As many of you already know, I absolutely love taking deep dives into the history, culture, and food of places all over the world. When I got the opportunity to go back to China in April of 2019, I jumped at the chance. I started in the city of Shanghai and continued through Suzhou and Hangzhou and ate new foods and learned new things every step of the way. I’m so excited to share my Chinese adventures with you!
My third full day in China continued soon after my arrival in Suzhou, which is also known as the Venice of the East. I had met up with my guide, Janet, at the train station earlier. She would be taking me around the city to see the canals and other sites, but first, I had to eat!
Janet took me to Pingjiang Road to have some authentic Chinese street food. I started with a dense slice of cake with nuts and sesame seeds. It was amazing! I also tried a type made of sesame seeds and another vegetable dish with chili. It was nice and spicy!
Then, we headed to a local restaurant, where I had some Gordon’s shrimp that consists of tiny, freshwater shrimp from the Suzhou area with water vegetables. I dove right in. The shrimp were lightly fried and really tasty. There were a lot more shrimp than vegetables, which I was totally fine with. I needed some protein!
I ate them with the chopsticks for a while and then switched over to a spoon. There were so many shrimp! There were lots of other items on the menu, but the shrimp dish was so big that I didn’t want to eat too much and then not be able to eat anything else later.
We headed back out onto the street, where I had some preserved fruit with bread. It contained cranberry and was like a sugary bread with fruit inside. I also tried some membrillo, a thick jelly made from quince fruit, with it. I loved the combination! It was super sweet. I tried a variety with tea that was also wonderful!
Next, I tried a small rice cake, thanks to a girl who shared one with me. It contained rose and was hot and filling. It also contained seeds. It was so good!
We approached a canal, where I could see incredible houses. It was so beautiful and peaceful. It reminded me of a water town I’d visited in Shanghai.
Up next was a small portion of juicy clams, which cost 15 Yuan, or about $2.20 U.S. They had chilies in them but weren’t too spicy. They were so tasty and they gave me so many for the price! The spice caught up to me after a while and I had to drink some water! At the bottom of the container was some clam soup, which was delicious.
My friend brought me a small crab. It was super hot as I pulled it apart. I sucked out the meat, which had a sweet potato-like texture. I was happier with the clams! They were freaking amazing!
Next up was a dense sugar candy, including an Oreo cranberry flavor. I passed on some cake squares with red bean paste inside because I was getting full. We reached Pingjiang Canal and Pingjiang Street. The street is 2,500 years old!
We continued down a tight alley that was lined with lots of shops. I could see lots of jewelry, silk shops, anime puzzles, crafts, food, and embroidery. Then we headed to the boat ride, which cost 40 Yuan/$5.83 U.S. each for a ride with others or 300 Yuan/roughly $44 U.S. for a private tour. We went with the regular tour since there was no need for us to go private.
I put on a life vest and sat on the bench in the front of the boat. It’s a tight fit inside the boat, so I recommend going private if you can afford it. The canal is beautiful! The canal portion reminded me of Venice, but that’s the only part that did. This area was so authentic and super relaxing. There were older, brick layers along the sides of the canal and newer layers above it. I could see carved dragons—part of the drainage system—sticking out of the walls.
Our ride was 20-30 minutes and was very peaceful. We made it back to where we started. It was more spacious but had less shops and food. We saw the beautiful Hu Xiang Shi Bridge, which was made of many layers of stone. We also saw an ancient well!
Wow! I hope you enjoyed coming along with me on my amazing food and attractions tour of Suzhou! If you did, please give it a thumb’s up and leave me a comment. Also, please subscribe to my channel so you don’t miss any of my upcoming travel/food content!
Oh, the spice is catching up, I'm getting the spice.
Mmm, I love this though.
You even love the soup.
This is phenomenal.
Good afternoon everyone, this is David Hoffman from David's Bin here in Suzhou, China, the
Venice of the East.
I'm here with my guide, Janet, and Janet's going to be taking me around today.
We're going to go explore Suzhou, we're going to explore the canals, we're going to take
a boat ride, but first we're going to go have some lunch.
Where are we going?
You're hungry?
I'm starving.
Okay.
Okay, let's go eat.
First thing we stopped at is this little vendor right here that has snacks, but these are
like cakes.
That one's like Pikachu.
A lot of these, right?
Yeah, yeah.
So, I mean, if you don't want to sit down at a restaurant, you can just have a bunch
of snacks along this road.
Right.
What is this?
Cake with nuts?
Sesame seeds.
Mmm, it's so amazing.
So it's like a very dense cake with nuts and you can actually see it here, like they have
a big bar of the cake and this machine is just dicing it up, like cutting it non-stop.
And here we have sesame seeds, right?
Yes, yes.
Can I have a tiny piece?
Okay.
Let me see.
Spicy.
Oh, amazing spice.
Mmm, super crunchy.
It's like a vegetable that has a chili on top.
That cake with nuts was incredible.
The spicy, like vegetable with the chili on top was delicious as well.
But now we're going to try a typical dish here, it's called Gordon's shrimp.
It's like a, it's like a water vegetable with like tiny shrimp and it's in this restaurant.
Let's go inside and eat.
Ni hao.
Okay, help yourself.
And here we go.
Gordon's shrimp.
And you get the chopsticks, right?
Go in.
Pretty amazing.
It's like tiny shrimp.
You have this like little water vegetable.
Oh, let's dive in.
This shrimp is actually a freshwater shrimp from this area, right?
And then they fry it, but it's like very lightly fried.
There's so many shrimp in here.
I mean, there's way more shrimp than there is the vegetable.
I love it.
Give me all the protein.
Give me the good stuff, you know?
Yeah, that's the thing about all the dishes here, is that they're all for like two or
three people.
So I couldn't get like five things because everything's so big.
Like this alone is enough for me.
I'm dropping though.
That's okay.
There's a spoon.
Do you need it?
Yeah.
Uh huh.
Yeah.
So now we get the spoon.
Put on the spoon.
Makes it a lot easier, right?
Get a lot.
I mean, I'm having one dish, so it's fine, but I'm going to have a lot more snacks later.
It just feels like a very moist vegetable mixed with shrimp.
Yeah.
I'm all about shrimp.
Could eat it all day.
Put it like that.
Mix it all up right there.
What I would do though is put some chilies here.
Yeah, definitely come with more people.
Have a few dishes, share.
It's like impossible to get to the end.
How do I get it?
Okay, that dish was incredible, but if you really want to try a lot more stuff here,
you can also try eel, you can try a fish, you can try crab.
I mean, the list here is massive.
This menu, as you can see right here, so many delicious things from Suncheol.
It's definitely coming with a lot of people because if not, you can't eat that much.
I mean, I ate one plate.
I didn't want to get another plate because then I wouldn't be able to eat later.
So let's continue this tour.
Let's go eat some more food.
Xiexie.
So we're going to go all the way to the end and then make our way back.
So here we're going to try some preserved fruits with bread.
Very nice.
Mixed cranberry.
It almost tastes like a very sugary bread with fruit inside.
And we also have membryo.
If I can get it.
Here we go.
Mmm.
Wow.
It's incredible.
Now I'm going to give it a mix.
Here we go.
Mmm.
Not a mix.
A combination.
Membryo.
I love eating that in Spain with cheese, but like this, with the bread and the fruit.
Super sweet though.
Extremely sweet.
This one has tea.
Wow.
Very good.
Amazing.
I'll take it all.
No, I'm joking.
Thank you.
Xiexie.
You liked it?
Yes.
Local food.
It's a cake with osmanthus flower.
In the autumn season, we have a lot of blossoms of the osmanthus flowers.
The osmanthus flower has a permeated sweet smell.
There's a huge line here.
Are they going to try or are they just looking?
So the way it works here is they sell you 20 at a time.
They don't sell you one.
So this girl over here is going to give me one for free.
Thank you.
Oh, it's hot.
It's hot.
It's really hot.
Thank you.
Xiexie.
It's like extremely hot, but it's so good.
Oh my God.
Hold on.
Okay.
Very filling rice cake.
A little sticky.
The inside was delicious.
It had rose.
It had like a little bit of seeds too.
Yeah.
But incredible.
But very filling.
Like you have six of those and you're full.
I burned my hand.
It was so hot.
Like I just came out of the steamer.
They also have some like delicious fish balls.
I'm not going to get them because it's another like eight
and there's no point in eating that much right now.
I'm going to keep exploring the street.
Very beautiful street.
Right here we have the canal.
You can see incredible houses over there.
It's like a little community
and they can just walk down to the water, right?
Look at this.
So beautiful.
This is so peaceful.
This reminds me of a water town I went to in Shanghai.
Like right outside of Shanghai.
Look at that.
That's the boat ride.
We're going to get on one of those soon.
That's a kind of a crab.
A small crab.
A small crab?
And then some other seafood.
It's like clams.
Like spicy clams and spicy crab.
So how does it come?
I mean, if I buy it, it has to come in a big portion, right?
How do you sell this?
You sell it in a box, right?
20 yuan for a box?
25 yuan.
One for 25 yuan.
Yeah?
Yeah, 25 yuan a box.
For the crab?
Yeah.
20.
I got a small portion of the spicy clams.
It costs 15 yuan.
Looks incredible.
So you just pull it out.
I don't really need to pull it out with chopsticks, but...
They're not hot.
They're so spicy.
I mean, there is some chilies in here.
What they told me to do is literally make a stack as I keep going through.
Do you need water?
Any water.
Super juicy clams.
They're amazing.
A little spice.
Not too crazy.
There is some chili.
I'm going to put the chili back on top.
It's so good.
It's so many for 15 yuan.
But, you know, on the market,
if you pay some 5 yuan, you can buy a lot.
Yeah, on the market.
If you only pay 5 yuan, you can buy a lot.
This is not expensive.
Because we have a lot...
This is...
I'm going to keep going.
Different from shrimps.
They're amazing.
So many.
The thing is, for me, seafood is like air.
I can eat seafood all day long.
And not feel it.
I ate a lot of seafood in Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, the spice is catching up.
I'm getting the spice.
I love this, though.
You even love the soup.
This is phenomenal.
After about 20,
the spice is caught up.
I'm loving this street, though.
So many nice snacks.
Another thing is that you have to go and really have it as a snack.
Share with people.
You should share this with some people.
Should I just drink it?
Oh, no. Too spicy.
You drink the water.
It's like a clam soup.
A little spicy.
That was delicious.
So my friend brought me the crab.
You try to open this.
So you try to open the chest cavity?
Yeah.
Oh, it's too hot.
No, no, no.
This one right here?
Okay.
Okay?
Okay.
Just go in.
Basically, you're eating its chest cavity.
No, I just feel it.
It's too much.
Too much bones?
Yeah.
I mean, inside, when you open it up, there it is.
I don't know, like a sweet potato-like texture.
It's like brains and chest cavity.
I'm very happy we stuck to these.
Because I would not have enjoyed the crab at all.
Don't go for the crab.
Go for the clams.
The clams are freaking delicious.
If you like spicy food and you like clams or seafood,
you will die eating these clams.
They are freaking amazing.
Fist bump, fist bump.
Smells terrible, but tastes delicious.
I know.
Durian, right here.
Sugar, candy.
Sugar candy.
Okay, some more sugar candy.
I'll have one more.
Cranberry.
Whoa.
It's like super dense candy.
Not my cup of tea.
But it's a lot more.
Let's try more.
This one's oil cranberry.
Tastes like sugar bomb.
Sugar bomb.
Pretty good, though.
That one's awesome.
Right here we have some amazing cake squares with red bean paste.
They look phenomenal, but I can't eat that right now.
I'll be way too full.
I'm already super full, but I'm just eating certain things that I really want to try.
There's so many things.
Over here, what do we have?
Is it all fruits?
Yep, all fruits.
And this is the river.
Look at this.
Beautiful cafe here.
We're on a bridge.
Wow, look at that.
This is the Venice of the East.
Pingjiang.
P-I-N-G-J-I-A-N-G.
Pingjiang Road.
That's Pingjiang Canal.
And this is one of the most famous streets?
Yeah, and another one is Santon Street.
Santon Canal.
So now you know.
Pingjiang Road.
Yeah.
Pingjiang Road.
And how old is this?
More than 1,000 years old.
This street?
Yeah.
What?
Yeah.
1,000 years of street?
It's on the map of Pingjiang map.
Wow.
Yeah, on the map of Suzhou.
Okay.
It's 2,500 years old.
Okay, so it dates back to 500 B.C.
Yeah.
Wow.
That's really old.
I mean, it's ancient.
Yeah.
It's older than Shanghai, and Shanghai's not that old.
Of course, yeah.
It's getting narrowed.
Yeah, it's getting narrower and narrower.
In old times, people who live in here did not have privacy.
A lot of gossip, because you see, everybody knows anybody else's business.
She's right.
Your neighbor is like, I don't know, six feet away.
Like window to window.
Crazy.
So here we have a lot of like silk shops.
We have, you can buy some bracelets here.
We got amazing like anime puzzles.
What is it?
That's embroidery.
Oh, it's embroidery.
Famous of Suzhou.
Oh, wow.
It's handmade.
It's double-sided.
You see the panda?
The panda's amazing.
My daughter loves pandas, but I don't know.
How much is it for this?
It's about 288.
We just exited that super cool tight alley.
I mean, it was really, really tight at some point.
Where like, you know, little rickshaws are flying through.
I like chased one for a while, then one came up behind me.
A lot of different shops, crafts, clothing, food.
Lots of food.
I mean, like a big variety.
Lots of like sweet stuff.
More sweet stuff over savory stuff here.
Now we're walking like five more minutes to catch a boat ride.
And the way it works, like she said before the boat ride,
it's either you pay 300 and you go private the whole thing,
or you pay 40 each.
We're going to do 40 each because there's no point for us to go private.
For the boat ride, you can pay just 40 yuan per person.
Then you have to wait for other people to join you.
Ten minutes later, if nobody is coming,
then you can go with the 40 yuan, like a private boat.
But for 40 each, so we're going to pay 80,
and if no one else shows up in ten minutes,
we go like private.
Yeah.
So that's a good trick.
Yeah.
I like that one.
Here we go, boat ride.
Definitely need a life vest.
Do we fit here?
Pretty cool experience.
I mean, if you got the money and you want to spend 50 bucks,
I highly recommend going private.
But if you can't, you want to spend less,
spend 40 per person and get in a group.
I'm literally sitting on a bench in the front
because it's way too packed inside and I wouldn't be able to film.
As you can see, this is a really old city.
A thousand years.
So beautiful.
It reminds me a little bit of Venice
in terms of just the canal portion, that's it.
Singing
So what I love about this water town
What I love about this area is that it's really really authentic. You can see like the
brick layers underneath like at the bottom of the canal and you see like the
new layers that means new city right and the up top all the buildings are
painted white so it's white with brown and they usually use gold for any like
Chinese characters Mandarin characters and yeah a lot of people here it's
really bustling super relaxing as you can see like the drainage system they
have like dragons like sticking out really cool dragons is a big thing here
in China dragons are the good guys here you're not the bad guys at all yeah lots
of people okay that was a great ride we just got off here basically in the
middle where we started we went for like 20-30 minutes it was pretty cool pretty
smooth very peaceful down there I mean everybody's just taking photos chilling
there was like a few families in the boat let's keep exploring I don't know
what else we can see here I mean I'm sure some more food maybe some more
vendors selling some cool stuff we made it back to where we started the tour and
we're gonna cross the street and here we have another section of the same street
so there's way less food on this side of the street it actually looks a lot a lot
more open yeah less yeah lots more spacious a lot less stuff in a sense a
lot less shops yeah a lot wider really nice very very beautiful in terms of the
trees this is a better preserved actually in the past times yeah the
government has made it a tourist attraction by Lou you know decorating
Lou building Lou renovating those houses so they look pretty new but they have a
long history this is who Xiangxi bridge and is the only single grand stone
arch bridge in Banjiang district and it's one of the seven inches stone arch
bridges in the old town the bridge is really gorgeous but right in front of
the bridge we have some like I don't think they're like cherry blossoms but
it resembles cherry blossoms and right now it's like really blooming here you
can see lots of different types of blossoms all over the place you can see
like coming down actually and this bridge is just incredible though I mean
the stone as you can see like lots of different layers of stone is really tell
the ones that are really really old there and then every like two minutes
you have a boat passing by and yeah the boat ride is a must it's a must you got
to do when you come here this reminds me of like the other water town that I went
to and there's so many water towns it's beyond like it's like there's so many
throughout the area but the other water towns they're not like huge cities right
they're like more the smaller and they're more like villages where it's
like really part of like local life there and yeah let's continue I need
something I want to try something else who live inside those buildings they got
their drinking water from the well in ancient times there was no running water
and they would also leave the watermelons in the well it's like putting
in the refrigerator the well the water from the well is warm in winter cool in
summer so the way this place is made up is like this is like you know a tourist
street not really a tourist street it's more like a gathering place people come
here they shop they eat some snacks and right behind these buildings and on the
other side of the canal you can see lots of local homes the canals used to be a
floating market it was a custom in older days for farmers to row their boats
into the town with their producers carried in their boats people could shop
all right we did it we came to the end of Pingzha Road we had an incredible time
here we spent the past two hours exploring eating we want a boat ride I
really love this place you know it's it's packed right now but at the same
time it's very peaceful it's cool the weather is perfect I love the greenery I
love how ancient it feels and you really see it from the water once you get on
the water you see the old you know how much history is in this place and yeah
the water is the best part I think for me like the food was really good part of
the best things were the clams the spicy clams they were freaking delicious
but being on the water and relaxing they're just amazing well guys I hope
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the next travel food adventure in Suzhou China
