Food in Quanzhou is surprisingly lackluster, even in the better hotels (and there's a nasty tendency to add a service charge there, even if one isn't added to the room rate). The staff in the otherwise decent restaurant in the Xiamen Airlines Quanzhou Hotel look puzzled at a request for local dishes and can only offerXiamen haili jian(Xiamen-style baby oysters), which means with eggs as a kind of oyster pancake, but that's rather good. The excellent local wheat beer, Huiquan, will please anyone fond of Hoegaarden.
The liveliest eating is in theMeican Yi Tiao Jie (The Beautiful Food Street)running north from the arch on Jinhuai Jie, 1 block east and parallel to Wenling Bei Lu. Here rows of food stalls with tables and chairs in the open air or in air-conditioned interiors compete for your business until the small hours. There's seafood in buckets,niupai(beefsteak -- a local favorite), dumplings, kabobs, hot pot, Sichuan food, and even Lanzhou "pulled" noodles. Especially interesting are the Army-themed restaurants with pictures of aircraft carriers and stealth bombers on the walls.
Close by on Wenling Nan Lu is another nighttime food street where hot pot is more popular. Rows of baskets contain kabobs with all manner of food -- animal, vegetable, and probably even some kind of mineral, too. Look for the large Chinese gateway next to the Construction Bank building, opposite the strangely named 8.1 Hotel.
Those craving Western food will findMcDonald's, KFC,andPizza Hutaround the center, along with a branch of the ubiquitousShangdao Kafei,Tumen Jie (tel.0595/2219-2070), with its nearly English menu, near spaghetti, sandwiches, and excellent if pricey coffee. An unusual alternative isHaokelai Niupai (Houcaller Beefsteak)on Wenling Bei Lu north of the post office (tel.0595/2219-5779), which has a brightly lit fast-food interior but offers intelligent service and an English menu. Set meals such as pork chop, salad, bread, soup, tea, and a small glass of a pinkish spirit calledkaiweijiu-- which would literally translate as "start the stomach alcohol" -- for adigestifare ¥25 to ¥50 ($3-$6.25).
Qing Qi Shen,behind the Guandi Miao in Tumen Jie, is a very pleasant teahouse in a traditional multicourtyard setting, where people sit playing board games beneath caged songbirds or watch the performance of a storyteller, and order snacks and tea from a bamboo slat menu: Oolong (Wulong) is ¥70 ($8.75) per pot; ordinary tea from ¥8 ($1).
Near the library, off Dong Jie Lu, at Gong Jie Xiang 123, isBodhi Food(Puti Zhai;tel.0595/2222-6705), a vegetarian restaurant popular with local monks. Apart from the usual vegetarian fare, they serve a number of very convincing meat facsimiles including fried ham(huotui)and mock turtle(jia yu gui).Other delicious options include faux chicken in lemon sauce(nin meng jipian)and the deep-fried salad surprise(shuiguo shala).Most dishes range in price from ¥10 to ¥25 ($1.25-$3.25).