China's Rice Noodle Scene: Who's the Unsung Champion?
Rice noodles are the arena where southerners compete for local flavors.
Especially in the southwest and central-south regions, masters of rice noodles emerge from various schools—Guilin rice noodles from Guangxi are the "first-generation internet sensation," while Liuzhou river snail rice noodles have taken the country by storm as a rising star. In Hunan, rice noodle rivalries are kept within the province, with none of the thirteen prefectural cities willing to concede defeat. Although Jiangxi is often dubbed the "Acalin Province," Nanchang mixed rice noodles have quietly gained nationwide popularity...
However, on the map of Chinese rice noodles, there is another low-key yet stunning presence: Guizhou.
Guizhou's rice noodles balance the freshness of beef and lamb with the harmony of sour and spicy flavors. Especially in the provincial capital, Guiyang, flavors from across the province are blended—yellow beef from the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, taking advantage of mountainous terrain, creates a bowl of beef rice noodles; crispy pork cracklings and glutinous rice chili chicken, representing Guizhou's signature flavors, form the staple rice noodles found all over Guiyang; the famous sour soup of Qiandongnan gives birth to Guiyang's sour soup rice noodles...
▲ Guiyang's pickled pepper beef rice noodles.
How can one claim to understand rice noodles without having been to Guiyang?
Plain rice noodles are to Guiyang locals what noodles are to Chongqing.
Some say that to find a city’s authentic local flavors, one must go to train stations, schools, and street stalls. In Guiyang, what dominates train stations, school gates, and roadside stalls? Without a doubt, it’s plain rice noodles.
▲ "Here! Your plain rice noodles!"
Plain rice noodles, the "noodles" of Guiyang locals. Despite the name, they are anything but plain—in the local context, this term refers to Guiyang-style dry-tossed rice noodles. In the era of material scarcity, the original version, "old plain rice noodles," only included "cheap" toppings like preserved mustard tubers, peanuts, and soybeans. But today, a basic bowl of plain rice noodles can be topped with minced meat, crispy pork cracklings, chili chicken, braised pork, and various other meat toppings.
A bowl of plain rice noodles is sour, spicy, and full of meaty aroma. Toppings like preserved mustard tubers, peanuts, and fried soybeans are mixed in. A group of hungry kids can finish a paper bowl of it in three minutes at the school gate, and on their way back to class, they still have time to stop by the convenience store to grab an ice-cold cola for their desk mate.
▲ Southerners eat rice noodles just like they eat noodles—smooth rice noodles ensure texture, while various toppings enrich the flavor.
Strangely enough, apart from those near train stations with proper storefronts, most plain rice noodle stalls are, at best, makeshift setups. The tiny storefront is never more than a square meter, with a frying pan set up outside. Inside, there’s just a small table piled with condiments and a large pot for boiling noodles. The proprietress, or "niangniang," relies on her agility to maneuver within the cramped space.
If the noodles are boiled, why is there a frying pan?—The frying pan is for frying eggs. Unlike proper stores, these small stalls don’t pre-prepare ingredients. If you ask for a fried egg, she’ll turn around, pull an egg from under the table, and fry it on the spot, emphasizing, "My eggs are all free-range, laid by local chickens."
▲ Customers enjoying their meal at a rice noodle shop.
Can anyone resist a freshly fried egg, golden and crispy on the outside with a runny yolk? And if that’s not enough, what about adding a handful of crispy pork cracklings?
Anthropologist John S. Allen wrote in his book "The Omnivorous Mind" that humans’ love for crispiness stems from an evolutionary pursuit of fresh food (fresh insects and leaves are often crispy). Even after millions of years of evolution, this preference remains unchanged.
▲ A mountain of crispy pork cracklings. Photo/Internet
Fried eggs must be fresh, cooked in lard until fragrant, adding richness upon richness—far superior to eggs fried in vegetable oil. Crispy pork cracklings also need to be fresh; stale or moist ones lose their crispiness and develop a greasy, off-flavor. A good plain rice noodle shop must use cracklings fried that very day, still sizzling with oil when poured over the noodles.
▲ Crispy pork crackling rice noodles—the sourness of rice pairs perfectly with the meaty aroma. Photo/Huituku
So-called "Cui Shao" refers to crispy fried seasoned pork belly. Through the magic of rice wine, soy sauce, aged vinegar, sugar, and spices, as well as the Maillard reaction that occurs when small meat cubes are exposed to high heat, they transform into "little meaty bombs." Each tiny piece crackles audibly in the mouth, releasing an explosion of meaty aroma, savory soy sauce flavor, salty richness, crispy texture, and the hearty fragrance from frying.
▲ Besides ingredients like crispy fried pork (Cui Shao) and fried eggs, chili peppers are an essential presence in noodle shops.
In addition to common meat toppings like minced pork and crispy fried pork, there are also "Ruan Shao" (soft fried pork) and "La Zi Ji" (spicy chicken). As the name suggests, Ruan Shao is not crispy—it's seasoned pork belly fried until semi-dried, with larger pieces than Cui Shao, emphasizing the tender and chewy texture of the meat itself.
As for La Zi Ji, it's diced chicken stir-fried with Guiyang's local "Ci Ba" chili paste—in the hearts of Guiyang locals, it's far more delicious than Lao Gan Ma's chili chicken oil.
Once the meat topping is chosen, it's poured over the snow-white, slightly thicker-than-rice-noodles fermented rice noodles, known as "suan fen."
Suan fen is a slightly fermented rice noodle with a bright, mild sourness. If the sourness is too strong, it's likely due to over-fermentation from prolonged storage, making it an inferior, stale product. Fermentation gives suan fen a fine, porous texture, helping it absorb the flavors of various seasonings. Coated with a layer of red oil from chili oil, the sour, spicy, oily, and meaty flavors harmonize perfectly in the mouth.
▲ Compared to rice noodles in other southern cities, Guiyang's suan fen is an extremely unique presence.
Suan fen is served dry-tossed. If you feel thirsty while eating, you can help yourself to a bowl of free "plain soup" made from bean sprouts and pickled vegetables from a metal bucket in the corner of the shop. Despite having only three ingredients—bean sprouts, pickled vegetables, and ginger slices—it's surprisingly fresh and flavorful.
How much do Guiyang people love suan fen? In Guiyang, suan fen shops are not only found on every street but are also mostly open 24 hours. For a Guiyang local, a bowl of suan fen is far more satisfying than a bowl of rice when hunger strikes.
Guiyang beef noodles deserve to be famous long ago!
If there's anything else that can rival suan fen in Guiyang, it's undoubtedly beef noodles. Suan fen is the masterpiece of mixed noodles, while beef noodles hold up half the sky of soup noodles.
When it comes to beef noodles, Guiyang people can't help but express a sense of regret, as if treasuring something undervalued by others. In their hearts, Guiyang beef noodles are no less delicious than the renowned beef noodles or noodles from other parts of the country, yet they remain like a hidden gem,默默耕耘 (toiling默默耕耘) without widespread recognition.
▲ For a bowl of beef noodles, quality ingredients are key. Although Guizhou is mountainous, its terraced fields produce high-quality rice.
When a Guiyang local describes the deliciousness of beef noodles, it's not just nostalgia or regional bias. The appeal of Guiyang beef noodles is like "returning after half a lifetime away and still tasting the same youthful flavor." It's a pride that doesn't need external praise—it stands confidently on its own.
First, Guiyang's beef is special—yellow cattle from the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, bred in high-altitude regions. The unique climate of this mountainous province results in beef that is both tender and firm, with minimal gaminess. Even the nationally popular Chaoshan beef hotpot proudly advertises its use of yellow cattle from the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau.
▲ For beef noodles to be fragrant, the beef must be of good quality, with a balance of fat and lean meat, tendons and marbling.
First, a base broth is made from beef bones. Then, good cuts like beef shank or brisket are cut into small pieces and simmered clear-style with tendons and offal until tender and infused with beef fat aroma.
Besides clear stew, there's also a red-braised beef version. Here, "red-braising" isn't done with sugar and soy sauce but follows Guiyang's local method: stir-frying the beef with red oil, chili peppers, and fermented bean paste for a spicy, fragrant flavor.
▲ The beef in Guizhou beef noodles can be clear-soup style, red-braised, or pickled chili style.
Besides quality beef, the pairing in beef noodles is exquisite. The suan fen itself is well-suited to rich broths—its thicker, porous texture absorbs the soup excellently, while its natural mild acidity perfectly cuts through the soup's greasiness. The beef comes in two textures: half firm, half tender, spread over the noodles. Topped with sweet, sour, and crunchy pickled cabbage shreds, it ensures a balance between rich, mouth-coating oiliness and refreshing, non-greasy satisfaction.
After being served, diners can add Sichuan pepper powder and chili pepper to taste. In Guiyang's noodle shops, there are often even four types of chili peppers: homemade oil chili, roasted chili powder, pickled green peppers, and dried fried chili crumbs. Among these, the roasted chili powder pairs best with beef noodles. Roasted chili powder is made by baking chili peppers until they are almost charred but not burnt (overcooking makes them bitter), then crushing them. This process not only releases a rich peppery aroma but also adds an extra smoky fragrance.
▲ A "full house" beef noodle bowl with extra meat, tendons, offal, noodles, and marinated eggs.
Plain noodles pair with fried eggs, while beef noodles pair with marinated eggs—this is the dietary balance of Guiyang locals. When the originally somewhat dry marinated egg yolk soaks in the soup and coats with a layer of beef oil, even the simplest marinated flavor can be transformed. In Guiyang, a top-tier beef noodle bowl with extra meat, tendons, offal, noodles, and marinated eggs is called the "full house," which is both vivid and fitting.
▲ Steaming hot beef is enough to offset the damp and rainy cold.
Beef noodles are such a comforting food. Guiyang's winters are truly rainy, and on bone-chillingly cold winter mornings, eating a bowl of beef noodles like this, letting the soft and gentle rice noodles slide down with the hot broth, and stepping out of the shop just as the morning light is about to break through—hope and vitality travel from the stomach to the heart.
Besides local specialties like plain noodles and beef noodles, many外地 or融合 noodle dishes also dominate the tables of Guiyang locals.
For example, rice skin (米皮). Rice skin resembles Shaanxi's cold skin noodles, flat and wide in shape, made from rice batter steamed and then cut into flat noodles. Thin and wide rice skin easily absorbs flavors, making it perfect for mixing and eating. Zunyi spicy chicken rice skin involves pouring spicy chicken diced topping over the rice skin, then adding fixed condiments like fried soybeans and pickled radish, mixed together for a spicy and addictive taste.
▲ Guiyang's red oil rice skin looks very similar to Hanzhong hot skin noodles.
There's also Kaili's sour soup clay pot meatball noodles. Although sour soup noodles originated from Kaili, Guizhou people's love for sour flavors is truly unanimous. The red sour soup bubbles away in a small clay pot, with ingredients like pork liver and meatballs bathing alongside the rice noodles in the sour soup. Once served, you can eat it directly spoonful by spoonful of soup and noodles, but most Guiyang locals pair it with a dipping sauce made from chili peppers.
▲ Guiyang's sour soup clay pot meatball noodles, with the soul—sour soup—being poured in.
The basic formula for Guizhou people's dietary搭配 is the balance of sour and spicy. If the food is sour, the dipping sauce used to enhance the flavor must be spicy; if the food itself is spicy, then the side dishes and accompanying soup must contain sourness. The combination of sour and spicy seems like a taste code engraved on the taste buds of Guizhou people.
If we must find a bowl of noodles in Guiyang that is neither sour nor spicy, it would have to be char siu meatball noodles and Hunan noodles (面). Both of these noodle dishes are based on pork bone broth. Char siu meatball noodles are topped with thinly sliced, marinated lean char siu and small meatballs made from pure minced meat fried until crispy.
▲ For sour soup clay pot meatball noodles, the most enticing part is naturally the meatballs made from pure meat.
As for Hunan noodles, it's even more interesting—Hunan noodles are not from Hunan, nor are they Hunan-style noodles. You can't find Hunan noodles in Hunan; it's said they were invented by Hunan people who came to Guiyang.
Although plain noodles and beef noodles are good, over time they can难免 become monotonous. It is precisely because of the many外地 noodles that have come and融合 locally that the tables of Guiyang people can be so abundant.
▲ Lamb noodles popular throughout Guizhou are also随处可见 in Guiyang. Photo by Lu Yukun
Compared to rice, Guiyang people prefer noodles. For a Guiyang local, they can go without rice every day, but not without noodles for a day; they can't eat rice every day, but they can eat noodles every day. Compared to a proper meal of rice and dishes, noodles with all the ingredients "mixed" together seem more relaxed and casual, more in tune with the "down-to-earth" spirit in the hearts of Guiyang people.
Guiyang is such a leisurely and comfort-seeking city. Guiyang people, with their bit of "casual laziness," are like the mild-mannered, average-achieving, somewhat laid-back youth in class, but within this adorable laziness, there's also a reveal of处处 meticulousness and enthusiasm for life. Isn't that bowl of noodles, seemingly ordinary but incredibly delicious, the same?
▲ "Young warrior, want a bowl of noodles?"
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