Huachu Buckwheat Cold Noodle Skin

Huachu Buckwheat Cold Noodle Skin

　　Huachu Buckwheat Cold Noodle Skin is a specialty of Huachu Town, Puding County, Anshun City, Guizhou Province. Before eating, soak the Huachu Buckwheat Cold Noodle Skin in warm water for 5 to 10 minutes. Depending on your taste, it can be served cold tossed, in soup, or stir-fried spicy—different cooking methods yield different flavors. It does not need to be soaked if being fried.

　　Buckwheat Cold Noodle Skin is a local specialty of Huachu Town, and only Xinzhai Village in Huachu can produce it. Girls from this village who know how to make the noodle skin and marry into other villages often try to make a living using this skill. However, even with the same techniques and the same type of buckwheat, they cannot replicate the delicious taste of Xinzhai’s buckwheat noodle skin, sometimes not even achieving the proper shape. Locals generally believe it’s due to the water quality, but this has not been scientifically confirmed. Perhaps it's the sunlight or the air—no definitive answer exists. Yet, Xinzhai’s buckwheat noodle skin is undeniably appetizing. Whether served cold tossed or in soup, it offers a unique flavor. This noodle skin also contains histidine and arginine, which are important for children’s growth and development, along with rich inorganic elements such as phosphorus, magnesium, iron, potassium, calcium, and sodium. With a sweet taste and cooling nature, it helps stimulate appetite, aid digestion, and relieve indigestion. It offers great health benefits and is considered a rare health food.

　　Who exactly invented Xinzhai Buckwheat Cold Noodle Skin? Where did its production technique come from? There are no written records. Some say it was brought by the Tuntian people during the time of Zhu Yuanzhang’s southern campaigns, yet why is this skill absent in areas densely populated by those same Tuntian settlers? Others claim it’s an ancestral secret recipe of a certain forebear from Xinzhai Village in Huachu, but the process of making buckwheat noodle skin doesn’t seem to involve any real secrets: high-quality buckwheat is ground, then mixed with water and heated. By continuously kneading, the buckwheat slurry is extracted, cooked, slightly cooled, and then cut and dried using special tools. Of course, there are also nuances like heat control, but ultimately, it’s not a “secret recipe.”

　　Regarding the origins of the buckwheat noodle skin, a story has long been passed down among the villagers of Xinzhai. About 0.6 kilometers west of Huaxincun, there lies an abandoned village that locals call “Miaowang Village,” said to be the residence of the former Miaowang (Miao King). In reality, the so-called “Miaowang” refers to the area where the Bipeile A’de, one of the oldest branches of the Yi ethnic group in Guizhou, once lived. In 1981 and the late 1980s, numerous scholars and experts researching and verifying the “Fanzi Rock” near “Miaowang Village” also studied the site. They concluded that “Miaowang Village” should more accurately be called “Yiwang Village” (Yi King Village). According to elders in Xinzhai Village, the Miaowang (or Yi King) was lustful and domineering, demanding that the newlywed brides from nearby villages spend the first three nights with him. Later, when Wu Wang (Wu Sangui) advanced into Guizhou and arrived at Huachu Town, he hunted down the Yi King, who then fled in panic with his people. One of his cooks, injured and unable to escape, hid in the bushes by the roadside. He was later rescued and nursed back to health by an elderly man surnamed Sun from Xinzhai Village. To thank the Sun family, the Yi elder passed on the technique for making buckwheat noodle skin, telling them it was the Yi King’s favorite dish, created based on the local climate and water quality. After revealing this, the Yi elder quietly left. At the time, locals despised the Yi King, so the Sun man dared not publicize the story. Instead, he secretly passed down the skill and its origin to his descendants. Only after people gradually forgot about the Yi King did the story come to light.

　　Today, the Sun family remains a prominent clan in Xinzhai New Village and continues to be the main force behind the production of buckwheat noodle skin. Meanwhile, the “Fanzi Rock” on Sifang Mountain still stands, attracting the interest of many scholars, experts, and media. Below Sifang Mountain, the remnants of the ancient Miaowang Village can still be faintly seen amid the overgrown weeds.