What People Really Eat on a Typical Day in Hangzhou#

Welcome to Hangzhou! If you’re wondering what locals here eat beyond the famous tourist spots, let’s take a look at our daily food routines. Life in a big city like Hangzhou (population over 9 million!) means a mix of quick convenience and cherished home meals.

A Day of Eating: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner#

For most people in Hangzhou, the eating day goes like this:

• Breakfast (Zaocan): This is often quick and eaten outside or on the go, especially on weekdays. People are usually rushing to work or school.
• Lunch (Wucan): Many office workers or students eat at canteens or small, nearby restaurants. Home lunch is less common during the week unless you live very close by. It’s usually simple and filling.
• Dinner (Wancan): This is the most important meal, especially for families. It’s typically eaten at home, with several dishes shared by everyone at the table. It’s a time to relax and connect.

Home Cooking vs. Eating Out#

While you see many restaurants and street food stalls, home cooking is still very central to life in Hangzhou, especially for dinner and on weekends.

• Home-Cooked Meals: These focus on fresh ingredients and familiar tastes. A typical dinner might have rice, one or two vegetable dishes, a meat or fish dish, and maybe a soup. Flavors tend to be lighter and slightly sweet compared to some other Chinese cuisines.
• Eating Out & Street Food: For breakfast and lunch, buying food is very common. You’ll find small shops selling steamed buns (baozi), noodles, fried dough sticks (youtiao) with soy milk, or savory crepes (jianbing). Lunch spots offer rice with a few simple dishes to choose from (like a small cafeteria style). Street food is also popular for snacks or a quick meal.

Local Ingredients and Flavors#

Hangzhou’s food is part of Zhejiang cuisine, known for being fresh, tender, and having mild, slightly sweet flavors. We use lots of fresh ingredients from the surrounding areas, which are rich in water and fertile land.

• Common Ingredients: Fish and seafood from nearby rivers and coasts, bamboo shoots (especially in spring), different kinds of leafy greens, and water vegetables like lotus root. Pork and chicken are also staples.
• Key Flavors/Spices: Light soy sauce, rice wine (like Shaoxing wine from a nearby city), vinegar, ginger, and a little sugar are used often. We don’t use as much chili or strong spices as in some other parts of China. Longjing tea, grown locally near West Lake, is a very important ingredient and drink.

Festival and Weekend Dishes#

Weekends and festivals are when families might make more elaborate meals or eat out together at slightly nicer restaurants.

• Weekend Dinners: Often feature more dishes, maybe including a whole fish or a more complex braised meat. It’s a time to enjoy cooking and eating with family.
• Festival Food: Specific festivals have their own foods. For example, sticky rice dumplings (zongzi) are eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival, and mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival. During Chinese New Year, big feasts with many symbolic dishes are prepared, often including fish (symbolizing abundance) and spring rolls.

Popular Snacks and Drinks#

Snacking is common, and tea is a huge part of the culture here.

• Snacks: Besides the breakfast items mentioned earlier, you might see people eating steamed or roasted sweet potatoes, various pastries (like green bean cake), or nuts and seeds. Street skewers (chuan’r) are popular in the evening.
• Drinks: Tea, especially Longjing tea, is the everyday drink for many. It’s common to see people carrying thermos flasks filled with tea. Soy milk is popular for breakfast. Sweet drinks, fruit juices, and bottled teas are also widely available.

Food Customs and Things to Know#

Like elsewhere in China, there are some common practices around food here:

• Sharing is Caring: Meals, especially dinner, are usually served family-style, with shared dishes in the center of the table. You pick food from the common dishes with your chopsticks.
• Rice is King: Rice is the main staple and served with almost every meal.
• Order Matters: When eating with elders or at formal meals, there can be an order to serving and seating, showing respect.
• No Sticking Chopsticks Upright: Don’t stick your chopsticks straight up in a bowl of rice; it resembles incense sticks at a funeral and is considered bad luck.
• Waste Not: While not a strict taboo, wasting food is generally frowned upon.

Understanding these daily eating habits gives you a much better feel for real life in Hangzhou, beyond just tasting famous dishes like West Lake fish or Dongpo pork in restaurants. Enjoy your food journey here!