Nanyang Beef Soup 南阳牛肉汤
Nanyang Beef Soup is featured among the local specialties of Henan.
Nanyang Beef Soup (南阳牛肉汤) is a clear beef soup that Dahe (大河网), the Henan Daily group's news site, calls a well-known breakfast of Nanyang (南阳), Henan, and one of the city's signature foods.
Ingredients and flavour
The stock is made from Nanyang yellow cattle (南阳黄牛), which Dahe describes as one of Henan's ten leading geographical-indication products. The beef-soup pots spread through the lanes of Nanyang's old town serve a broth that is clear yet full of flavour, with beef that Dahe describes as fresh, fragrant and moreish.
Where it comes from
Dahe calls the soup part of Nanyang's traditional food culture and an essential breakfast for local people, as well as the breakfast visitors to the city are expected to try. Two local sayings go with it: "not one cow leaves Nanyang whole", and "if you come to Nanyang and do not drink beef soup, you have not been to Nanyang".
At a deputies' open day (代表开放日) in Nanyang, reported by Dahe in July 2023, Cheng Hao (程浩) complained that traditional practice relies on vague measures such as "a little" (少许) and "a spoonful" (一汤匙), and argued for unified standards covering the soup's raw materials, method, finished product and hygiene.
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Beef Soup 牛肉汤 →
Luoyang has had a local cooking standard for its beef soup since 2020, the kind of unified standard that was called for in Nanyang in 2023.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.
Image credits & notes (1)
- Reference photo of a similar dish · 同类菜品参考照片A similar preparation is pictured; the local version may differ. 同类菜品参考照片，当地做法可能不同。Photo: Bahnfrend · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized for the web; the photo itself has not been edited. Thumbnails may show a cropped view.
