Jiaozuo Cuisine

Jiaozuo food belongs to Henen Cuisine, and the best known dishes and snacks are donkey meat dishes, oil tea of Wuzhi County, preserved duck egg, and dried persimmon.

Oil Tea of Wuzhi County (武陟油茶)

A famous local flavor snack of Henan, Oil Tea was invented in Wuzhi County. As a matter of fact, the oil tea is neither oil nor tea, but a kind of porridge with wheat flour being the major ingredient. The wheat flour is fried with oil before made into porridge, hence its name. The oil tea is in the color of coffee, and offers rich nutrition and tasty mouthfeel with the flavor of slight salty and sweet.

Preserved Duck Egg (松花蛋)

It is a traditional specialty with a long history of Wuliyuan Town of Xiuwu County. It is crystal –clear in solid and can be stored for a long time, while taste soft and delicious. Apart from the elaborate processing methods, the Preserved Duck Egg of Wuliyuan is so unique and famous due to its eggs, which are laid by the ducks living in a primitive environment with unpolluted waters and feeding on insects, fish and shrimps.

Dried Persimmon (柿饼)

Persimmon trees are main crop in Jiaozuo City and its side product-dried persimmons are quite distinctive to the ones produced in other areas because they are small in size, drier in moisture, easy to be stored and can eat directly as well as to be side ingredient to make other snacks.

Recommended restaurants
- Huaiqingfu Donkey Meat Restaurant (怀庆府驴肉馆): located on Guoyuan Road, it is a century-old restaurant specializing in Jiaozuo traditional food. Donkey Meat Dish and Cinnamon Vine Dish are the specialties.
- Yizun Huangniu (一尊皇牛): also located on Guoyuan Road, it is a restaurant featured by hot pots. What makes it different is that each person is served with a separated pot. In addition, the sauce is quite special which is made by shrimp paste.