米粉 — rice noodles, what Zhangjiajie eats every morning
If you only have time for one thing before the trail, make it this — ¥8–18 (~฿40–90), made fresh, seasoned by you.
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This is what Zhangjiajie eats most for breakfast — round, smooth rice noodles blanched fresh and flooded with hot, slow-simmered pork-bone broth, then topped however you like: braised beef, pig's trotter, minced pork or stir-fried sour long beans (酸豆角). You add the chilli, pickles, spring onion and roasted peanuts yourself. The morning broth tends to be clearer and rounder than the fierce dishes later on, so the heat is entirely up to you. Some shops also do a "dry mixed" version (拌粉) tossed in sauce with no soup. Try a few and you'll find a favourite — it's a light, filling start that gets you up the mountain.
The fried staple of Xiangxi morning stalls — a batter of rice flour with a little fermented glutinous rice spooned into round moulds and deep-fried until golden and crisp, soft and chewy inside. Some stalls tuck in a filling of spring onion, garlic chives or a little chilli. Bite into one hot off the pan and it's nutty and rice-fragrant — the thing locals grab to eat alongside their mifen or congee. They cost just a few yuan each. Kids around here grow up on these, and if you like something crunchy in the morning, you'll be happy.
A health-minded morning drink-and-snack from the mountains — kudzu root (gegen) is processed into a starch powder, and to serve it you stir it with hot water until it thickens into a clear, soft jelly, pale amber and faintly sweet. Hunan people treat it as a "cooling", restorative food, and warm in the morning it sits well on the stomach. Some stalls serve it hot in a cup to sip; others set it into a cool, clear jelly with a little sugar on top. The dried powder is also a popular souvenir around the park gates — though honestly, buying a bag in a city market is much better value than at the park entrance.
The easy, light choice for a morning when you don't want chilli — plain white rice congee (稀饭/白粥), hot, served with small saucers of Hunan pickles and ferments: pickled radish, sour long beans, mustard greens, chilli pickles and fermented tofu. You spoon the pickles into the congee and keep it simple — the sour-salty bite of the pickles plays off the plain rice nicely. Hunan people eat this all the time and it's very cheap. It's the dish for anyone with a sensitive stomach, for kids and older travellers, or for when you've had chilli all trip and your stomach wants a break. Almost every breakfast spot has it.
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The most familiar pairing on this list — youtiao is a fried dough stick, hollow and fluffy inside with a crisp shell, and doujiang is fresh, hot soy milk, sweet or plain. The traditional way is to tear the youtiao and dip it in the soy milk, so the dough soaks up a little and the texture changes in your mouth. If you're not yet brave enough for the local rice noodles or the pickles, start here: safe, filling, nothing to fear, and easy to find all over the city. Some stalls sell boiled eggs or jianbing crepes alongside.
A morning and snack food across Xiangxi, Hunan and Guizhou — rice tofu is made by cooking ground rice until it sets into a soft, springy, jelly-like block, pale green or cream-coloured, then cut into pieces or strips and dressed with a sour-spicy sauce of chilli, vinegar, pickled beans, spring onion and peanuts. You eat it cool and slippery, bright and refreshing. People around here have it as a light breakfast or a midday snack, and it's well known from Shen Congwen's Border Town. If you like sour and tangy, dive in — but if you don't want it spicy, ask for less chilli.
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A Tujia festival food that's become a morning and snack staple — ciba is glutinous rice that's steamed and then pounded in a mortar until sticky and dense, shaped into discs or blocks, then grilled over charcoal or fried until the surface turns golden and fragrant, soft and chewy inside. It's rolled in brown sugar, soybean powder or sesame, with the warm scent of toasted rice. Some morning stalls grill it fresh to eat on the spot. Traditionally Tujia families pound ciba together at New Year as a ritual; today it's a sweet breakfast or a snack to top up your energy before a hike. Kids love it and visitors buy plenty.
Grab-and-go breakfast for the mornings you have to make the bus into the park — baozi are hot steamed buns from the bamboo basket, filled with pork and spring onion, greens or something sweet, filling and easy to eat on the move. Zongzi are pyramids of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves, both sweet (jujube, red bean) and savoury (pork belly); steamed hot, you just peel the leaf and eat. Xiangxi zongzi are known for their dense, chewy sticky rice and bamboo-leaf fragrance. Both are easy to buy at morning stalls and city shops, both are cheap, and both work as a quick breakfast or trail provisions.