Douhua Powder

Douhua Powder

　　Douhua Powder has a history of nearly a hundred years. The key to its flavor lies in the meat topping. In the late Qing Dynasty, Douhua Powder was a vegetarian dish, but it was later improved by adding a meat topping. The meat topping is made by chopping pork leg tendon and pork into small cubes, then mixing them with diced pickled mustard tuber, along with an appropriate amount of sweet sauce, broad bean paste, and other seasonings. It is then stir-fried in a mixture of half pork and half vegetable oil, along with a few crispy peanuts, placed in a small bowl, and further seasoned with spices such as chili, soy sauce, monosodium glutamate, scallions, ginger, and cilantro. Cooking the noodles also requires skill—they are boiled in soy milk, which gives them a particularly delicious taste. A separate pot of clean soy milk is kept to be used as a soup base. When eating, you can choose the dry style, dipped in the sauce, which is incredibly tasty, and is served with a bowl of soy milk; or you can go for the sweet version, where the Douhua Powder and soy milk are mixed together, then the prepared sauce is poured over, which is also delicious—but the dry style is recommended.