I ate 12 BREAKFASTS in Wuhan China s Breakfast Capital

Coming up in today's food adventure. Wow, you're so pretty! Are you a motorcycle? We're from the same place. The more you eat, the prettier you are. Okay! I'm in Wuhan, aka China's carb capital, and never in my life have I eaten so many carbs in such a short amount of time. But I must say... Wow! This city has perfected the art of the carb. Fluffy breads, peppery noodles, carbs filled with carbs, and even an invention of my own. The ultimate carb sandwich. Here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna pause the video right here, you go grab your carb of choice. Ready? Okay. Because I'm about to press play on a Wuhan food adventure like you've never seen. Hello, hello! And welcome back to another Chinese food adventure. We're actually starting today's video off here at Sydney Airport, where I'm just finishing off a spot of breakfast before heading back to China and exploring what many people call the breakfast capital of the country. Of course, Wuhan. I did recently pay a trip to Tianjin, another very strong contender for the title. And in that video, when I referred to Tianjin people from Wuhan were very quick to comment. So just how good is Wuhan breakfast? Well, I'm excited to find out. I'm gonna be eating exclusively breakfast while I'm here in Wuhan, which isn't long, mind you. I'm just on a stopover. It's currently 10 p.m. I'm leaving at 5 p.m. tomorrow. So we're diving in right away. In fact, in the taxi on my way to the hotel, I ordered my first breakfast items because here in Wuhan, you can have breakfast delivered to you at any time of the day. I'm like half asleep right now, but we're doing this. We have some Wuhan classics right here. I got at takeout. First up, of course, we have zhejiangmian. It's the iconic Wuhan noodle. It's built around a rich sesame paste, sometimes mixed with a little peanut butter too, then seasoned with soy sauce, vinegar, chili oil, and plenty of black pepper. I mean, it's a classic for a reason. Check out the coating of sesame sauce on those noodles. It's so nutty and rich and delicious. And actually something that I learned goes very well with the zhejiangmian is this here, which is danjiu, which means literally egg alcohol. Ooh, it smells like a little bit like rice wine. Ooh, it is a very nice pairing, I have to say, because the zhejiangmian, they're quite salty, very rich from that sesame sauce. And this is like slightly sweet. It's got a very light alcoholy taste, more like a rice wine to it. The egg inside is probably the most random element for me because every now and again, you just get a bit of egg in your mouth. I also ordered one more thing because I needed to meet the minimum spend requirements for my takeout order. So I also got doupi, another absolute classic here in Wuhan. It's a very interesting dish, actually. It starts off with a golden skin made from a batter of ground rice and mung beans. Then egg is brushed on too. Then sticky rice is added. And finally, a mix of fragrant mushrooms and dried tofu. Then it's flipped to cook on the other side. And what I found interesting is actually a plate is used as a utensil in this context. And even more interesting, I've learned that back in the day, instead of a plate, they actually used a clamshell to do this. Wow, that is super umami. Like check out all of the mushrooms on the bottom of it there. Strong flavors, heavy carbs. This is a pretty perfect preview of what to expect from Wuhan breakfast in general. There's also a little bit of a strategic first breakfast here in Wuhan, breakfast at 11 p.m., because these are all dishes I've actually tried before and they're all Wuhan classics. And I mean, how can I come to Wuhan and not feature in some capacity yue ga mian or dou pi? But in this video, I wanted to go beyond some of those classics that everyone knows about and delve deeper into local recommendations. So I asked my subscribers on Chinese social media before coming here, what to eat in Wuhan for breakfast. And there was one girl in particular who wrote the most beautiful breakdown of what to eat, where to eat it, and all these local recommendations. So I actually thought I'd reach out and ask directly if she wanted to join me for breakfast. So that's my plan for tomorrow morning. Hello. Hi, good morning. How are you? Very good. Okay, so do you feel cold now? I feel good. Okay, so we are going this way. Hi, everyone. Hi, I'm Clarence. That's my English name. I do have another name, Iris. So I'm a little bit confused about that. Which one should I say? But Clarence is okay. Clarence is the name for my work and Iris is name for my hobby. I have different identities. Love that. Your English is amazing. Thank you. How did you learn? I majored in English, but I still got a little bit nervous because in your video, there are so many Chinese that can speak very wonderful English. And I really dream, oh, maybe I can be one. Yes, yes, it was so cute. You said the other day, oh, your dream for 2026 was to be in one of my videos. The very first goal, yes. Well, it's the 9th of January. You're gonna need a new goal. So what's the first on our agenda for today? First one, we are going to a market, a local market. It's located on Tianshan Road and it's a super local, non-touristy morning market. The kind of place where you can grab breakfast and your fresh produce all in one go. Here's a little quiz for you. I will ask you later, but you can see here, we have this very special vegetables. Did you see this before? No. It's called a Cai Tai. It's a very local, special Wuhan vegetables. It looks a little bit like asparagus meets broccolini. It's better than them. Really? Yes. Clarence has let me know we'll eat it at some point today, but for now, it's time for one of Wuhan's most iconic breakfast, Xian Yu Hu Tang Fen. Xian Yu means the fresh fish, Hu means the texture is sticky, and Fen means rice noodles. And like any good breakfast, you can jazz it up with your toppings of choice. Here, we've got coriander, spring onion, teeny dried shrimp for that umami taste, and some pickled veggies too. So back in time, people are really poor, so we sell the bigger fish to other people and we save the little fish and the shells, the shrimps, to boil it over and over again to make it super umami. And then we use the broth and we add the rice powder, make it super sticky, and then we add salt and pepper. So that's what it looks like in this color because it's super peppery. Do I use, how do you do it? Like this? Okay. I've learned that slurping is an essential part of this experience. Wow. It's like so peppery. Very, very peppery. That's Wuhan style. It's so peppery, it's almost spicy. It hits me right in the back of my throat. And it's not only like that feeling of, oh, I'm eating pepper. It's the taste. Like you can even see the pepper in there. Can you taste the fish? To be honest, no. No. I didn't know that there was fish inside this because there's just too many other flavors in this. And then we can get one youtiao. That's beautiful. As a foreigner still getting used to Wuhan's peppery flavor profile, I actually liked how the youtiao toned things down a bit. At the same time, I don't want to go too hard on them because I know Wuhan's got a lot of carbs and our next one is waiting for us right outside this breakfast stall here. This one's called ji guan jiao, literally rooster's comb dumpling. And once you see the shape of it, the name makes perfect sense. Oh, it's so tender. Look at that bread. And then inside you've got the meat, some spring onion. I already know this is gonna be really good. Wow. It feels unethical to pay 2.5 RMB for this. Yes, this is something I would travel to Paris and go to a bakery and it's steaming. And it's just like, firstly, just how soft the bread is, but then it's also slightly crispy on the outside. So just that texture itself, it's just magic. I love all the spring onion inside, the meatiness. It's heavy, but it also feels quite light. It's like all the great things about a really soft youtiao, but with flavor. Wow. Oh my God. This might be one of my favorite breakfast breads that I've ever kind of come across. I'm starting to think that Wuhan is deserving the title of China's breakfast capital. It is now. For real. Have you been to Tianjin? No, but I really want to go there. Yeah? Some people say that Tianjin is the breakfast capital of China. But I think Wuhan's bigger. What are we having next? This one. Huang Jian Cui Pi O Yuan Zi. And here you can see the ingredients. Fresh lotus root, salt, and chestnut powder. And the price. Super easy, the brand tells you everything. So is this the raw product? Yes. So the lotus mix is then molded into balls and popped into the deep fryer until golden and crispy. It feels like I'm cheating on breakfast because I'm eating this one and I'm drooling over another one. I love it. More than Ji Guan Jiao. Really? Yeah. Because this is going to be hard to beat. Let's try lotus balls. Did you ever try this kind of taste before? It's fried, and the outside is super crispy. The inside is soft, but then you also have the benefit of the crunch of the lotus, which gives it even more... It's not only popular, it's really good. It's true. Is there ginger inside? You're good, yes. There is ginger, yes. I really like it. But this is by no means the only lotus product you'll find in Wuhan. Next door is another lotus breakfast favorite called Ou Jia, basically a fried lotus sandwich. Why is there so much lotus here in Wuhan? Because Wuhan is the land of fish and rice, and we have another name of Thousand Lakes City. We have a thousand lakes. Not only the Donghu East Lake, we also have West Lake, South Lake, Northwest Lake, West Lake, Northwest. Yes, we have a lot of lakes. So in the lakes, we have the lotus, we have the flower, and we have the lotus root, and we have the lotus seeds in the summer. But in different seasons, we can taste different products from lotus. Look at that. There are two slices of lotus root and the meat and spring onion inside. It's good. I don't think I like it as much as the Ji Guan Jiao and the Ou Yuan Zi, but it's still a very nice snack. Hello, hello. Sorry, I'm popping in here super randomly, but I've got some very exciting news to share. A huge dream of mine is finally happening. I'm officially launching my first ever food tours, and I have put so much love into this itinerary. Basically, if you've ever watched my videos and thought, I want to go to China and eat like that and travel like that, this tour is designed for you. It's going to be a 10-day Southwest China food tour through Sichuan, Chongqing, and Guizhou, taking you well beyond the usual tourist route to places like Leshan, Yibin, and Guiyang. And we're going to be eating super local, authentic, down-to-earth, and most importantly, delicious dishes, just like you see me eating in my videos. Some notable mentions include Tian Pi Ya, the sweet-skinned duck, my favorite duck dish in China, Qing Shui Tang, which was my highlight dish of 2025. And while we're talking about favorite dishes, we're having Leng Guo Chua, which was my husband's. He said it's in his top favorite dishes of his entire life. So you're going to love that one, as well as my favorite Chinese breakfast of all time. You're going to be eating all of that and more. I'm releasing two small pilot tours with just 18 people per tour, departing on the 19th of May and 10th of June. And I'll personally be on both of those tours. And very excitingly, bookings actually open this weekend on Saturday, the 31st of January at 2 p.m. China time. And since spots are very limited, the best way to stay in the loop and make sure you don't miss out is by joining my email list. Even if you're not ready for this tour, but you think you might like to join one in the future, I'd love to see you there, because the email list is where I'll be sharing all tour updates, future trips, new itineraries, and first access moving forward. So the link to my website is in my description. You can sign up for the email list there, and you'll also find full day-by-day breakdown of the itinerary, any FAQs you might be interested in, as well as pricing details. This is just so surreal. I can't believe I'm sitting here and talking to you about this right now. It's a huge dream come true. Thank you all for believing in me and supporting me over the years. I hope to meet some of you in China soon. Anyway, I'll take you back to Wuhan. Enjoy the rest of the video. That was a seriously efficient breakfast experience, and I'm very happy to enjoy a few minutes of digestion in the taxi before our next carb of the day, which is tucked away here down a side street. So why did you choose this stall here? I've learned that the thicker it is, the less crispy it gets. So check out how thin she's making this next batch. And as it cooks, you can actually smell this fermented, almost alcohol-like aroma coming from the fermented rice in this. The auntie just tell you that this is only in Wuhan, not in a foreign country. We say the guo zao. Oh, guo zao. Breakfast is not just chi zao can. This one is called duo mo. Duo means the action we chop. Use a knife to chop it to pieces. And I don't think I've ever seen such a springy bread. Oh my gosh, look at this bread. Oh, it's still warm. Oh my goodness. And how do people usually eat it? Just take a slice and go, or do they put something on top of it? Both. For example, we can use it as a sandwich, bread, ciabatta. That's what I was thinking. We call this Wuhan's ciabatta. I'm just going to try it on its own. It's made from flour, but it almost tastes like it's made from rice. Yeah. Because the texture is so soft. Really moist, yeah. And it's also a little bit sweet as well. Yeah. It's like somewhere between a sponge cake and a bread. And all I can think about is what I would put in it as a sandwich. So I'm going to bring that with me. Anyway, our mi ba are ready now. They've been both fried and steamed. So I'm really intrigued to try the texture. She doesn't put any filling inside. It's just, wow, look, it's steaming. You must be happy, right? Yeah. I think what's great about this is the texture, the crispy outside. Do some ASMR. A slight sweetness. And this is just very easy. To make you feel alive. It is very Moorish. It's one of those things that you can just pick up, walk down the street, have a little bit as you go. I've learned this is basically a core skill of Wuhan locals. And Clarence explained to me later that day that people here are so dexterous, they can comfortably carry and eat multiple breakfast dishes while walking at the same time. And maybe you can ride in a bicycle and have the rougamil. At the same time. And for me, I can do that with umbrella in the rainy days and I use my rougamil. Because sometimes it's very rush time, rush time. So we need to hurry up, hurry up. So we do that together. But it's not good for your health, not good for your stomach. Don't do that. Don't do that out of Hubei because it may be a little bit rude for people to walk around because they think it's not right. But in Wuhan it's OK. And once she pointed it out, I started seeing people eating and walking everywhere. All right, time for our next breakfast of the day. And for those of you keeping count at home, this is carb number 10 of this breakfast food adventure. And for number 10, it's a very special one. It's the iconic Wuhan xiaomai. Yes, you are saying that right. She is watering the xiaomai with a watering can. And apparently this is the place to be. What you're seeing here is actually two queues. One for lining up to get a ticket and the next for claiming your food. So how are the xiaomai of Wuhan different to xiaomai in other places? We know that Cantonese style is full of the egg wrappers and the meat inside. For the northern cities in China, they have the mutton one, right? But this one is basically the peppery glutinous rice with mushroom and pork. I'm sensing a theme. I feel like in Wuhan you see a lot of mushroom, a lot of pepper and a lot of glutinous rice. I used our time in the queue learning how to order our items in the local Wuhan dialect. Hello, four xiaomai. One pot of egg wine. One pot of egg wine, okay. How was my pronunciation? Nice! She can understand, that's enough. Wow, they are big. Thank you. Clarence warned me these xiaomai were going to be heavy. So we ordered some very Wuhan style refreshments. The classic egg wine that I had last night. And this was Manthor's osmanthus rice wine with glutinous rice inside. And I just thought it was hilarious that even the refreshments are somehow also carbs. Look at the texture of it. That's so interesting. It's like a pudding texture. It's so thick. And combined with that warm sweetness of the osmanthus inside, it's a perfect wintertime sweet treat. Now let's have these massive xiaomai. I think it's a must to show you what is inside. Because it's very, very soft. Wow. Oh, they are super soft, aren't they? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, you see the color, right? It's similar like the soup. It's almost like a boxed lunch in a xiaomai. You've got your meat, you've got your rice, you've got some mushrooms in there. Yes. And you can see there are quite big crunch of the meat. And we have some mushrooms. You can smell the- It smells unbelievable. And we have the peppery and very, very soft glutinous rice. Why is there so much glutinous rice in Wuhan here? So as I say, Wuhan is a city near Yangtze River, right? So we have the port culture. So there are many workers that need to work hard in the very early morning. So they need something that are very cheap and a big amount to help them to spend the whole day. So we have this. We have dou pi, we have xiaomai, we have normi bao you tiao. They're all about the glutinous rice. And is it the same with all the carbs? Is that why there's so much carbs here? Yes, and the fried things. Energy, we need energy. It's full of peppery. Wow. You think you're gonna be eating one thing and then you taste another because the smell is so fragrant of the mushrooms and the pork. But then when you taste it, the pepperiness is the first taste that you get. Yes. And yes, you do have like that umami from the mushrooms and that saltiness as well. But definitely the first thing you taste is the pepperiness. It's such a heavy flavor. Yes, super heavy. So we need something sweet. I'm glad I have this because wow. I mean, I've only had one bite of that, but it's lighting my mouth up from all of that pepper. Having grown up in Wuhan, do you feel like when you go somewhere else, you always need to add pepper because it's never enough pepper? When I'm in Manchester during the COVID time, I was at home, I can't go back. And I've seen videos on how to make the yanshi xiaomai. And I tried. And I nearly got like half a bottle of the black pepper. Wow, you need that much? Yes, I need that much because I add some and I taste another taste. Keep adding, adding, adding. Adding, adding, adding, yes. I mean, yeah, to get that level of pepperiness, you really need to be adding a lot. And my way to do it is just get one and like bite the top of it. You need to try very hard because it's super, super big. It's gotta be one of the heavier xiaomai in China. Heavier soup, heavier xiaomai. It's heavy food. I just remembered, I still have my bread here. I'm thinking that that filling is so intense. Maybe I can try to make the ultimate carb sandwich. We have glutinous rice inside of the wrapper, inside of bread. Oh, right. Because the slight sweetness of the bread, it works really well. Okay, this is also my first time to combine these two. I never do that. We have the youbing bao xiaomai before. It's like the fried dough with the xiaomai, right? But now you invent a new one. What do you think? It's nice with the sweetness, right? It's okay. For the people, for tourists, they don't want the taste, not so heavy. You can try this combination. I think that's good. Combination good. But for you, you're used to having the strong flavor. You don't need the bread. You don't need the sweetness. You're just like, give me the pepper. I might need a break soon. It's been like, go, go, go. Later we have a break. Oh, later. But that time is not now. We're heading next door for, you'll never guess it, another fried carb. But this one, a variety of miaowu, does look right up my alley. It looks so cool. It's basically just like pieces of sweet potato that come together to make a pancake. But I do have to say, I think this may have to be my last deep fried food of the day. I'm getting to the point where I see a stand like this and I'm like, oh. I mean, it is exactly what it looks like. It's delicious. It's crispy. It's hot. It's sweet potato. Anything fried is good. Yeah, if I lived in Wuhan, I think this would become a regular breakfast of mine. I love sweet potato. But now some digestion time and a well-earned coffee. I feel like I'm also seeing a lot of coffee shops in Wuhan today. Yes. It feels quite young. New cultural vibe like Shanghai and Beijing because there are so many students, the young people, the teenagers here to give their life. To understand Wuhan's demographic, you also need to understand its geography. With major rivers intersecting right here, Wuhan has historically been a meeting point. Over time, that made it also a center for education. And today, Wuhan is home to more than 80 universities, which gives the city a distinctly young and energetic side. And some people even try the rougamian style of the coffee, but I didn't try that before. They put some sesame, yeah, the sauce deep in. As soon as I heard about that, I knew I had to try it, which is, from what I understand, a normal latte with some peanut sesame sauce added. You guys have heard me talk about this before. Pick a city, any city. If there's a regional specialty food, odds are they will have made a coffee out of that specialty. I actually think that this is gonna be very tasty because I think the sesame sauce actually sounds like it makes sense with coffee. It has a nuttiness and it's super creamy. I'm gonna say this is my favorite variation of the local food coffee that I have personally had. Definitely safe, definitely safe to try, no risk. But before we left our previous coffee store, Clarence and I had a really cute moment that I wanna take you back to. So you see, I got a backpack of things for you and your husband, Derek. Oh my gosh! Yes, and now we are going to have a game. I grab one and please, you try to memorize what's this, the English name or the Chinese name or the dialect, okay? I'm gonna give it to you. Okay. Let's do it one by one. The first one is my favorite. I think it's so cute. It's kind of the vegetable. Okay. Cai cai. Perfect, give you two. One for you, one for Derek. Of course, it's the vegetable we saw this morning. That's so cute. Okay, and now it's something we eat today. Okay. We have, we ate today. What's this one? Oh, this is a, it's a ji guan jiao. You are super, yes. Very good, this is a ji guan jiao bag. Oh my god. It's like a friendly bag. You wanna have a try? I think it's very useful, right? Oh, and it even has the breakfast items on it. You can see. We had this one, the mian wo. Yes, yes. You tiao. Very good. Dou pi. This is the sweetest, thank you. And I have more. Oh my god. I have it today. Yeah. Oh, it's the, it's the ou jia san min zhi. Yes, we just call it ou jia. Ou jia. And you can see, what's this? It's also useful. I'll open. Oh, oh. It's a mirror. Is that funny? What the hell? That's so hilarious. Wow, I'm gonna be the coolest girl ever. I'm gonna go around with my key ring. Show off your Wuhan style. And my bag. Yes. And then when I need to see if I've got something in my teeth, if I've got some. Yes, I have two more. Oh my god. There are two blind boxes. Oh, cool. Two. One for you, one for your husband. I highly recommend you open it now because I'm really curious about it. I don't know what is inside. Okay, do I open Diao's one as well? Yes. Both, okay. Oh, just open. So this one will be mine. Guys, this is, I love a blind box. And this is Wuhan breakfast blind box. I feel the holes. It's a liao. I have a collection of liao merchandise. Diao, this is for you. But maybe for me. Yay! Not today, actually. I've seen Cai Tai. I now have two Cai Tai key chains. You must try. Now I need to try Cai Tai. We've now come to the area that you said was quite popular. Yeah, you can hear the sound. You hear the sound of tourism of China. Someone in the silver shop banging and making a bracelet. I can't believe he's not even doing anything. It's just the noise. And this is where we'll finish off our Wuhan food adventure by finally trying Cai Tai. This one is stir fried with some pork belly. Because we're about to eat Cai Tai, I thought I would proudly display my very own Cai Tai over here. And this is, I mean, don't look. It's your cousin. This is you on a plate. Before, it's like purple and red. And after the cooking, they turn green. That's interesting. A bit of a transformation. I don't think I've been so excited to eat a vegetable. Oh, it's so soft. Think of any vegetable, it probably tastes the most like broccoli angle. Like maybe more like a broccolini, broccoli angle. But it's juicy. But juicy and super soft. And the thing is, when you go and put it in your mouth, I was almost expecting it to be a bit tough because when you have broccolini and you have the stems, it's a little bit more chewy. But this is just, there's not really that fibrous nature to it. It's, you can just very easily slide your teeth through it. All the old people can eat. And different from this one, the branches. Different. It's so good. Oh, I can understand why Wuhan people love this vegetable because I also feel like you can get a lot of value out of it. You've got the stems, you've got the flower, you've got the leaves. It's very mild, slightly sweet. And some of you may be wondering, why aren't we eating it with rice? Well, we did have a bowl of rice on the table and we were like, no rice. I am done for carbs today. I'm done for carbs for the rest of the week. I need to like take some time to seriously digest. Weekend time. But thank you so much for showing me around today. This has been exactly what I was hoping for. A deeper dive into Wuhan food. And I'd also like to mention that we were thinking about maybe doing some walking tours for people who want to come to Wuhan. So I'm going to put your email. Okay. So you can contact her. That's going to bring us to the end of today's food adventure. Thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to like, comment and subscribe. And until next time, goodbye from Wuhan. See you.