Afternoon treats
Around 4 pm, the rain had completely cleared, and Huichang was slipping into its second daily rhythm: afternoon snacks.
This is something like afternoon tea, except there is little sweetness involved. Families and friends gather over bowls of sour, spicy and salty dishes. A few dollars buy enough for everyone to share.
According to locals, the custom of afternoon snacking may have grown out of Huichang's relaxed, slow-paced way of life.
The county abounds with good eateries, but their opening hours are anything but fixed. They might open in the afternoon or sometimes in the morning, and you never know when you'll arrive to find them closed.
The outdoor tables filled quickly. Zhong's conversation with me was interrupted every few minutes by new orders. She employs six middle-aged women, along with nieces and nephews, but on busy afternoons even that isn't enough.
Two young men in their 20s walked in, greeting her like family. They had grown up eating at the shop, Zhong said.
The friends ordered dumplings drenched in chili oil and cilantro, which were already dressed and needed no dipping sauce, along with hand-peeled sour bamboo shoots, their fibrous outer skin stripped away to reveal the crisp heart inside.
"This place represents Huichang," one of them told me. When he was studying out of town, he once asked his friend to vacuum-seal snacks from the shop and mail them to him.
For many locals, Zhong said, this shop is both the first stop when they return home and the last before they leave.
"This is our local pride. You can't find this kind of happiness outside Huichang," she said.
Huichang's food is built from simple things: soybeans, taro, bamboo shoots and sweet potatoes, the ordinary crops of mountain fields. Yet from them come dishes layered with texture and color: dried tofu, taro balls, sour water and herbal jelly.
It is a cuisine shaped by necessity, by heat, humidity and rugged land.
Even plants that are inedible on their own are ingeniously combined with other ingredients and brought to the table.
Before leaving, I ordered more: herbal jelly, taro balls, steamed meatballs wrapped in sweet potato starch. The rain had cooled the air into something clear and breathable.
Somewhere in the rush, I forgot my umbrella at the restaurant.
I have a private superstition: whenever you leave something somewhere, it means you are meant to return. In a place with 100 dishes still left to taste, it felt less like an accident than a promise.
If you go
Street food: Huichang is known for a variety of local snacks and street foods, including dried tofu and xianren ban, a refreshing herbal jelly popular in southern China.
Dishes: Must-try local favorites include fried rice noodles, Hakka stuffed tofu, and the famous Jiangxi stir-fries, known for their intense smoky flavor from high-heat cooking. Recommended dishes include stir-fried pork belly and tofu with crispy pork crackling.
Restaurants:
• Beimen Restaurant is a long-established favorite in the theater village, serving refined Hakka and southern Jiangxi cuisine.
• Lai Mama Private Kitchen is inspired by the home cooking of renowned playwright Stan Lai's mother. Alongside local Hakka dishes, it offers creative fusion cuisine such as Bhutanese beef and the signature Stan Lai Invisible Pizza.
Souvenirs: Popular local products to take home include pumpkins, pomelos, and navel oranges, all well-known specialties of the region.
