QUANZHOU, 28 August (Quanzhou Online) - By interns Ding Zhengxiang, Chen Guiyou and Zhu Peifei from the Yang-En University reporter station, supervised by Chen Shenghua, with text and photographs by Lai Xiaoling, multimedia reporter, Quanzhou Evening News. Scorching summer heat is commonplace in Quanzhou, and local people rely on bowl-after-bowl of hand-crafted time-honoured snacks to beat summer heat. Recently our reporters visited several long-established snack shops, recorded how the snacks are made by hand, listened to the owners explain their ideas about food and health, and tasted for themselves the cool flavours that belong to a Quanzhou summer.

　　Slowly simmered the old way!

　　Mellow, with a sweet finish: unlocking a classic old taste

A classic Quanzhou summer cooling combination

　　Shihuagao (a jelly made from Gelidium seaweed) or grass jelly, paired with braised duck necks and racks, is Quanzhou's representative sweet-and-savoury summer combination and a local favourite for beating the heat.

Gelidium seaweed, the raw ingredient for shihuagao

　　The secret of shihuagao lies in the care taken over its ingredients and production techniques. The seaweed is washed again and again, then simmered over a low flame for three hours, until its natural plant gel sets on cooling. The finished jelly is as translucent as jade, and a clean coolness spreads down the throat with the first mouthful. According to Mr Li, a shop owner, the seaweed is considered 'cooling' in nature - in local folk-medical belief, remove toxins, moisten dryness and support the spleen - and is a popular summer tonic in southern Fujian.

Dried Chinese mesona, the raw ingredient for grass jelly

　　Grass jelly, another herbal cooling food, is made with the same fidelity to the old method. Large handfuls of dried mesona are simmered to extract the essence of the herb, and once set, the jelly is glossy and dark with a fragrance of its own. Refreshing and cooling to eat, grass jelly is also versatile - served cold or hot - and a much-loved staple among local summer cooling drinks.

　　High summer heat often takes away the appetite, and braised duck frames are the perfect accompaniment. A mature master stock with dried tangerine peel, liquorice root and other aromatics is simmered slowly so the flavour sinks in, giving the duck a rich, mellow spiced taste. Mr Li says many customers order a bowl of shihuagao or grass jelly with a portion of duck and happily sit out the whole afternoon.

　　Old flavours, newly created!

　　Seasonal fresh fruit meets food as nourishment

　　In Quanzhou, siguotang - 'four-fruit soup' - is the classic above all classics. New ways of serving it, developed on that base, also chime with today's interest in eating for health.

　　A proper Quanzhou four-fruit soup is richly topped. Shihuagao, grass jelly, mung beans and red beans are the traditional 'standard four', and snow fungus, adazi (chewy cubed tapioca jelly) and watermelon can be added for extra texture and flavour. Different ingredients are each held to have their own nutritional virtues: mung beans clear heat and dampness, Job's tears support the spleen and stomach, snow fungus nourishes yin and moistens dryness. A bowl of mixed grains like this, locals believe, helps relieve the discomfort that extreme heat brings.

　　Four-fruit soup and pineapple shihuagao ice: innovative combinations that also serve the health-conscious

　　Seasonal fruit meets traditional cooling food in a new textured creation: pineapple shihuagao ice. The jelly is cut into cubes, paired with pineapple flesh, drizzled with light syrup and chilled briefly before serving. The fruit and the seaweed play against each other in layers, and it has become a popular new way to beat the heat.

　　There are also herbal tonic drinks blended according to old southern Fujian recipes - a favourite choice for summer wellbeing. Different medicinal and edible herbs are simmered together to make flavoured drinks with different purposes. Mr Cai, another shop owner, says the recipes are often tailored to the individual customer, so that every cup suits the particular drinker - a good fit for residents who want to cool down while staying healthy.

　　True coastal flavours!

　　Fresh, cool and bracing: the taste of southern Fujian everyday life

　　Tusundong, a jelly born of the southern Fujian coast, paired with mango smoothie - one savoury, one sweet - sketches out the distinctive summer flavour of the old city.

　　Tusundong is held to be a naturally 'heat-clearing' snack in folk belief. It is made with live marine spoon worms, which are purged of sand, simmered, and left to set in their own natural gel. The finished jelly is dressed with minced garlic, soy sauce and a little fragrant vinegar to lift the flavour - good to look at and good to eat. Mr Chen, who has been in the trade for years, says the spoon worm is traditionally held to nourish yin and restore vitality, and and is thought in folk tradition to help dissolve blood clots and ease a sore, swollen throat.

　　The mango smoothie is a fresh-fruit drink for all ages. Good-quality Tainong mangoes are blended with seaweed extract and popping boba, balanced against a light milk-and-ice base that holds the true taste of the fruit. A glass of it quickly relieves the dry, itchy throat that comes with extreme heat. After the savoury tusundong, a mango smoothie cuts the richness and refreshes the palate.

　　The land and its waters nurture its people. Quanzhou's way of getting through summer has always followed a philosophy in which food and nourishment are one. In this season of high temperatures, why not wander into the lanes of Quanzhou, come across a bowl of something cooling, and read - in the taste on your lips - the dietary wisdom and everyday warmth of southern Fujian.