How to eat a bowl of Su-style noodles correctly in Suzhou?

Suzhou people have a tradition of eating noodles. Old Suzhou people regard drinking tea, eating noodles, and listening to Pingtan as daily compulsory courses. A bowl of noodle soup of Suzhou people has long gone beyond the scope of a simple breakfast, and has long been deeply integrated into "Suzhou-style life"[1]

Chinese name Su-style noodle soup Nature of noodle soup Location Suzhou The taste is clear but not oily, bland but unremarkable

Contents

1 Introduction

2 Features

Introduction editor

Suzhou people have a tradition of eating noodles. Old Suzhou people regard drinking tea, eating noodles, and listening to Pingtan as daily compulsory courses.

Features Editor

The most important thing about Su-style noodle soup is the noodle soup. The soup should be clear but not oily, fresh in taste and not dry after eating. Making noodle soup is called "diaotang", which is equivalent to the soup stock in restaurants. Every noodle shop, large and small, regards the soup recipe as a family heirloom and keeps it secret. The common method is to add the remaining eel bones from the fried eel to the hoof bone, as well as various homemade secret recipe seasonings, and slowly simmer it over a slow fire. Served with the original sauce of braised pork and cooked lard. However, each noodle soup has different flavors, and the recipe is unknown. The authentic Su-style noodle soup is as transparent as amber, without any impurities, fragrant and moderately salty.

Toppings refer to the dishes served with noodles. There are many kinds of toppings, which are almost the recipes of Subang cuisine; such as Zhu Hongxing’s braised hoof, Wufangzhai’s five-spice pork ribs, Songhelou’s braised duck, and Huang Tianyuan’s fried eel. , there are also common ones such as braised meat, stir-fried meat, ribs, shrimp, stir-fried mushrooms, spicy sauce and so on.

Diners can customize the soup noodles in many ways when ordering noodles: "wide soup" means more soup and less noodles, "tight soup" means the opposite; "heavy green" means adding more garlic leaves, "free soup" "Green" means avoiding it; "heavy noodles and light pouring" means more noodles and less toppings, and the opposite is true for "heavy pouring and light noodles"; "crossing the bridge" means that the toppings are served on another plate and not immersed in the noodles. For these requests, regular diners would usually inform the noodle waiter in advance

In the early years, as soon as you entered the noodle shop, you could hear the skilled waiter singing a string of professional terms: "Hey ——Here you go, an old face from Channel 3, three ounces of silk noodles, dragon beard thin noodles, clear soup, heavy greens, heavy pouring across the bridge..." [1]