The Chiu Chow people have a unique method of harvesting oysters by pushing bamboo sticks into oyster beds. They then wait for the sticks to encrust with mollusks. After that, the oysters are made edible and tasty just by grilling the oysters in their shells over a fire. In restaurants, however, oysters are fried in egg batter and clams served in a spicy sauce of black beans and chilies. Gray mullet is a popular cold dish, and pomfret fish smoked over tea leaves, along with fresh-water eel stewed in brown sauce are other highly recommended dishes.
Sauces are often sweet, using tangerine or sweet beans for flavor.
Chiu Chow chefs are particularly skilled in carving raw vegetables into floral designs, thus bringing forth Hong Kong's most artistic dishes. The dried saliva, which lines the edible swiftlet's nest, provides the magic base for the famous birds nest soup. This nourishing saliva is said to rejuvenate the old and can be eaten together with coconut milk or almonds. The finest birds nest is claimed by a Hong Kong restaurateur who rents a mountain in Thailand, which he believes harbors the finest set of swiftlet nests in Southeast Asia. Other equally tasty Chiu Chow specialties are the baked rice birds, which are seasonal fowl dishes stuffed with chicken liver and served by the dozens, as well as minced pigeon cooked with water chestnuts and eaten wrapped in crispy lettuce leaves spiked with a smack of plum sauce.