Su-style noodles facts for kids
Su-style noodle (苏式汤面) is a yummy and traditional food from Suzhou, China. It's a special meal that brings together warm soup, tasty noodles, and different kinds of toppings. Imagine a delicious bowl of noodles with your favorite ingredients on top!
Contents
What's in Su-style Noodle?
Su-style noodles are made of three main parts: the soup, the noodles themselves, and the toppings. Each part is important to make this dish so special.
The Soup
The soup for Su-style noodles comes in two main types: red soup and white soup. Both start with a base soup that is cooked slowly for a long time. The exact recipe for this base soup can be different depending on the restaurant. It might be made from things like eel bones, green shell snails, pork bones, chicken, pork, or even ham.
To make the soup even tastier, a special salty liquid called "brine" is added to the base soup. This is usually done in a ratio of 10 parts base soup to 1 part brine. If soy sauce is added to the white soup, it turns into the red soup. This step is called "open soup" by the people who make it.
The Noodles
When it comes to the noodles, how soft or firm they are is very important. If they cook too long, they might become mushy. If they don't cook long enough, they can be hard. When you order, you can tell the cook exactly how you like your noodles. If you don't say anything, the cook will decide!
The Toppings
The toppings are the different dishes you eat with your noodles. There are so many kinds to choose from! The toppings often include many famous dishes from the local Su Bang cooking style.
Some popular toppings include stuffed pig's hoof, five-spice ribs, braised duck, and eel. You can also find common choices like braised eel meat, stir-fried meat, pork ribs, shrimps, or even stir-fried vegetables with hot sauce. There's a topping for almost everyone!
Where to Find Su-style Noodle
Su-style noodle is most popular in the Yangtze River Delta area of China. This is because it can be a bit expensive to make, and many of the special toppings use ingredients found locally in that region.
Maple Town Noodle
One very famous type of Su-style noodle is called Maple Town Noodle. It comes from Maple Town in Jiangsu province. People say it's one of the "most difficult to make, finest, and most delicious" Su-style noodles.
Making Maple Town Noodle takes a lot of effort. High-quality pork belly is carefully prepared and cooked for about four and a half hours. The soup is made from fresh ingredients like eel bone, shrimp brain, and snail meat. Maple Town Noodle always has a white soup, meaning no soy sauce is added to it.
Images for kids
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A delicious bowl of Su-style noodle.
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Su-style noodle with red soup, which gets its color from soy sauce.
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A bowl of Maple Town Noodle, known for its white soup.
