Tengzhou Spicy Soup

Tengzhou Spicy Soup

　　The spicy soup is primarily made from flour, along with a few other seasonings. Though the ingredients are simple and the cost is low, it has a unique flavor, the secret of which lies in the technique used to prepare it. The making of Tengzhou spicy soup is quite distinctive — the dough kneading and rinsing generally need to be done about 10 hours in advance, meaning preparation starts the afternoon before and it's served the next morning. The specific method is: mix the flour with water to form a dough, then gradually rinse it with clean water by hand until only the gluten remains. Place the rinsed gluten in a basin to rest for up to 10 hours, then slowly stir it into a pot of boiling water and flour soup. Once it comes to a boil, add seasonings such as pepper, tofu skin, green vegetables, shredded kelp, and egg crepes. It’s ready to eat. When serving, add a little vinegar and sesame oil for a deliciously spicy and fragrant taste. Eating spicy soup offers many health benefits — it helps clear heat and prevent summer heatstroke, stimulates the appetite and wards off the cold in winter. The soup contains a variety of nutrients, making it a popular and hearty breakfast option.

Tengzhou spicy soup has a long history, with people making it as early as during the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty. Hu Qinfang, a renowned local expert in making spicy soup, started learning the craft in his teens. He inherited his grandfather’s traditional secret recipe for making the soup. Highly reputed in Tengzhou and even well-known beyond, it came to be called “Hu Family Spicy Soup.” Since joining a public-private partnership in 1956 and later transitioning to a state-owned enterprise, Hu Qinfang trained many skilled spicy soup makers in Tengzhou’s food industry, ensuring that the art of making the soup would live on. Most visitors to Tengzhou have the chance to taste this local specialty.