What to eat this month
Guangzhou barely has seasons, and its table shows it: morning tea, roast meats, congee, wonton noodles and sweet soups are the same in every month. The calendar that does exist runs on one proverb and one fruit. 'When the autumn wind rises, eat cured meat' — from October the cured-sausage windows fill, clay-pot rice comes into its own, and Chaoshan beef hotpot is in season until March; the first cold snap in late November puts goat-belly pots and 'da bin lou' hotpot outside every dai pai dong until the weather turns in February. From mid-June the streets are red with lychees for five or six weeks, and from mid-August the old bakeries queue for mooncakes ahead of Mid-Autumn. The month shown is today's date in Beijing; the dishes below link to the must-eat list, where each one says where to get it.
Twelve monthsChina time today: Oct
Guangzhou's version of deep winter: goat-belly pots and 'da bin lou' hotpot outdoors, clay-pot rice with the new season's cured sausage, Chaoshan beef hotpot, and the winter soups of five-finger peach root or Chinese yam. The cured-meat season runs to the Lunar New Year, which can fall late in the month. A ginger-struck milk at the dessert shop is the one for a chilly night.
Spring Festival usually falls here (or late January): the end of the cured-meat season, the last full month for goat-belly pots — the pots vanish the week the weather turns — and for the classic cured-sausage clay-pot rice. Teahouses add a yuan or so per basket over the holiday.
Winter food on its way out: by our list this is the last month for Chaoshan beef hotpot; the goat pots and the cured-meat windows have already gone. The damp 'return of the south wind' is the time for a winter-melon-and-barley soup before the meal.
Nothing in particular is in season this month, and Qingming has no Guangzhou dish on our list. Eat the fixed must-eats: a long morning tea, a roast-goose rice, congee, a bowl of sweet soup after dinner.
Still nothing seasonal: lychees are not on the carts until mid-June, and the Dragon Boat Festival (usually June, occasionally late May) has no Guangzhou dish on our list. Fixed must-eats.
Lychee season opens: Zengcheng's named varieties from mid-to-late June, Conghua's from the summer solstice, and for five or six weeks the streets are red with them — buy by the jin (斤) on the branch, eat them cold and after a meal, not on an empty stomach. Gui wei and nuo mi ci are the ones to look for. The Dragon Boat Festival has no Guangzhou dish on our list.
Peak lychee — the main crop runs to late July. Locals follow a binge with salted water or a bowl of herbal tea from the corner shop; the provincial line is about ten a day for an adult. Everything else on the table is the year-round list.
The lychee tail: Conghua's late varieties run to mid-August. From mid-August the old teahouse bakeries turn their counters over to mooncakes — white lotus paste with one or two salted yolks is the Guangzhou standard — and the queues begin.
Mooncake month: Mid-Autumn falls on 25 September in 2026. Buy from the maker's own counter in the fortnight before, and let the cake sit two or three days for the crust to soften (bakers call it 'hui you', 回油); cut it into quarters and take it with unsweetened tea. Lychees are over.
'When the autumn wind rises, eat cured meat': from October the cured-meat windows fill with strings of sweet pork sausage, liver sausage and belly — the new season's sausage appears the week the north wind starts — and clay-pot rice with cured sausage on top comes back into its own. By our list, Chaoshan beef hotpot season opens too.
The first cold snap, usually late in the month, is the signal: dai pai dong put out charcoal stoves and clay pots of goat belly, families sit down to 'da bin lou'. Cured meat, clay-pot rice and Chaoshan beef hotpot are all in season.
Guangzhou's short winter, eaten outdoors in shirt-sleeves: goat-belly pots, clear-broth hotpot, clay-pot rice, cured meat, beef hotpot, and winter soups of five-finger peach root or yam. The tourism bureau's own line is that river fish are at their best in winter, so the steamed fish is worth ordering now. The winter solstice has no Guangzhou dish on our list.
Each month lists only what is in season; the year-round essentials (Cheung fun — rice noodle rolls (bula vs drawer style) · Congee — sampan, 'top scholar' and fresh-boiled · Har gow (crystal shrimp dumplings) · Siu mai, char siu bao and egg tart — the other three 'heavenly kings' · Siu mei — roast goose, char siu and suckling pig · Slow-fire soup (lao huo liang tang) · White-cut chicken (bai qie ji) · Wonton noodles on bamboo-pressed egg noodles · Yum cha — 'one pot, two baskets' (Guangzhou morning tea)) count in any month. A peak is not an exclusivity rule — availability varies by shop.