Xiamen

Shā chá miàn

Alkaline wheat noodles in a brick-red broth built from Xiamen satay paste, which is ground peanuts plus shrimp heads fermented for two months or more, shrimp paste, garlic, five-spice and curry powder. You point at a tray of raw add-ins at the counter and the cook blanches your choices to order: pork intestine, pig's liver, duck blood, squid, oysters, fish balls, tofu puffs. The broth is ladled over the lot and eaten immediately with a spoon and chopsticks.

Tastes like: Thick, nutty, savoury-sweet and faintly curried, with springy noodles that soak up the broth; richer than it looks and not actually spicy.

Not on the menu but in it: The broth is fundamentally peanut-based and also contains fermented shrimp and shrimp paste, so it is unsafe for both peanut and shellfish allergies even if you order only vegetable toppings. Dried flatfish or fish sauce is common in the paste. Nothing on the menu is peanut-free.

Hǎi lì jiān

A batter of sweet-potato starch and water is poured onto a hot griddle with a handful of small local oysters, beaten egg, chopped garlic greens and coriander, then fried until the edges crisp and the centre stays gelatinous. It is flipped once, cut up with the spatula and served flat on a plate with chilli-garlic sauce on the side. Eaten with chopsticks as a snack, not as a main.

Tastes like: Crisp lacy edges over a soft, slightly gluey interior; briny and sweet from the oysters, sharpened by the sauce.

Not on the menu but in it: The chewy, almost translucent texture comes from sweet-potato starch, not flour, which surprises people expecting a Western omelette. The dipping sauce usually contains fermented soy and sometimes peanut.

Huā shēng tāng

Skinned raw peanuts are simmered four to six hours with rock sugar until they collapse at the touch of a spoon, leaving a cloudy white, barely sweet soup. It is served hot in a small bowl, often with a raw egg cracked in to poach in the heat, and eaten alongside a fried dough stick or a sweet fried pastry. Despite being sweet it is a breakfast item, not a dessert course.

Tastes like: Milky, gently sweet and nutty, with peanuts that dissolve to a paste in the mouth.

Not on the menu but in it: The common upgrade 鸡蛋花生汤 adds a raw egg that cooks in the bowl, so it is not vegan and is a problem for egg allergies; ask for it plain if needed.

É zǎi miàn xiàn

Hair-thin wheat vermicelli cooked until it half-dissolves into a thick, starch-bound broth, then topped with small oysters, fried garlic and coriander. The noodles are deliberately broken short so the whole bowl is eaten with a spoon. A squeeze of black vinegar or a spoon of chilli is usually on the table.

Tastes like: Gluey and comforting, salty with a clean oyster sweetness and a strong hit of fried garlic.

Not on the menu but in it: The broth is usually built on dried flatfish or dried shrimp stock even when no seafood is visible, and the noodle itself is heavily salted in production.

Miàn xiàn hú

A Minnan breakfast of fine wheat vermicelli stirred into a sweet-potato-starch-thickened stock until it becomes a pale, spoonable gruel. You then choose toppings by pointing: braised pork, pig's intestine, duck gizzard, egg, oysters, fried fish fillet, each priced separately and added on top. A fried dough stick is dunked in it.

Tastes like: Mild, savoury and silky, with the flavour coming almost entirely from whichever toppings you pick.

Not on the menu but in it: The base stock is normally made with pork bones and dried seafood, so the plain-looking bowl is neither vegetarian nor fish-free. Topping prices are additive and a loaded bowl costs several times the base price.

Bó bǐng

A paper-thin wheat crepe is laid flat, smeared with sweet sauce, then loaded with slow-braised shredded cabbage and carrot, bean sprouts, tofu, dried seaweed, fried shallot and a heavy dusting of crushed peanuts and sugar, and rolled into a fat cigar. Unlike the deep-fried spring roll this version is never fried and is eaten by hand. It is the Xiamen ancestor of Singaporean and Malaysian popiah.

Tastes like: Soft and juicy, sweet-savoury, with the crunch coming from peanuts and fried shallot rather than pastry.

Not on the menu but in it: The crushed peanut and sugar mixture is central and is often added by default without being mentioned. The braised cabbage filling frequently includes dried shrimp or oyster, so a vegetable-looking roll may not be vegetarian.

Wǔ xiāng tiáo

Minced pork mixed with chopped water chestnut, onion and five-spice powder is wrapped in a sheet of dried beancurd skin, deep-fried until the skin blisters, then snipped into bite lengths with scissors. It is served with a sweet-sour dipping sauce and sometimes mustard. One of the few genuinely crisp items in the Xiamen snack repertoire.

Tastes like: Shatteringly crisp beancurd skin around a juicy, aniseed-scented pork filling.

Not on the menu but in it: The crunch inside is water chestnut, not nuts. The wrapper is soy beancurd skin, which some people mistake for pastry; the dipping sauce is usually a sweet soy-vinegar blend.

Shāo ròu zòng

Glutinous rice is stir-fried in lard with soy, then packed into a bamboo leaf around pork belly, shiitake, dried shrimp, chestnut and sometimes a salted egg yolk, and steamed for hours. It is unwrapped at the table and eaten hot, drenched in satay sauce, garlic paste and sweet chilli sauce, which is the part that makes it specifically Minnan rather than generic Chinese zongzi.

Tastes like: Dense, glossy and savoury, with melting pork fat; the satay topping makes it nutty and sweet.

Not on the menu but in it: The sauce poured over it is peanut-based satay, so the dish becomes a peanut dish at the last second. Dried shrimp inside, lard throughout, and the bamboo leaf is wrapping, not food.

Jiāng mǔ yā

Duck on the bone is browned in sesame oil with a huge quantity of sliced mature ginger, then braised in rice wine and soy with Chinese tonic herbs until the sauce reduces to a sticky glaze. It arrives bubbling in its own cast-iron or clay pot over a flame and is shared, with the ginger slices eaten as well as the duck. Considered a warming, restorative dish and eaten most in cold months.

Tastes like: Deeply savoury and wine-scented with a slow-building ginger burn and a medicinal-herbal background note.

Not on the menu but in it: The herbal element (angelica, goji, sometimes ginseng) gives a bitter medicinal taste that is intentional. Cooked in sesame oil and rice wine, so it is neither alcohol-free nor sesame-free.

Tǔ sǔn dòng

Sipunculid worms dug from coastal mudflats are cleaned, boiled until their own collagen leaches out, then set in small moulds into a clear jelly with the worms suspended inside. Served cold, turned out of the mould, with soy, vinegar, mustard, garlic, coriander and slices of cucumber. The name translates as 'earth bamboo-shoot jelly', which conceals what it is.

Tastes like: Cool, wobbly and faintly briny, with a crisp snap from the worms themselves; the dressing does most of the flavouring.

Not on the menu but in it: It is marine worms, not bamboo shoots or any kind of vegetable, and the jelly is the animals' own gelatine with no added setting agent. Peanut sauce is a common dressing option.

Yú wán

Mackerel or eel flesh is scraped from the bone, beaten with sweet-potato starch and egg white into a paste, then hand-moulded, sometimes around a nugget of minced pork, and poached. Served in a clear broth with white pepper and a few leaves of celery or coriander, or dropped into a noodle soup. Fujian-style balls are much springier than mainland-northern versions.

Tastes like: Bouncy to the point of rubbery in the best way, mild and clean, with a surprise of salty pork in the filled ones.

Not on the menu but in it: Many 'fish' balls contain a pork filling, so they are not a safe choice for anyone avoiding pork. Broth is often pork-bone based.

Sì guǒ tāng

A build-your-own cold dessert: you choose from trays of red bean, Job's tears, taro balls, tapioca pearls, grass jelly, agar strips, mung bean, peanut, preserved plum and fresh fruit, and the stall tops the bowl with shaved ice and either sugar syrup, honey or coconut milk. Eaten standing up in hot weather, which in Xiamen is most of the year.

Tastes like: Icy and lightly sweet with lots of chewy textures rather than one dominant flavour.

Not on the menu but in it: Peanut is one of the default toppings and sits in an open tray next to everything else, so cross-contact is likely. Condensed milk or evaporated milk is a frequent sweetener even where coconut is advertised.

Biǎn shí bàn miàn

The classic Minnan pairing of a bowl of tiny pork-and-shrimp wontons in clear broth alongside a small bowl of dry noodles dressed in peanut butter and fermented bean sauce. The wontons have almost more wrapper than filling and are deliberately slippery; the noodles are stirred hard at the table until the sauce coats every strand. Ordered together, not as alternatives.

Tastes like: Light, clean soup against thick, salty-nutty noodles; the contrast is the whole idea.

Not on the menu but in it: The dressing on the dry noodles is literally peanut paste plus fermented soybean paste, a severe peanut risk that English menus rarely spell out. Wonton filling normally includes dried or fresh shrimp.