Yunyang Three-in-One Soup 郧阳三合汤

Yunyang Three-in-One Soup (郧阳三合汤) is a bowl of beef-bone broth holding three things: sweet-potato starch noodles, slices of beef and a few small dumplings. It comes from Yunyang District (郧阳区) of Shiyan (十堰), Hubei, where it is counted among the traditional snacks alongside sour-broth noodles (酸浆面), and it has appeared on the television series A Bite of China (舌尖上的中国).

Ingredients

The long, thin sweet-potato noodles are described as the soul of the bowl. They are made mainly in the twelfth lunar month and are hard work, so ordinary households seldom attempt them: sweet potatoes are ground to a fine flour, stirred with water into a batter and cooked, then pushed through a bamboo slotted ladle so the strands drop into cold water and set. An experienced maker lifts them out at the right moment and hangs them on bamboo poles to dry. In Yunyang they are an essential taste of the New Year's Eve meal.

How it is made

In a 2024 essay for the People's Daily, Wang Chengwei (王成伟), whose great-grandfather sold the soup for a living, recalls how it is made. The broth takes beef, beef hoof bones, pork leg bones and white radish, with spices such as cassia bark, Sichuan pepper, fresh ginger and tsaoko, and simmers for several hours. For the dumplings, fresh beef is mixed with radish that has been cooked and cooled, minced ginger, spring onion, celery and garlic shoots, bound with beaten egg and wrapped in a thin skin pinched into the shape of a yuanbao ingot.

How it is eaten

The noodles, broth, tender beef and dumplings are finished with coriander and spring onion, and those who like heat add chilli oil. Wang dates the soup to the Wanli reign of the Ming dynasty and recalls a rhyme that ties it to the pilgrims bound for Wudang (武当): pilgrims who come from everywhere to worship at Wudang must eat Wanli three-in-one soup. People from Yunyang who have moved away often head for a bowl of it, or of sour-broth noodles, as soon as they return.