’t believe you either.
The dough, rolled into a thin sheet, is laid out on the hand. While wrapping, a layer of ample minced meat is added first as the base, followed by a generous handful of fresh green onions. Looking at the sheer amount of onions used, one might think they come free.
What makes the technique so good? Though the sheet seems not too big, the vendor can still wrap it like a bun, stuffing all that thick filling without tearing the dough, which has excellent elasticity.
Then, the soft, loose cake can be placed into the oil pan. But that’s not the end of it. Once it takes shape from frying, Youbu folks will use chopsticks to create a small opening to pour in egg liquid. Once both sides are fried to a golden brown, it’s ready to serve.
If someone places an order, the vendor will cut it into four pieces with a knife. Each piece has a crispy shell, tender inside, and is bursting with the fresh flavor of meat patty and steamed egg.
### Youbu Pastry
Jinhua pastry is well-known, and Youbu’s pastry is no less impressive. The Youbu version has fewer preserved vegetables but more meat.
There are many shops selling pastries on this street. I randomly chose a place called “Six Finger Pastry,” and it turned out to be quite good. Three big ovens for roasting pastries dominate the storefront, with rows upon rows of small pastries neatly attached inside, showing a great sense of order.
The elderly vendor has a temper. Seeing me taking continuous photos, he wasn’t too pleased. Alright, I put down the camera and decided to honestly buy some pastries first. They cost 1.5 yuan each, with a minimum purchase of five.
The best experience, of course, is eating them fresh. As you hold the warm pastry and take a bite, you see the meat filling, a perfect mix of fat and lean, glistening under the sunlight like sparkling sugar crystals. But since it’s roasted, it’s not greasy at all.
The oil has slightly soaked into the pastry crust, making it incredibly fragrant! Moreover, the pastries are dry and can be stored, making them great souvenirs to take home.
### Sweet Potato Meatballs
The plump sweet potato meatballs have a beautiful amber color, appearing clear and translucent. They are not perfectly round, as if they were casually molded by hand.
Their surface is also rough and grainy, with visible chunks of radish and meat mixed with sweet potato starch. The meat has a salty flavor, while the radish provides a refreshing taste.
The sweet potato starch has solidified into a jelly-like texture, which is wonderfully chewy. It doesn’t stick to your teeth, but with each bite, you can feel a slight rebound against them, making it easy and enjoyable to finish an entire piece.
I also ordered a bowl of savory soy milk. My initial understanding of savory soy milk was cultivated by the people of Youbu. It is not simply made with salt but is flavored with soy sauce to achieve a savory taste.
Soy sauce and other base ingredients are placed at the bottom of the bowl, and the vendor then pours a ladle of piping hot soy milk into the bowl.
Following a series of unknown chemical reactions, the soy milk curdles into a flocculent, coffee-colored mixture, resembling tofu coagulated with brine.
The rich aroma of the soy milk is unique enough that I often find myself surrendering to its savory appeal, despite my usual indecision between sweet and savory soy milk.
Moreover, Youbu Ancient Town, like many southern ancient towns, favors various sticky rice foods, and it does not fall short. Steamed wu mi rice for the beginning of summer, black rice cakes, multi-layer cakes, and other colorful pastries are all cut neatly, waiting to be taken by lucky diners.
After a hearty meal, let me point out some good spots to stroll around in Youbu Ancient Town. The town is quite refreshing, with local shops scattered throughout, allowing for a leisurely walk to appreciate its simplicity and tranquility.
Lang Jingshan Memorial Hall
Lang Jingshan, a native of Youbu, was a master photographer in modern China who made countless contributions throughout his life. The locals value his achievements and have established this memorial hall to display his works.
His uniqueness lies in his creation of montage photography, a method that uses photographs as materials, combined with painting techniques and overlapping exposures in the darkroom to create collages and then secondary compositions.
Due to his deep understanding of Eastern culture, he created many stunning Chinese landscapes that are filled with Eastern wisdom. Quietly viewing these works brimming with Eastern aesthetics in the memorial hall can evoke a sense of transcendence.
Right next door is the Antique Camera Exhibition Museum. This museum houses over two thousand antique cameras, from Seagull, Polaroid, to Leica. Photography enthusiasts are likely to find many treasures resonating with them here.
Honestly, I was quite amazed by its scale. When rows upon rows of cameras appear before you, it’s nothing short of magnificent.
Youbu Soy Sauce Workshop
Within the ancient town, there is also a sauce garden with a history of over a hundred years. The soy sauce produced here won an excellent award at the first West Lake Exposition in 1929 and a gold medal at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1939.
They brew “Sanfu Soy Sauce” here, where soybeans, wheat flour, salt, and enzymes undergo sun exposure during the hottest days of summer to trigger chemical reactions. No preservatives are added; the preservation relies entirely on the salinity.
You can see over a hundred thousand-jin jars, each with a straw hat on, neatly arranged in the sun yard, maintaining their ancient appearance.
Youbu Farmers’ Market
Exploring local attractions naturally includes visiting the local markets. The Youbu Farmers’ Market is right next to the ancient town.
Here, I discovered many ingredients unique to Youbu. For example, the vegetable stalls in the market sell locally produced white chili peppers, which are rare elsewhere but are a common ingredient in local noodles.
Additionally, the people of Youbu have a notable passion for pickled vegetables, including water celery, cauliflower, cabbage, and Chinese kale. There are many varieties to choose from here.
Many fruits and vegetables grown by local farmers are also sold here, emphasizing the authentic flavors of each produce. Friends who enjoy cooking can pick up some fresh ingredients to take home.
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After visiting Youbu Ancient Town, its ranking on my list of ancient towns in Zhejiang has significantly risen. Such a vibrant morning tea street is quite rare in Zhejiang. I recommend taking a weekend to experience the ‘morning tea culture’ here; it will surely surprise you.
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