🍽️ Kaihua River Snails

Clean stream snails stir-fried with perilla.

Kaihua River Snails are a seasonal freshwater specialty from Kaihua, in Quzhou, Zhejiang. Located at the headwaters of the Qiantang River, Kaihua has clear mountain streams that yield thin-shelled snails with clean meat and almost no muddy taste. They are most often stir-fried over high heat with perilla, ginger, garlic and dried red chili, then briefly braised with a little cooking wine and soy sauce. The snail meat is crisp and springy, the distinctive aroma of perilla harmonizing with the mild chili heat, and the braising liquor rich; it is best eaten by sucking the shells one by one as a drinking snack. It is a popular small dish at Kaihua's spring and summer night-market stalls, paired with a beer or local rice wine to capture the leisurely waterside mood of this Zhejiang mountain town.