As a district, Baiyun is full of surprises. While the area directly north of Yuexiu may not be celebrated for its proximity to Canton’s F&B hotspots, you’d be wrong to say the district lacks good eats. There is one particular spot in Baiyun where the lights burn just as bright as any of the city center haunts.
Image by Ryan Gandolfo/That's
While you may or may not have been privy to this unique strip, Baiyun’s ‘Korean Food Street’ is an area to which you’ve got to pay a visit. The origin of Little Korea dates back to the beginning of the 21st century (depending on who you ask) and the area is home to a fairly sizable Korean population to this day.
While it’s not the most organized row of restaurants, supermarkets and cafes, all of which serve up the peninsula’s authentic cuisine and each time you go you’re bound to find something new and delicious. We’ll give you the lowdown on this foodies’ paradise as we peruse everything from mouthwatering Korean barbeque and finger-licking-good Korean fried chicken to the many sweet treats filling the street’s cafes.
Image by Ryan Gandolfo/That's
We join the queue at Quanzhou Jia, a particularly popping Korean BBQ haven that is easily the most crowded of several prominent self-cooking eateries on an electric Friday night.
While waiting to order our food, we struck up a conversation with a waitress, hoping to learn more about their K-BBQ joint. “Well, the owner of this restaurant is Korean, but he speaks fluent Chinese so, fortunately, I don’t have to make any attempt in communicating in Korean,” she laughed before adding our order. “Actually, a lot of our customers are Chinese, but each night there are small circles of Korean people coming to eat,” she said while awkwardly pointing out two tables of Korean expats.
With the restaurant abuzz with sizzling meats and chatter, the waitress brought out what seemed like a hundred small dishes, known in Korean as banchan. The side dishes, ranging from soybean sprouts and potato salad to radish kimchi and plain old kimchi, excellently complement the copious portions of meat. You can go straight for the protein or wrap it in a fresh leaf of lettuce, adding an extra crunch.
Image by Ryan Gandolfo/That's
No more than 100 meters down the road from Quanzhou Jia sits a quiet but constantly busy Korean fried chicken joint. Don’t be confused by the sign outside that reads OK Fried Chicken, this place will knock your socks off with their selection of juicy, bone-in, crispy edibles. The shop is run by a middle-aged man and woman, who make quite the duo, taking orders both inside the small shop and via Meituan. Take your pick of original spicy and sweet garlic sauces as well as the shop’s own special tangy glaze (which we highly recommend). Although food is always best shared with friends and family, this deep fried chicken is arguably too tasty to part with.
Image by Ryan Gandolfo/That's
At this point, we’ve only just scratched the surface of the Korean cuisine offerings on and around Yuanjing Lu. More of these authentic foreign eateries and cafes are tucked away beyond plain sight. Hidden behind the KFC along the main road is where you’ll find a nice row of restaurants, cafes and bars to extend your foodie excursion. The walls around here are painted with colorful characters, contending with the restaurant signage for visual supremacy.
One spot we really took a liking to is Yu Lou Meng, a boutique dessert cafe offering an assortment of baked goods, drinks and bingsu, a popular Korean shaved ice dessert. The cold treat is perfect in the summer (so, ideal all year-round in Guangzhou) and comes with a variety of toppings, including fruit, red beans and condensed milk. You can order yourself a heaping portion of mango, matcha, oreo, strawberry and, of course, durian shaved ice. It’s a fan favorite, with most patrons waiting impatiently for their ice dessert to magically appear before them. If you lack a sweet tooth, you can also walk across the alley to Caffe Bene, Korea’s best-known coffeehouse chain, for a broader list of tasty options.
Image by Ryan Gandolfo/That's
If you do decide to trek on out here, beer drinkers should feel obliged to grab a can of Korean Cass beer, either at one of the local bars or for walking and talking. While the two-block radius won’t bring you back to your travels in Seoul, the atmosphere is certainly unique to the rest of Guangzhou.
[Cover image by Ryan Gandolfo/That's]
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