Like durian, Liuzhou snail rice noodles (lousifen) are a controversial dish. Many people like its taste, but others find it too smelly. One diner wrote on Weibo: “This dish tastes amazing. The more you eat it, the more you like it.” While another said: “I think both lousifen and durian are foods with unpleasant odors.”
A third person said: “I am a big fan of Liuzhou Snail Noodles. I often tell my friends who dare not try this dish: How do you know it tastes bad without trying it? I have never eaten it before. However, after enjoying this dish, I am addicted. Trust me, it is really delicious.”
10 years ago, lousifen was little known, it was mainly consumed by Liuzhou people. Nowadays, Liuzhou snail noodles have become a popular snack, especially for young Chinese people.
The special scent of this dish is like durian, so strong that it can fill the entire restaurant and surrounding streets with its smell. However, this does not affect the lovers of this dish at all, they say: "the smell is bad but the taste is delicious".
Lousifen is a combination of rice noodles, broth simmered for many hours with ingredients such as: snails, pork bones, beef bones, along with pickled bamboo shoots. In addition, the dish can include a few other ingredients including: peanuts, fried tofu skin, mushrooms, radishes, green beans, ...
The strong, unpleasant smell comes from the pickled bamboo shoots fermented according to a secret recipe. Pickled bamboo shoots are considered the soul of Liuzhou snail noodles. It is believed that it is the amino acids from the fermentation process that give the dish its delicious and addictive flavor.
“When I eat Liuzhou snail noodles at home, my family stays away from me,” one diner shared, while another wrote, “They tell me to take my bowl and go outside the apartment to eat.”
In November 2019, a Chinese student in Italy was fined 40 euros (about $44) for cooking Liuzhou snail noodles at home, according to the Beijing Evening News. The student’s neighbors called the police on suspicion that he was storing biological weapons in his home.
Liuzhou Snail Rice Noodles was once a little-known street food before being enjoyed by millions of Chinese people thanks to the first instant packaged version produced in 2014.
According to CCTV, in 2020, revenue from instant Liuzhou snail noodles produced by factories in Liuzhou reached 11 billion yuan ($1.7 billion).
Each pack contains about 100g of noodles and 200g of other ingredients, and is sold for 6-15 yuan in online stores.
According to South China Morning Post
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