Cheap Eats Nanjing 9 – make your own soup

by Mike Pole

I was a bit dark on this place to start with – only because my favourite place suddenly closed just along the street, more or less as this place opened. I was suspicious…. But the owner is keen to attract clientele and I relented and gave it a go. It is only a couple of weeks old, and once inside there is a constant stream of locals also having the deal explained to them.

Everyone sits on either side of a common central structure – around which there is a never-ending chain of ingredients on skewers. There’s veges, meats, noodles, mushrooms and so-on. In front of you is your own induction-hotplate and you get a pot of soup base. In a corner of the shop is a rack with bowls of sauce ingredients. You take a little bowl and fill it up with whatever mixture takes your fancy. Then back at your spot, you simply choose what you want as is passes by, slide the bits off the skewer, pop the skewer in a cup, drop the lid on, and wait for it to cook.

Sauces DSC_9446 The Line DSC_9431

When it’s time to leave, they will tally up the number and types of skewer (wood, metal, thick, thin, etc). I tossed in five ingreds (see the featured image – the sauce bowl is at bottom right, and the cup with the used skewers is at top right), steeled myself for the price – and came to just 13 RMB.

The skewers DSC_9445

Tallying-up the skewers.

There is a main menu on the wall, and as far as I can tell with Google Translate, there may be different types of soup base to start with. I am guessing that what Google translates as ‘sign’ may be ‘skewer’.

Menu DSC_9439

The main menu.

Definitely good value. Not sure of its name yet, but it’s on the north end of Danfeng St, just next to a fruit and vege seller.

Nanjing Street map Outside DSC_9447

 

 

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