Spicy Pepper Soup 辣汤
Spicy Pepper Soup is featured among the local specialties of Jiangsu.
Spicy Pepper Soup (辣汤) is a peppery soup from Xuzhou (徐州), Jiangsu, cooked with chicken, pig bone and swamp eel. English Wikipedia's article on Xuzhou cuisine sets the Xuzhou version apart from the one made in Henan (河南).
Ingredients
The main ingredients listed for Xuzhou Spicy Pepper Soup are chicken, pig bone, swamp eel, wheat gluten, pepper, spring onion and ginger.
Where it comes from
Two Xuzhou versions sold under shop names were among the 24 foods named Xuzhou landmark foods (徐州地标美食) in December 2023, the first round of a scheme run by the city commerce bureau with the Xuzhou cooking association: Lianglaifeng Spicy Pepper Soup (两来风辣汤) and Laoguotai Spicy Pepper Soup (老锅台辣汤). Lianglaifeng is one of the city's long-established brands, and the Jiangsu provincial Party committee news site lists Lianglaifeng Spicy Pepper Soup among Xuzhou's food-related intangible heritage items.
Laoguotai, which entered the fourth list of Jiangsu time-honoured brands (江苏老字号), took Xuzhou Spicy Pepper Soup and traditional breakfast foods into the city's historic districts in 2025. On public holidays, visitors walking those streets stop in for a bowl of the soup with a plate of pan-fried buns (煎包).
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.
