🍽️ Kway Teow Soup

Flat rice noodles in clear broth with beef or fish balls.

Kway teow soup is an everyday Shantou dish that can appear at breakfast, lunch or dinner. Kway teow are wide, flat rice noodles made by steaming rice milk into sheets and cutting them into strips, giving a soft, slippery texture. To serve, cooks ladle a clear broth—often simmered from pork bones, dried skate or beef bones—heat the noodles in it, then top with freshly sliced raw beef, braised meats, fish balls or pork offal, finishing with chopped celery and preserved salted vegetables. The noodles slide down and soak up the soup, which stays clean-tasting yet deeply savory, while the meat is blanched just tender. Shantou locals favor soupy kway teow over fried, insisting on clear broth, fresh toppings and eating it the moment it is served. It is a common breakfast or late-night bowl, warming and filling, and one of the most ordinary, down-to-earth tastes on Shantou's streets.