🍽️ Cai Cha

Veggies, meat and vermicelli porridge, Haifeng New Year dish.

Cai Cha is a traditional festival food of the Hailufeng region around Shanwei, eastern Guangdong, a kind of mixed vegetable savory porridge. A base of thin rice porridge or bone broth is loaded with a dozen pre-cooked, chopped vegetables and toppings—spinach, cabbage, celery, garlic, carrot, beancurd sticks, shrimp, pork jerky, Chinese sausage, peanuts and vermicelli, varying by family. The bowl arrives colorful and generous; the stir-fried mix is ladled into the hot porridge and tossed—savory, hearty and filling. Hailufeng people cook it on the seventh day of Lunar New Year and throughout the festival, sharing bowls among neighbors as a communal New Year ritual. It is not refined Cantonese cuisine, but a one-pot medley carrying the Hailufeng idea of reunion and plenty.