🍽️ Kaiping Eel Rice

Rice fried with stripped eel, Qiaoxiang wok-hei.

Kaiping Eel Rice is a classic claypot-rice specialty of Kaiping, the overseas-Chinese hometown under Jiangmen, Guangdong. Fresh ricefield eel is skinned, shredded and stir-fried with ginger, dried tangerine peel and soy, then folded, meat and savory juices, into freshly cooked slim-rice claypot rice and briefly covered. The grains come out glossy, the eel tender and free of earthiness, lifted by citrus peel and ginger, often crowned with a golden scorched crust at the bottom. Heat control and claypot breath are key, and it is best mixed to order. As a hometown of emigrants, Kaiping carried this dish across Southeast Asia; today it appears at family feasts and farm restaurants. With a bowl of soup, it is the most comforting rural taste of the Wuyi region.