Pounded Beef Patties 牛肉饼

Pounded Beef Patties (牛肉饼) are flat discs of hand-beaten beef from Shanwei (汕尾), Guangdong, and are counted as the most representative snack of the Haifeng (海丰) area there. They are best known served in soup, and locals group them with two other snacks as Shanwei's 'three musketeers' of food.

How it is made

The Haifeng county government says the patties are made from fresh beef leg, which must be fresh and not injected with water, mixed with a measure of seasoning and shaped by traditional handwork. Unlike beef balls, Haifeng's beef patties are not round balls but flat. For the soup, the county gives a short method: stock is poured over the ready-made patties, spring onion is added, and ground pepper goes in to taste.

Flavour and texture

The hand-made patties have loose meat fibres with tendon spread through them, and they are springy and crisp to bite and full of fresh beef flavour. The Haifeng county government puts the appeal of the dish down to its soup, which is seasoned with ground pepper; a Guangdong government account on The Paper describes the soup made with the patties as white and strongly fragrant.

How it is eaten

In Haifeng the patties are the constant partner of xiaomi (小米), a local sweet-potato-starch dumpling: where one is sold, the other is too. A Haifeng writer on the county portal eats the dumplings with oyster sauce and the patties with chilli sauce. The patty soup also goes well with steamed rice rolls or caiguo (菜粿), Shanwei's steamed vegetable dumplings, and in Shanwei the patties turn up with brisket and tendon in bowls of beef noodle soup.