Wulong Sweet Potato Starch Noodles 武隆苕粉

How it is made

The raw material is Wulong Ruby (武隆红宝石), a sweet-potato variety that the district government says Wulong bred itself. The old process is summed up in a local formula, 'three settlings, sixteen steps, scalding in an iron pan' (三沉三淀，十六道工序，铁锅烫皮). In the plainer words of the district's heritage page, the sweet potatoes are ground into a fine slurry, the starch is left to settle, and it is made into noodles.

Flavour and texture

The district describes the finished noodles as soft, glutinous and springy to the bite, and the strands as smooth and supple.

How it is eaten

The district government calls the noodles ideal for hotpot, for malatang (麻辣烫), the spicy broth in which skewered ingredients are cooked, and for slow-cooked soups. Its heritage page adds that they can also be dry-fried.

Where it comes from

Wulong tells a founding story for the noodles of Tukan (土坎). In the Kangxi era of the Qing dynasty, a boat tracker from Tukan met a merchant from Hunan. Hearing that sweet potatoes covered the slopes on both banks of the Wu River (乌江) but were only ever boiled, the merchant told him they could be ground into a fine slurry, settled and made into noodles. The tracker tried it at home, and the noodles solved two problems: sweet potatoes store badly, and they had been eaten only one way.

Each year after the sweet-potato harvest almost every household in the area makes noodles. The traditional making technique of Tukan sweet-potato starch noodles (土坎苕粉传统制作技艺) was added to the sixth batch of Chongqing's municipal intangible cultural heritage list in 2019.

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