Sa Grain-Thickened Meat Soup 糁
Sa Grain-Thickened Meat Soup is featured among the local specialties of Shandong.
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Sa Grain-Thickened Meat Soup (糁) is a peppery Linyi (临沂) breakfast soup served with wheat grains and thickened broth. In the beef version made by Zhang Xiufu (张秀付), beef bones simmer until the stock turns milk-white.
How it is made
China Culture Daily describes Zhang’s method at Chaoyang Soup House (朝阳糁馆). Fresh beef and bones are cleaned, soaked and cooked with more than twenty aromatic ingredients, including pepper and codonopsis root. The meat is removed for later use while the bones continue cooking.
The next morning, starch slurry, wheat grains and shredded ginger are added and brought to a rolling boil. Individual cooks vary the aromatic proportions and heat; some preparations remove fat beforehand for a lighter broth.
How it is eaten
The soup is ladled into white porcelain bowls, then topped with sliced beef or shredded chicken. Fried dough sticks or a crisp flatbread are customary accompaniments. China Culture Daily describes a fresh meat-broth aroma and peppery heat.
Where it comes from
The craft entered Shandong’s (山东) third provincial intangible cultural heritage list in 2013. Linyi’s wider soup tradition includes chicken versions and softshell-turtle soup for celebratory banquets, alongside beef.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-26. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.