Xiaoyao Town Spicy Soup

Xiaoyao Town Spicy Soup

　　Xiaoyao Town Spicy Soup is one of China’s renowned regional delicacies, celebrated for its appealing color, aroma, and taste. It can also help sober up drinkers, invigorate the spirit, stimulate appetite, and strengthen the spleen. It originates from Xiaoyao Town in Xihua County, Zhoukou City, Henan Province.

　　The origins of Spicy Soup can be traced back to the late Northern Song Dynasty. At that time, Emperor Huizong of Song had a penchant for romance and leisure but was utterly inept in matters of statecraft and military affairs. However, he excelled in the arts—music, chess, calligraphy, painting—as well as indulging in food, drink, and entertainment. As the saying goes, “What the sovereign favors, his subjects will indulge in even more,” so a culture of extravagance and luxury spread from the top down throughout the country, especially in the capital, Bianjing. Zhang Zeduan’s “Along the River During the Qingming Festival” captures the prosperity of the great Song Dynasty several decades prior, featuring a wide variety of foods with diverse flavors. These evolved and were passed down through generations, eventually becoming the famous snacks of Kaifeng. Therefore, if we’re really talking about origins, Spicy Soup has an inseparable connection with the ancient city of Dongjing (Bianliang)!

　　At that time, there was a young eunuch in the palace who had been castrated and entered the court at a young age. Because he was adept at reading the emperor’s moods and responding appropriately, he earned the favor of Emperor Huizong. By the age of sixteen or seventeen, he had become the emperor’s personal attendant. The emperor doted on the young eunuch and even granted him permission to leave the palace for outings and occasional visits home. The eunuch was originally from the Nanyang area, so after leaving the palace, he headed west, with his first stop being the Shaolin Temple on Mount Song. As a favorite of the emperor, the abbot of the temple treated him with great warmth and hospitality. When the abbot noticed that the young eunuch had a flushed face, dry lips, little appetite, and seemed dehydrated, he served him a bowl of Shaolin Temple’s “Hangover Soup.” After drinking it, the eunuch immediately felt refreshed and revitalized, with all discomfort fading away. Pleased, he drank it for several days in a row. Before departing, he asked the abbot for the recipe of the “Hangover Soup,” and the abbot generously gave it to him.

　　After visiting his family, the eunuch continued southward and made a trip to Mount Wudang. The leader of the mountain sect noticed that the eunuch had a large appetite, urinated frequently, had foul-smelling stools, and was thin. He prepared Wudang’s “Digestive Tea” for the eunuch. After drinking it for a few days, the eunuch’s bowel movements became normal, his body gradually filled out, and when he looked in a bronze mirror, his complexion appeared much fairer. Deeply grateful, the eunuch obtained the recipe for this tea as well.

　　Seeing the effectiveness of these two recipes, the eunuch thought of presenting them to Emperor Huizong upon returning to the palace, hoping to win the emperor’s favor. He gathered eunuchs from the imperial kitchen and physicians from the Imperial Medical Bureau, and using these two recipes as a foundation, they created a soup that was excellent in color, aroma, taste, and presentation. This soup reduced the bitterness of tea and the spiciness of broth while providing the benefits of sobering up, invigorating the spirit, stimulating appetite, and strengthening the spleen. When served to the concubines, they all praised it as delicious. When offered to Emperor Huizong, the romantic emperor felt particularly energized and delighted beyond words.

　　When Emperor Huizong asked the eunuch what kind of soup it was, the eunuch cleverly named it “Longevity Soup.” The emperor was overjoyed and granted the eunuch the imperial surname (Zhao), while bestowing the title “Zhao Family Longevity Soup” upon the dish. It was said that this soup could ward off the cold in winter and heat in summer. Emperor Huizong even distributed it among the troops, where soldiers who consumed it became resistant to illness and ailments. Its reputation soared, and it became a valued remedy within the army.

　　Later, during the “Jingkang Incident,” when the Jin army captured Kaifeng and took Emperors Huizong and Qinzong hostage, chaos ensued. The eunuch managed to escape imprisonment and fled southward with the refugee crowds. Having lived in the palace for so long, the eunuch was already frail, and the trauma of imprisonment, the fall of the nation, exposure to the elements, and constant fear took their toll. He fell gravely ill not long into the journey. By the time he reached the docks of Xiaoyao Town, it was already evening, and he could no longer go on. He collapsed in front of a teahouse stove. The next morning, the teahouse owner, Old Man Wang, found someone lying in front of the stove and quickly brought him inside for treatment. After a warm meal and some hot soup, the eunuch began to recover. Old Man Wang took him in and even arranged for his daughter to marry the eunuch (though this part is questionable). To make a living, the eunuch turned the teahouse stall into a breakfast stand. He modified the “Longevity Soup” (as those in the palace preferred soups for nourishment, while common folk needed porridge for sustenance) and sold it to traveling merchants. Later, he removed the medicinal ingredients from the soup and added roasted black sesame seeds, peanuts, and the like, turning it into a sweet soup. This eventually became the popular Yóuchá (oil tea) of the Xiaoyao area.

　　One day, a northern merchant brought a bottle of pepper powder to eat with the eunuch’s meat porridge. Old Man Wang accidentally knocked over the pepper bottle that the merchant had placed next to the porridge barrel, and the eunuch unknowingly stirred the spilled pepper into the pot. The customer, after eating, felt thoroughly refreshed and completely at ease. And so, Spicy Soup was born from this accidental “collision.” When the northern merchant asked the eunuch what kind of soup (or perhaps porridge) this was, the eunuch, noticing the rich aroma wafting from the pot, scooped some out to taste. The bold spiciness, combining the heat of dried ginger and galangal, the spice of pepper and long pepper, as well as the pungency of cinnamon and sandalwood, created a uniquely layered flavor that stimulated the taste buds unlike anything else. Thus, the eunuch named it “Spicy Soup.”

　　The term “Spicy Soup” does not mean the soup contains both pepper and chili peppers. In fact, authentic Spicy Soup uses only pepper, not chili. The name “Spicy Soup” actually means “randomly spicy”—a blend of various types of spiciness. Any other interpretations are either forced or taken too literally. Through years of refinement by the public, a version of Spicy Soup tailored to northern palates—with rich spiciness and a fragrant broth—was born in Xiaoyao Town. Not only is Spicy Soup delicious in color and taste, but it also offers medicinal benefits for health and disease prevention. Moreover, it is affordable, accessible to people of all walks of life, making it widely beloved by consumers.

　　At the time, Grand Secretary Yan Song sought to please the emperor by obtaining a longevity-enhancing seasoning remedy from a Taoist priest, which was then used to brew a soup. The soup was incredibly delicious, greatly pleasing the emperor, who named it "Imperial Soup." After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, imperial chef Zhao Ji fled to Xiaoyao Town (now Xiaoyao Town, Xihua County, Zhoukou City) with this remedy. Grateful for the kindness of the Hu family in Xiaoyao, he passed the recipe on to them. Because the soup was flavorful, spicy, and delicious—and operated by the Hu family—it gradually came to be known among locals as “Xiaoyao Town Spicy Soup.”