The Sinosphere · Volume 35, The Sour Jar, the Steam Funnel and a Border That Runs Both Ways
Liuzhou luosifen, snail rice noodles
Liuzhou, Guangxi
Illustration
- Time
- 6 hours 40
- Researched
- Researched from 107 sources in the brief
Liuzhou, Guangxi. A 1980s working-class invention, national intangible heritage within forty years.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. Broth: 30 minutes at a rolling boil, then 5 to 6 hours at a simmer, then assembly: 10 minutes.
Ingredients
- 500 g pork tube bone, blanched
- 1 chicken carcass, blanched
- 300 g stone snails (or a substitute stock approach, see Sourcing), purged and cleaned
- 2 star anise
- 1 cassia bark stick
- 1 black cardamom pod
- 1 tsp fennel seed
- 2 dried tangerine peel pieces
- 2 bay leaves
- a small piece a small piece of sand ginger, if available
- 2.5 litres water
- 400 g fresh or dried rice vermicelli (mixian)
- 100 g sour bamboo shoot, sliced
- 50 g dried tofu skin, soaked and sliced
- 30 g black fungus, soaked and sliced
- to taste pickled radish, roasted peanuts, chilli oil, to finish
Method
- Combine the bone, chicken carcass and snails in a large pot with the water, bring to a rolling boil for 30 minutes, skimming well.
- Add the star anise, cassia bark stick, black cardamom pod, fennel seed, dried tangerine peel, bay leaves and sand ginger and reduce to a bare simmer for 5 to 6 hours, topping up water as needed.
- Strain the broth well; the snails have done their job flavouring the stock and are not the dish's main eating component.
- Scald the rice vermicelli in boiling water until tender and drain into serving bowls.
- Ladle the hot broth over the noodles, and top with the sour bamboo shoot, tofu skin, black fungus, pickled radish, peanuts and chilli oil.
What a modern chef changes
The broth's actual flavour drivers, isolated and concentrated.
Rungs 5 and 1
Method
- Pressure-cook the bone and spice stock to extract the same depth in under two hours rather than five to six, then reduce further on the stovetop to concentrate.
- Ferment the sour bamboo shoot at home, following the same dehydrator method as Dish 4, rather than relying on a jarred Thai analogue (a genuine, honestly stated UK sourcing gap, see below).
- Strain the finished broth through a chinois for full clarity, plating the noodles and garnishes separately and pouring the clarified broth at the table, a presentation that foregrounds the broth's actual craft rather than serving it as one opaque bowl.