Wowo Noodles 窝窝面

Wowo Noodles (窝窝面) are small pieces of egg-yolk dough, each pressed into a little hollow, served in a long-simmered stock. The dish belongs to Yaozhou District (耀州区) of Tongchuan (铜川), Shaanxi, where it is known as Yaozhou wowo noodles (耀州窝窝面), and it is on Shaanxi's provincial intangible cultural heritage list.

Where it comes from

According to the Yaozhou District publicity department, in a report carried by China National Radio (央广网), the dish was created in the Daoguang (道光) reign of the Qing dynasty at the Hengsheng eatery (恒盛馆子) in the east of Yaozhou town. The same report says the writer Lao She (老舍) ate it on a visit to Yaozhou and praised it above everything else he had tasted. The current keeper of the craft named in the report, Yin Yu (阴昱), is its fourth-generation inheritor.

When the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism (陕西省文化和旅游厅) presented twelve intangible-heritage food routes in 2023, the Tongchuan route named 'century-old' wowo noodles alongside Tongchuan's salty soup noodles (咸汤面).

How it is made

The dough is mixed with egg yolk only and kneaded to a medium firmness so the noodles stay chewy. It is cut into small dice, and the cook pushes each piece up with the tip of a chopstick to form the hollow 'wowo' shape, one at a time. The stock is simmered over a low flame for six hours until it turns thick and white; Yin Yu makes it with spring water rather than tap water.

Yin Yu has adapted the recipe: to deepen the broth he adds a seafood liquid steamed with dried shrimp (海米) and several kinds of mushroom grown in local greenhouses, and he also puts in walnut kernels and almonds.