Meatball Soup 丸子汤
Meatball Soup is featured among the local specialties of Xinjiang.
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Meatball Soup (丸子汤) is a Hui (回族) dish of Xinjiang: fried beef meatballs simmered in a beef-bone broth with a mix of other ingredients. China News Service traces it to the Hui speciality known as "nine bowls in three rows" (九碗三行子), and describes it as part of everyday life in Xinjiang that people of all ethnic groups now eat.
How it is made
The stock is simmered from beef shank bones. The meatballs are made from fresh beef, fried until cooked through and then stewed in the broth. Cubes of starch jelly (凉粉), king oyster mushrooms, sliced beef, glass noodles, spinach and frozen tofu go into the pot as well, and the soup is seasoned with pepper.
Flavour and texture
Frying gives the meatballs a crisp outside and a tender inside. The other ingredients each add their own texture, from crunchy and smooth to soft and chewy, and the broth carries a clear taste of pepper.
How it is eaten
A bowl is served with a small dish of side vegetables and a portion of youtazi (油塔子), a layered steamed bread. A Workers' Daily report on the time-honoured brands of Urumqi (乌鲁木齐) names the catering business Sishijiu Wanzitang, "Forty-Nine Meatball Soup" (四十九丸子汤), among Xinjiang's first batch of time-honoured catering businesses; for the new year it sells gift boxes of braised beef, jiasha (夹沙), meatballs and youtazi.
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.