Xingyi Mutton Rice Noodles 兴义羊肉粉

Xingyi Mutton Rice Noodles (兴义羊肉粉) are the mutton rice noodles of Xingyi (兴义), the city in southwestern Guizhou that is the seat of Qianxinan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture (黔西南布依族苗族自治州). Among the titles listed by the Xingyi city government is "Home of Mutton Rice Noodles in China" (中国羊肉粉之乡).

How it is made

Qianxinan Daily, republished by the prefecture government, presents the bowl as a craft handed down for more than 300 years. Tender meat from local black goats is treated with a house spice mix to take away its gamy smell, then steeped with smooth rice noodles in a mutton-bone broth simmered for several hours. A spoonful of house sauce is poured over the top, and the bowl turns fragrant, savoury and hot at once.

Flavour and texture

The noodles are soft in the mouth, and the mutton is tender enough to fall apart without being greasy. The same feature places the bowl in the city's street mutton-noodle shops early in the morning, with runners waiting for the start of the Wanfenglin (万峰林) marathon holding coarse stoneware bowls and blowing on them.

Where it comes from

A Bijie city feature carried by the Qixingguan District government groups Guizhou's mutton rice noodles into four "schools": Jinsha (金沙), Zunyi (遵义), Shuicheng (水城) and Xingyi. Xingyi lists its mutton-noodle title among more than twenty city and tourism titles, alongside others such as best leisure-tourism city in China.

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Zunyi lamb rice noodles 遵义羊肉粉 →

Zunyi is another of the four schools of Guizhou mutton rice noodles grouped with Xingyi's bowl.