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Free market for seafood
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Song Yingwen
THE legendary, no-holds-barred Cantonese love of food is world-famous. A Cantonese saying "anything that walks, swims, crawls, or flies with its back to heaven is edible" describes their openness. Yet of critical importance in Cantonese cooking is the need for the freshest ingredients and the emphasis on preserving the natural flavour of food during cooking.
Choosy seafood lovers now have somewhere besides crowded downtown streets to find cheap, fresh seafood: down by the sea, where the food is delivered directly from the fish farms -- or fishermen's nets -- nearby. The seafood street in Shuitou Village, Dapeng Town in Longgang District should be at the top of the list of anyone who loves fresh seafood.
Walking along the street in Shuitou Village, first-time visitors may be confused: the street, which is no wider than 10 metres, is lined on one side by dozens of stalls selling seafood and by restaurants on the other. But filled as it is with vendors loudly crying out their wares and bargaining with customers, the street seems more like a seafood market than a hive of seafood restaurants.
According to local officials, the "free market for seafood" is actually what the locals call the street. The market is designed to meet the increasing demand for fresh seafood by canteens and restaurants in Shenzhen. "All our seafood is raised in the fish farm of our village. Therefore good quality and low cost are guaranteed," the owners of the stalls said proudly.
When the restaurants were added to the market, a unique pricing system was created. Diners are charged only a small "processing fee" on top of the cost of the food, which is bought across the street. The fee depends on how the dishes are cooked: a dish requiring only boiling costs five yuan, while other cooking methods like stir-frying or steaming cost eight yuan per dish.
"Our group of 10 people cost no more than 500 yuan for our big feast tonight which included shrimps, oysters, scallops, white eels, prawns, crabs and many other things. I would say it's cheap dining here," Wang, a customer who has visited the place several times, said.
According to the owners, the market is packed with purchasing agents from downtown restaurants every morning and is crowded with visitors driving from all parts of the city for lunch and dinner. Sometimes a restaurant serves over 600 people in one night.
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