Xinhua Xiangdong Street Beef Rice Noodles 新化向东街牛肉粉

Xinhua Xiangdong Street Beef Rice Noodles (新化向东街牛肉粉) are a red-oil beef noodle bowl named after Xiangdong Street (向东街), an old street in Xinhua (新化) County, Loudi (娄底), Hunan. Hunan Daily (湖南日报) and its site Voc (华声在线) present it as one of Loudi's two leading breakfast noodles.

How it is made

The topping is local yellow-cattle beef (黄牛肉), simmered with more than a dozen Chinese medicinal herbs and then cooked with Xinhua's own mountain pepper oil (山胡椒油) and a specially made red chilli oil. Hunan Daily says the broth comes out red but not harshly hot, with a savoury taste.

Flavour and texture

The paper describes three textures in the bowl: soft rice noodles, crisp wood-ear fungus and chewy beef. It also notes that Xinhua is even fonder of chilli than the rest of Hunan, and that diners whose noses are running from the heat still go back for another mouthful of the soup. Set beside Loudi's other red-oil bowl, the Qingshuping (青树坪) noodles of Shuangfeng (双峰), Xiangdong Street noodles take a beef topping where Qingshuping uses pork, and the mountain pepper oil is the flavour Xinhua people crave.

Where it comes from

Xiangdong Street runs beside the river: heading east from South Main Street (南正街) over bluestone paving, a slope leads down to the long, narrow old street. Hunan Daily dates the street to the Song dynasty and describes grey brick, black tiles and stone paving, with noodle shops in the lanes where big pots steam, wooden tables and benches stand where they fall, and stoves and chopping boards open onto the doorstep. The paper says a bowl starts the day for local people, and that Xinhua people coming home arrange to eat one with friends.