Edit History

Being of Scottish descent, I was brought up eating 'black puddng' from Stornoway. Food of the gods! Unsurprisingly, I found that impossible to source in China. - well sort of.

in the late 1990s I was living in Huaihua (怀化 huái huà) in western Hunan (湖南 - hú nán) province in south-central China and found the locals make a blood sausage. This I had to try. They are known as 血肠 - xuè cháng, which you will be astonished to hear means 'blood sausage'.

Unlike the Scottish version which is made using pork blood and oats, in China rice is used as the filler (no surprise there). Apart from that the taste was close enough to keep me happy. Then in the early pandemic days, supplies were disrupted, but I found a substitute.

Just south of Heilongjiang is Jilin Province (吉林 - jí lín). On Jilin's south-eastern corner is 延边 - yán biān Prefecture which borders North Korea. This area is home to between 1 and 1½ million ethnic Koreans, who are recognised as being one of China's official 56 ethnic groups.

And they make blood sausage, too!

Korean Blood Sausage

I didn't like this one so much. It was rather over-much rice and poorly seasoned.

Here in Guangxi, the neighbouring town of Yizhou (宜州 - yí zhōu) also makes blood sausage, but very few make it outside the town. They are also very good, though.

Luckily, the non-supply from Hunan ended quickly and I'm back to as normal as I ever get.

Bloody Breakfast

Being of Scottish descent, I was brought up eating 'black puddng' from Stornoway. Food of the gods! Unsurprisingly, I found that impossible to source in China. - well sort of.

in the late 1990s I was living in Huaihua (怀化 huái huà) in western Hunan (湖南 - hú nán) province in south-central China and found the locals make a blood sausage. This I had to try. They are known as 血肠 - xuè cháng, which you will be astonished to hear means 'blood sausage'.

Unlike the Scottish version which is made using pork blood and oats, in China rice is used as the filler (no surprise there). Apart from that the taste was close enough to keep me happy. Then in the early pandemic days, supplies were disrupted, but I found a substitute.

Just south of Heilongjiang is Jilin Province (吉林 - jí lín). On Jilin's south-eastern corner is 延边 - yán biān Prefecture which borders North Korea. This are is home to between 1 and 1½ million ethnic Koreans, who are recognised as being one of China's official 56 ethnic groups.

And they make blood sausage, too!

Korean Blood Sausage

I didn't like this one so much. It was rather over-much rice and poorly seasoned.

Here in Guangxi, the neighbouring town of Yizhou (宜州 - yí zhōu) also makes blood sausage, but very few make it outside the town. They are also very good, though.

Luckily, the non-supply from Hunan ended quickly and I'm back to as normal as I ever get.

Bloody Breakfast