Gētuó

Gētuó

　　Gētuó, a term from northern Shaanxi, is called máshí or hóu'ěrduo in the Guanzhong region. Made with buckwheat flour, it can be shaped into small, egg-sized balls and rolled on a clean straw hat for a refined version, or cut into thick pieces and hand-kneaded for a simpler method. Once cooked, serve half a bowl of dry gētuó and pour lamb broth over it to make “lamb-flavored gētuó.”

　　　　Eating gētuó is inseparable from lamb broth—there’s even a folk song that goes, “Buckwheat gētuó in lamb broth, inseparable whether alive or not.”

　　　　Gētuó is a hearty dish; you can add all kinds of good things from the lamb broth to it, such as daylily, wood ear mushrooms, tofu, and chestnuts.

　　　　This dish has one characteristic: the longer it’s left over and reheated, the more fragrant it becomes. But be warned—eating too much can upset your stomach.