Puffed Pork Skin Noodles 皮肚面
Puffed Pork Skin Noodles is featured among the local specialties of Jiangsu.
Puffed Pork Skin Noodles (皮肚面) are a well-known snack of Nanjing (南京), cooked with pidu (皮肚), dried and puffed pork skin, as the main ingredient.
How it is made
Pidu, also called dried pork skin (干肉皮), is prepared long before it reaches the noodle bowl. Fresh pork skin is cleaned of fat and hair and boiled in water until it turns half-translucent. It is then lifted out and left to dry in a ventilated place, and only when it is completely dry is it deep-fried until golden. Some pidu made today is puffed by other methods instead of frying.
Before cooking, the dried pidu is soaked in plain water until it softens. Once swollen it can be cut into shreds, slices or chunks, and it suits both cold dressing and soups.
Where it comes from
Pidu is counted among the important ingredients of Huaiyang cuisine (淮扬菜). In Nanjing it gives its name to this noodle snack, in which it is the main ingredient rather than a garnish.
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Zhenjiang pot-lid noodles 锅盖面 →
A noodle dish from Zhenjiang, elsewhere in Jiangsu, to set beside a Nanjing bowl whose main ingredient is pidu, puffed pork skin.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.