freeamfva: Luosifen, the controversial smelly Chinese soup noodle dish

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Luosifen, the controversial smelly Chinese soup noodle dish



Like durian in some Asian countries, the smelly food in China that people love or hate is luosifen, or “river snail rice noodles” in English.To get more news about luo si fen, you can visit shine news official website.
This controversial dish is in the spotlight on Chinese social media after President Xi Jinping inspected the Luosifen Production Hub in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on Monday.
“It tastes marvellous. The more you have it, the more deeply you will love it,” wrote one person on Weibo.
“I think both luosifen and durian are the food that let you feel they are actually fragrant,” said another user.A third commenter wrote: “I am a loyal fan of luosifen. I often tell my friends who dare not try this food: ‘How do you know it tastes bad if you don’t have a try? I didn’t eat it before. But after I ate it, I found a new world’s door has opened to me. It’s really yummy. Trust me. Or how about I treat you?’.”

Once an obscure dish on the mainland just a decade ago and only consumed by locals in Liuzhou, luosifen has become a popular snack, especially among the youth in China.
Its distinctive odour, like that of durians, is so strong that it can fill an entire restaurant and the surrounding streets with its smell. However, the smell does not at all affect its popularity among fans whose motto is: “it smells bad, but it tastes delicious”.
Luosifen mainly partners with rice noodles, stock soup which is stewed for hours with river snails, and pork or beef bones, and sour pickled bamboo shoots. It can also include peanuts, fried beancurd sheets, day lily, black fungus, dried turnip and sometimes green vegetables.The strong odour comes from the bamboo shoots which have been fermented using a secret recipe. The bamboo shoot is regarded as the soul of luosifen; It is alleged that it is the amino acid from the fermentation process that makes the dish taste fresh, delicious, and addictive.
When I eat luosifen at home, everybody in my family will keep a distance from me,” another user wrote. “They told me to hold my bowl and go outside of the flat to eat. They said they don’t dare to touch my bowl and pot that is used to cook the noodles and want to throw them away because of the pungent smell left on them.”
In November, 2019, a Chinese student in Italy was fined 40 euros (US$48) for cooking luosifen at home after his neighbour called the police suspecting there was a bioweapon in the house, the Beijing Evening News reported.Once a humble street dish, luosifen soon began filling the stomachs of millions of people across China after its first instant pre-packaged version was produced in 2014.
Last year, the revenue from pre-packed luosifen made by factories in Liuzhou reached 11 billion yuan (US$1.7 billion), state media CCTV reports.
Each pack, containing about 100 grams of noodles and 200 grams of various ingredients, is sold at 6-15 yuan (US$1 to $2.30) at online shops, the South China Morning Post found.
Its popularity in China was boosted more recently by the coronavirus outbreak last year when many people followed the lockdown order and stayed at home.
Marketing experts said the pandemic had boosted sales of pre-made luosifen as people found it troublesome to cook proper meals and too expensive to order food delivery.
During the 2020 Single’s Day shopping festival luosifen was one of the top 20 best-selling online products for Taobao.