Hainanese delicacies gaining popularity beyond the island

In recent years, an increasing number of Hainanese snacks have found their place in the major cities in China: a bowl of authentic Qingbuliang in Beijing, a bowl of Hainan Rice-noodles in Guangzhou, and even a steaming pot of coconut chicken in Zhengzhou. As for Hainan Chicken Rice, which was adapted from Wenchang Chicken and named after the island whence its creators came, it has taken the world by storm.

Since civilization began, food has been a link between cultural memory and life as we know it now. Increasingly, Hainanese cuisine conveys to the world the Hainanese perspective on and love for life and culture and the formation of the island’s cultural identity.

“New Darlings” and “Evergreens”

Zaopocu is a traditional food from Puqian Town, Wenchang. This appetizing dish, which merges the sour with the umami, is a soup made from a base of vinasse (a sour vinegar by-product of the wine fermentation process), into which is thrown vegetables, seaweed, offal, gristle, shellfish, and other ingredients.

If you open up Dianping (大众点评) in Beijing today and search for Zaopocu, more than 1,000 results will pop up. A search on RED will come back with over 30,000 posts.

Huang Caihong, a Hainanese girl who has made her home in Shanghai, has found in recent years that more and more Hainanese cuisine can be found in Shanghai, including Zaopocu, Coconut Chicken, and other up-and-coming Hainan food. Restaurants where the cuisine is served have gradually become popular spots for catching up with friends over a bite to eat.

"My colleagues and I often go to Hainanese restaurants. I hope that cuisine like Hainan Chicken Rice can find the same brand-name popularity as Shaxian Delicacies and Lanzhou Beef Noodles so that Hainanese people in far flung places get more chance to savor the taste of home,” said Huang.

As Wang’s words suggest, when people think of Hainan cuisine, Hainan Chicken Rice is always the first thing that comes to mind.

As early as the late 19th century, waves of Hainanese people emigrating south brought Hainan Chicken Rice to the whole Southeast Asia. A simple dish that has its origins in Wenchang Chicken evolved into a speciality of the Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, and eventually became the national dish of Singapore and Malaysia.

Hainan Chicken Rice is very popular in Singapore. It is available at street cafes, food courts in shopping malls, and even hawker centres (food markets), and most foreign tourists visiting the city state will order a serving. He Ruizhou, a shareholder representative of Singapore's Sam Hee Hainanese Chicken Restaurant, said that every shop in Singapore has its own unique style of cooking the chicken and rice, with their own blend of ingredients. In recent years, many local four-five star hotels have also included Hainan Chicken Rice on their menus and formulated more upscale versions of the dish.

Improving Quality and Convenience

Qingbuliang, a classic Hainan dessert, is typically made with a base of coconut milk, coconut water or light syrup, to which is added numerous toppings such as red beans, mung beans, barley, lotus seeds, red dates, and taro.

A dish like this requires the freshest ingredients, so for a long time, it was difficult to market it beyond Hainan. As early as 2015, canned Qingbuliang began to be produced and sold, but the market response to this product was grim.

"At one point, I wanted to give up on this product. But in 2019, I found that the sales of canned Qingbuliang had suddenly risen." Xu Guohua, chairman of Impression Nanguo E-commerce Co., Ltd., said that after noticing a turnaround in the sales of canned Qingbuliang, she began to observe consumer behavior, "People's began caring more about their health and wanted to eat healthier foods, and with this, the concept of eating more lightly became a thing."

Inspired by consumer trends, Nanguo Foods decided to create and market a healthier version of Qingbuliang, improving the formula, using ingredients such as barley, red beans, sago, and replacing sucrose with sugar substitutes. With a healthier product coming off the production line and the help of live streaming, canned Qingbuliang soon became a hit; sales doubled annually and 30% of first-time buyers were buying more.

In a similar vein to canned Qingbuliang, Hainan Yixiaoman Food Co., Ltd. makes instant traditional Hainan Rice-Noodles, selling 30,000 to 50,000 units per month nationwide. Li Yan, general manager of Hainan Yixiaoman Food Co., Ltd., explained that the supply chain involved in the production of instant Hainan Rice-Noodles is long, resulting in a certain cost loss. The company now plans to build their own production line in Wenchang, ramping up the scale of industrialization to further promote Hainanese cuisine.

Instant Hainan Rice-Noodles, canned Qingbuliang, ready-made coconut chicken, dried tropical fruits...with the continuous improvement of food processing technology, Hainanese cuisine is presenting itself in a more diversified way, with the potential to go even further in international markets. However, it still has a long way to go compared to other Chinese regional delicacies like Shaxian Delicacies, Liuzhou Luosifen (River Snail) Noodles,and Lanzhou Beef Noodles.

Coconut House Chairman Zhao Yuming believes that in today's rapidly developing catering market, you either swim or risk drowning.

Li Renjun, dean of the School of Continuing Education at Hainan University, believes that the development of standardization is an important factor in further promoting Hainanese cuisine beyond the island. Food brands in Hainan should work hard to harmonize product and service standards and merge what makes them unique within a unified product system and service quality standard. In this regard, Hainan can take a leaf from Shaxian Delicacies and other mature regional food brands.