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A little preparation. A much better adventure.Independent travel advice · Made for China
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A taste of Nanjing

Fang Po

芳婆糕团店

A no-frills counter on Wangfu Street in Qinhuai that has been selling Nanjing breakfast snacks since the 1970s. The thing to queue for is the black rice ball: black glutinous rice coloured with bilberry leaves, wrapped around a meat filling, pressed into a fist-sized lump and handed over in a plastic bag. It is the most purely local thing you can eat in Nanjing for a few yuan, and English-language guides almost never mention it.

¥ on the MICHELIN price scale (lowest band); a few yuan per item, exact figures unconfirmedMichelin Bib Gourmand 2026Qinhuai district, 50 Wangfu Street, in the Confucius Temple / Qinhuai snack area.
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Why come here

A place worth making time for

MICHELIN Bib Gourmand (good quality, good value cooking) in the MICHELIN Guide Shanghai | Jiangsu | Zhejiang 2026, and the MICHELIN Guide's Nanjing feature names it for osmanthus sweets. Trading since the 1970s

The house favourites

What to order

Point at the Chinese. Staff will understand it even where the menu has no English at all.

  • Black glutinous rice ball with meat filling (乌饭团)
  • Baby taro in osmanthus sweet soup (桂花小芋头)
  • Glutinous rice balls in red bean soup with wine lees (酒酿赤豆元宵)
  • Peppery beef broth (牛肉汤)

What it actually tastes like

The sweet dishes are eaten at breakfast alongside savoury ones, which surprises visitors. The wine-lees rice ball soup is faintly alcoholic and sour. Osmanthus tastes floral and perfumed in a way some people read as soapy.

Allergens in this kitchen

gluten/wheatsoysesamepeanutegg

This is the kitchen, not one dish. Woks, fryers, blanching water and utensils are shared in almost every Chinese restaurant, so for a serious allergy treat the whole premises as the unit rather than ordering around it.

Get to know the menu

Local specialities to try here

Red bean soup with rice balls 赤豆元宵Sweet, thick and slightly gluey, with chewy little rice pearls.Black glutinous rice ball 乌饭团Faintly herbal, nutty rice with a crunchy fried-dough core; chewy and very filling.