Seafood Dough-Drop Soup 海鲜疙瘩汤

Seafood Dough-Drop Soup (海鲜疙瘩汤) is a soup of small lumps of flour dough cooked with seafood, eaten in Weihai (威海). The Huancui District (环翠区) culture and tourism bureau describes it as tasting salty and of the sea, and puts it on the breakfast table at the Gumo morning market (古陌早市) beside fresh goat's milk and deep-fried dough sticks.

How it is made

In its series on Weihai snacks, the Weihai Culture and Tourism Bureau set out the home-style dough-drop soup served at Laoma Geda Tang (老妈疙瘩汤), a seafood restaurant where it has been the dish regulars order for ten years. Flour is knocked about with water until it forms plump little grains of dough. Fresh clams are blanched and taken out of their shells. Diced pork shoulder is fried until fragrant with spring onion and ginger, then spring water and a little salt go in to make the base. The dough lumps are added to the boiling broth with farm eggs and seasonal greens, and the clam meat goes in just before serving to lift the flavour. Soybean paste is listed among the seasonings.

Flavour and texture

The bureau calls the result smooth and intensely savoury, with a strong flavour of Jiaodong (胶东), the eastern Shandong peninsula region.