Coconuts and pineapple woven into your daily dishes? Yes please! This post covers the Sanya China food experiences that you HAVE to have during your visit!
Everything in Sanya is just GOOD. Seafood is fresh. Mangos and pineapples grow like grass. Coconuts abound. My fiancé used to go out and buy two giant, juicy mangos for breakfast, and we’d be the happiest of campers.
Sanya China Food Advice
As they say in Zootopia: “Try everything!”. The fresh fruits in Sanya are divine, super fresh and the best of the best. Their mangoes are my favorite, but their pineapples, jackfruits, and bananas are all super yummy as well.
Coconuts can be bought for $1.5-3 USD (¥9-18 RMB) practically everywhere. For both coconuts and all of the other fruits, any vendor will sell you good products. You don’t have to worry about food safety issues!
As for seafood, that’s another matter which I’ll get to later in this post. In short, you’ll just want to buy from a proper restaurant rather than the open-air market/restaurants they have. But more on that later.
In general, if it’s grown in Sanya, it’s going to be amazing, so try it!!
Now, onto the local dishes which you won’t want to miss!
Hainan Coconut Chicken Hotpot
This is probably the most canonical Sanya dish. China loves its hotpot variations, and they are all the same in concept: the restaurant provides you a broth, you choose the meats and veggies, and DIY cook them.
But in Hainan, instead of using broth, they use…coconut water! Yep! The waiter will bring freshly opened coconuts to your table, and pour them directly into a pot with some mushrooms, coconut slices, and goji berries.
The result is slightly sweet, nutty-tasting broth which is very light and gentle on the tummy. Seriously, it’s one of the most gentle dishes you’ll have in China!
Most restaurants will have you order a whole chicken (which they cut up into manageable sections) and they will drop it all into your pot. You just have to wait for it to cook, and then you’ll have super moist coconut chicken!
In addition, a sauce made with vinegar, peppers, spices, and a squeeze of fresh kumquat makes a super tasty and tangy dipping sauce. Once your chicken and veggies are cooked, you can fish them out and sauce ’em up!
Whenever we’d travel with friends to Sanya, we’d always take them to get coconut chicken. Local Chinese tourists all know to hunt down this dish, but for us foreigners, we often don’t know these things in advance.
So now you know!! Be sure to grab this amazing Sanya China food favorite while on the island!
Pineapple Fried Rice
Chinese stir-fried rice? Definitely. Fried with pineapple pieces and served in a carved out pineapple? Um, YES!
Seriously this is SUCH an amazing island spin on a tried-and-true favorite dish! It’s everything you love about fried rice, with a tangy pineapple twist.
Alongside of a tasty locally-harvested fish dish, you totally can’t go wrong!
Sanya China Local Seafood
A word of caution: the seafood is fresh, but how it’s prepared is what matters most when it comes to preventing upset stomach and food poisoning.
There are some BIG open-air restaurants, where you walk around and point out which fish you want, and they literally scoop it out of the water tank and prepare it for you. And I get sick EVERY time I eat at these.
As tempting as it may be to congregate with all of the other tourists, and though it’s exciting to see all of the critters swimming…I’d advise you to stick with a higher-end, sit-down restaurant.
A better restaurant means better food safety and preparation, and smaller chances of having an issue with food.
That being said, if you find pretty much any decent-looking seafood restaurant in Sanya, it’s probably a good choice. All kinds of scallops, fish, and other delicacies await, and are sure to delight our seafood-loving friends!
Hainan Specialty Noodles
Every province of China has it’s own take on noodles. Hainan is no different! Salty, seafood-y glass noodles (made with rice instead of wheat) are a tasty midday meal or post-beach snack.
When we’re in Sanya, there have been quite a few mornings where my fiancé would bike about 10 minutes to his favorite noodle stand just to get these noodles. They’re his favorite!
When in doubt, noodles are always a safe choice for a tasty meal.
Coconut Sticky Rice Dessert
This is probably one of my favorite Sanya dishes, and it’s a dessert! (I have a major sweet tooth, in case you didn’t already realize).
Sweet, sticky rice is shaped onto a sliver of roasted coconut and served warm. Usually, we’d order it for dessert after a filling Sanya meal. But honestly, I’d eat it as a meal too!
It’s just the perfect amount of sweetness, and the warm, roasted coconut is one of my favorite things I’ve ever had in China. Trust me, this is a dish you DON’T want to miss!
BONUS Dish: Coconut Breakfast Bowl
Another one of my favorite Sanya breakfasts: the coconut bowl! A scoop of refreshing coconut sorbet is dropped into a bowl filled with fresh coconut milk, bobas, pumpkin seeds, dried fruits…and YUM.
This could be a dessert, but for me it was also the perfect starting meal for the day. All of the island flavors will start your day off with so much sweetness and sunshine. You’ll be in heaven!
So that covers the top 5 Sanya China food experiences you should have while visiting the island! I can’t overstate how fresh and tasty everything in Sanya is…so make sure to try it all!
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