Quzhou Savoury Flour Porridge
A thick savoury porridge made by whisking toasted wheat flour into boiling water with salt, sesame and a little oil, eaten hot from a bowl as a warming breakfast.
How to eat it
It arrives as a smooth, sand-coloured paste thick enough to hold a spoon upright, with sesame and sometimes spring onion on top. Stir the topping in, then eat it with a spoon from the edge of the bowl where it cools first; the centre stays scalding for a long time. It is bland on its own and the flavour is mostly toasted flour and sesame, so add a little chilli or pickled vegetable from the table if you want more. A fried dough stick or a flatbread is the usual thing to eat alongside.
The story behind the dish
Despite sharing a name with the Beijing breakfast, the Quzhou version is a different dish: savoury, made from flour toasted dry in a wok until it smells nutty, and not sweetened with sesame paste. It belongs to a family of toasted-flour foods common in the hills of southern Anhui and western Zhejiang, where flour that has been dry-roasted keeps for months and can be turned into a hot meal in minutes. It was a poor family's breakfast and a food for travellers, and it survives now mainly in a handful of old breakfast shops and among older residents.
For reference
Every kitchen does it its own way. What follows is the typical version — ingredients, heat and price shift from city to city and from one restaurant to the next, so take it as a guide rather than a fixed recipe.
If you have an allergy or something you can't eat, check with the staff before you order.