Eating In Translation

Garden City Café

For a quick meal before my flight to Guangzhou, this Singaporean restaurant served up a fine rendition of the stir-fried radish chunks called "carrot cake" (Y25) — black style, with sweet soy paste.

Garden City Café
14 Jianye Lu, Xiamen

Griddled Sandwich Cart

The top and bottom layers of this exceptional sandwich (Y2) were cooked up from batter mixed with an egg, minced pork, sliced sausage, and scallions, then sliced and stuffed with two types of pickled vegetables, plus cilantro, hot sauce, and a mystery sauce I didn't manage to I.D. Step aside, Egg McMuffin!

Griddled Sandwich Cart
Taiping Lu, near Zhongshan Lu, Xiamen

Dumpling Corner Store

These pork dumplings (10 for Y3) aren't worth a walk, but jazzed up with a mix-it-yourself hot dipping sauce, they're filling enough if you're passing by.

Dumpling Corner Store
Shoushan Lu at Siming Nanlu, Xiamen

Bakery

On a gritty stretch a ways south of the main pedestrian shopping area, I found myself a passable pork, chive, and egg pancake (Y1).

Bakery
Siming Nanlu south of Shoushan Lu, Xiamen

Soup Stand

Xiamen's downtown wet market — east of Kaihe Lu and north of Kaiyuan Lu, which is itself several zigzagging blocks north of the main shopping street, Zhongshan Lu — is very wet indeed, but the well-cambered, wide passages should keep your feet dry enough while you gaze upon the likes of sea worms, softshell turtles, and baby hammerhead sharks as well as more-traditional fare. If your appetite's up, several cooked-food stands do business around the edges of the market. Here, I slurped down fresh noodles with mussels and green vegetables (Y4.5) in the less fearsome-looking broth to the left — somewhat peanutty, just barely spicy.

Soup Stand
Downtown wet market, just north of the Guying Lu entrance, Xiamen

Cooked-Food Storefront

The local equivalent of arroz con pollo (Y5) was very moist, due in large part to a heavy hand with the cooking oil. The final product sported just a little chicken, plus an assortment of veggies; it's really all about that terrific rice.

Cooked-Food Storefront
242 Longtou Lu, Gulian Yu, Xiamen

Bakery

Slightly oily flatbread with sesame seeds (Y2) had been sitting awhile. To be fair, I caught the staff during their mid-afternoon prep time for that evening's customers.

Bakery
177 Quanzhou Lu, Gulian Yu, Xiamen

Fruit and Vegetable Vendors

Hop off the ferry from Xiamen when you disembark at Gulianyu, and not too far ahead you'll see a McDonald's to the left. Veer right for local options like this wood apple, also called rose apple or wax apple (Y1 each). I had planned to wash them with some bottled water back at my hotel — streetside fruits and vegetables can be dodgy in China — but managed to leave my bag behind at a later stop, before I'd had a taste. I came across them again, in a larger, duskier guise, only when I reached Taipei, across the Formosa strait.

Fruit and Vegetable Vendors
Longtou Lu, Gulian Yu, Xiamen

Cooked-food storefront

Anchored by a Wal-Mart, Xiamen's World Trade Center includes a top-floor food court operated, unfortunately, by staffers who seemed as disinterested as at any other mall; fast-food options outside the nearby train station were equally unenticing. After a 15-minute walk west, however, I found a small eating hall that offered a no-frills, all-business atmosphere, and treats like this zongzi (Y2.50), a rice pyramid that began to sag shortly after the server removed its leafy wrapping. (In the local language, more likely my rice dumpling was called bak chang.) This version was studded with pork, shrimp, and vegetables, accompanied by a ladled-on blend of spicy sauces.

Cooked-food storefront
Hexiang Lu near Meihu Lu, Xiamen, China

Andersen

Cooled down with some red guava juice (500 ml.; Y7.50) at an outlet of this upscale Danish chain that offers baked goods and beverages.

Andersen
Hexiang Lu at Huiwen Lu, Xiamen
(One of many locations)