Rice Noodles in Thickened Broth 糊汤粉
Rice Noodles in Thickened Broth is featured among the local specialties of Hubei.
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Rice Noodles in Thickened Broth (糊汤粉) are a Wuhan (武汉) breakfast of round rice noodles under a fish broth thickened into a light paste, usually eaten with a fried dough stick (油条). The Wuchang District (武昌区) culture and tourism bureau lists the fresh-fish version (鲜鱼糊汤粉) among Wuhan's noted snacks, and in December 2019 it was named one of the Hubei Department of Commerce's ten famous Chu (楚) snacks.
How it is made
The noodles themselves are ordinary round rice noodles; what sets the dish apart is the broth. Small live crucian carp, sometimes with eel, are simmered slowly over a low flame into a fish stock. Early-season rice is toasted and ground into flour, and that cooked rice flour is stirred into the stock in set proportions until it thickens.
The rice noodles are scalded in boiling water, then a ladle of the fish paste is poured over them. Toppings include spring onion, pepper, small dried shrimp and diced carrot; a Changjiang Daily account of the fishermen's original version adds preserved mustard tuber (榨菜). Cooks of the Tian Hengqi (田恒啟) version start the broth at 4 a.m., and they watch the ratio of fish to water and the moment the rice flour thickens.
Flavour and texture
The broth is amber-coloured, salty and savoury, with a long finish, and the rice is soft and glutinous. Makers aim for a bowl where you taste the fish without seeing it.
Where it comes from
Zhang Yixin (张依心), the heritage bearer for the Tian Hengqi version, told Changjiang Daily that it was invented by fishermen in the dock culture of Hankou (汉口), a busy freight hub in 1920: they boiled the small fish and shrimp left unsold each day into soup, peppered it and thickened it with rice batter. That year a fish-broth rice noodle shop called Tian Hengqi opened at Siguandian (四官殿) in Hankou, and dock workers took to its bowls, with the fried dough stick added to fill them up. Tian Hengqi's method of making the dish entered the Jianghan District (江汉区) intangible cultural heritage list in 2021. Chinese Wikipedia traces the dish back to the Zhongji fresh-fish shop (钟记鲜鱼糊汤粉) in 1932; the Wuchang bureau lists Zhongji and Xu Sao (徐嫂), both on Hubu Lane (户部巷), as makers.
How it is eaten
The standard partner is a fried dough stick, and the bowl is sometimes also paired with other snacks such as fried oil cakes (油饼) or shaomai (烧梅). A Wuhan saying quoted by Changjiang Daily pairs it with the city's other breakfast staple: for noodles, hot dry noodles (热干面); for rice noodles, this one.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.