Guilin is not somewhere I expected to have my mind blown by corn juice… but I will say this: sometimes the least expected thing sticks with you. One night we ended up at a restaurant which was serving some proper local cooking, the sort of meal where you over-order because everything sounds good, and somehow end up eating it all anyway. It was comfort-food driven and hearty, perfect after a full day of sightseeing.
Nothing fancy, just some good home-style dishes that made sense when paired together. This is how evening went.
Our Surprise Dinner in Guilin
Guilin Dinner Restaurant
Inside was the classic style you often find in Chinese restaurants, round tables, warm lights, somewhere that clearly feeds generations of families. We got seated at a table and prepared to order way more than two people reasonably should.
And then there was this: the corn juice. If you’ve never heard of it, well, think of it as it sounds: fresh corn that’s been pureed into a thick, sweet drink that can be served hot or cold. In my case, it was fresh and actualy did taste like liquid corn on the cob.
Depending off your origins, that’s either going to sound delicious or deeply strange. I’m very much in the former category here. It is mild and just sweet enough, and it’s also very refreshing.
It’s not something I’d want to drink all the time, but it paired well with the heavier food that followed.
One by one, the dishes appeared, until our table was covered in small bowls and plates. One of the beauties about this way of dining is that you can sample a little of a bunch of stuff without having to commit to a large plate, a decision made easy for us because we got a bit of everything: stir-fried, braised, and fried items. Every single dish had something different happening.
No question the star was the claypot pork belly. The meat is tender and sticky, braised low and slow until it falls off the bone. It is the sort of pork that you can’t help but fall in love with.
It comes served in a clay pot which keep it all hot at the table, allowing the flavours to really concentrate. I’m a sucker for well-cooked pork belly, and this was rich without being greasy; it was just seasoned enough to allow the meat do the talking.
These are some deep-fried parcels; crispy little pockets filled with… well, to be honest, I have no idea. Some sort of vegetables and perhaps a little minced meat, all packaged up and fried till golden. Here it was all about the texture: that crunch as your teeth break through the wrapper is always satisfying.
The scallion flatbreads were next; pan-fried and tightly coiled into little spirals like this. They was savoury, flaky and ideal for tearing at with your bare fingers. I tore some off and soaked it in some of the pork belly sauce… probably not what they had in mind when designing the dish but it turned out great anyway.
To round everything off, we had the stir-fried beef. It was thin slices quickly cooked with veg on high heat. It was simple and straightforward stuff, nothing trying to steal the limelight, but a solid, tasty dish that complemented the heavier dishes we’d ordered.
When we left at the end of the meal, we were completely full… The sort of full that results from a leisurely meal where no one rushed anything. The corn juice was the crazy little thing that stuck in my mind.
It wasn’t the fanciest dish, but sometimes the dishes that stick in your mind aren’t the ones you thought would, either. Ever had some weird-sounding drink that won you over? I want to know about the surprising things you’ve found on your trip.
