Three Ways to Eat Sheep's Blood

Three Ways to Eat Sheep's Blood

　　Spicy Garlic Sheep's Blood, Vermicelli Soup with Sheep's Blood, and Spicy Hot Sheep's Blood are all Xi’an-style snacks. Spicy Garlic Sheep's Blood is probably purely a folk food. Vermicelli Soup with Sheep's Blood began as a street food but was later introduced to restaurants by chefs and entrepreneurs, yet it remains beloved by common folks and retains a strong folk flavor.

　　People in Shaanxi love raising sheep, eating sheep, and cooking sheep. This tradition dates back to the Zhou, Qin, Han, and Tang dynasties. For thousands of years, the ancient city of Chang’an has had many specialized cattle and sheep markets, some of which still exist today, such as East Sheep Market Street and West Sheep Market Street. Almost every part of the sheep can be turned into a delicacy. Sheep fat is used to make fried noodles and oil tea, a favorite among Xi’an locals. Sheep’s blood is especially cherished. Once coagulated and cut into pieces, it can be prepared in various ways, with Spicy Garlic Sheep's Blood perhaps being the simplest and most popular. To make it, grind high-quality chili peppers into powder, heat premium clear oil until red-hot, and pour it over to make chili oil; mash high-quality garlic into a paste; boil the sheep’s blood cubes in broth, then place them in a bowl. Top with chili oil and garlic paste, then season with salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and sprinkle with chopped coriander and green onions. The more chili oil and garlic paste you add—within your spice tolerance—the better. When served, the bowl is a vivid red, with bright red chili oil coating the dark red sheep’s blood. The spicy aroma is so intense that those who can’t handle heat might not even dare to look, yet longtime Xi’an residents enjoy it heartily, finding it incredibly delicious. This dish can be eaten hot or cold, and cold it has a uniquely different flavor—like cold jelly noodles but actually a meat dish, a blood product that feels light and simple. With a couple of friends, a plate of Spicy Garlic Sheep's Blood and a bottle of Xifeng liquor can lead to hours of deep conversation. The scene is reminiscent of a gathering of rustic hermits in the countryside or a bold feast of the Eight Immortals in a drunken revelry. Spicy Garlic Sheep's Blood is just that kind of food: fiery and stimulating, revealing the warm hearts of close friends, a vivid portrait of the honest and pure character of the people of Guanzhong.

　　Vermicelli Soup with Sheep's Blood is said to have originated from Wang Jintang, who sold sheep’s blood near South Yard Gate in Xi’an, refining the crude way of eating sheep’s blood in the early 20th century. To this day, people still say the best Vermicelli Soup with Sheep's Blood comes from Wang Ji’s place in Xi’an. But that Wang Ji’s shop no longer exists. I lived near South Yard Gate as a child and knew this shop, having eaten there. In the 1950s, the shop was still doing brisk business, and I went there again. I remember that Wang Ji’s shop was just a small storefront with a few simple tables, and the stove was right at the entrance, so customers could clearly see the cooking process. This soup was originally meant to be eaten with soaked flatbread. Customers would break the bread into coin-sized pieces with their hands, then the waiter would take them to the chef. The chef would then take pre-sliced strips of sheep’s blood—about as thick as a matchstick and over ten centimeters long, dark red—and drop them into boiling water for about a minute before scooping them into a bowl. He’d then add a handful of soaked vermicelli to the bowl. Next, he’d pour hot broth over the ingredients. After a moment, he’d pour the broth back into the pot, then scoop more boiling broth from the pot to pour into the bowl, repeating this several times until the bread pieces were soft and warm. Finally, he’d blanch tofu cubes in a strainer in the pot, add them to the bowl, and season with roasted oil, chili oil, minced garlic sprouts, chopped coriander, hot broth, and serve—a steaming, fragrant bowl of Vermicelli Soup with Sheep's Blood. According to the book *Traditional Shaanxi Snacks*, the characteristics of this Xi’an snack are: “numbing, spicy, salty, fragrant, smooth, tender. The sheep’s blood is tender and smooth, the seasonings diverse, the spiciness aromatic, stimulating the appetite and aiding digestion.” But for me, the most satisfying part is the “spiciness”—the whole bowl, broth, bread, sheep’s blood, and vermicelli, is entirely red. Eating it often numbs the corners of your mouth, leaves your lips red, and usually works up quite a sweat, yet it feels incredibly satisfying. In this sense, although refined, Vermicelli Soup with Sheep's Blood remains bold and unrestrained, truly a “man’s food.”

　　However, making Vermicelli Soup with Sheep's Blood is not simple—each step has its own intricacies. The sheep’s blood must be strained through a fine sieve to remove impurities, then mixed with one-tenth its volume of salt, stirred, and combined with an equal amount of cold water. The hot broth must be seasoned with salt and spices: a mix of over ten ingredients including Da Hong Pao peppercorns, cinnamon, fennel, cardamom, galangal, cloves, pepper, and star anise. Among these, Da Hong Pao peppercorns and fennel are first heated to remove moisture, dried, and ground into fine powder. The chef’s action of pouring hot broth into the bowl is called “mao” (冒), which should correctly be written with a three-drop water radical on top of a “da” (大) character and a “mao” (卯) below. The *Cihai* dictionary defines it as: “same as ‘pao’ (泡), to soak something in water.” It also mentions that Emperor Gaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhao Gou, once ate this way in the wild while fleeing. It seems this method of eating has quite a history, at least eight hundred years.

　　In addition to traditional methods, in recent years, food vendors in Shaanxi and Xi’an have developed a new way to eat sheep’s blood called Spicy Hot Sheep's Blood. The originator may be the WenHao Mixed Grain Restaurant, known for serving Shaanxi local snacks, which has gained fame throughout Shaanxi and has a presence in Beijing’s dining scene. This Spicy Hot Sheep's Blood also comes in a big bowl—or rather, a fashionable, elegant, and aesthetically pleasing basin or bowl. Before digging in, all you see is an abundance of chili and peppercorns, far more than the sheep’s blood itself. It’s also served hot. Unlike Sichuan’s boasted “numbing-spicy-hot” hotpot, this isn’t a hotpot dish. Though both chili and peppercorns are spicy, most who try it say it’s not as spicy as expected. Instead, it leaves a deep impression of spiciness highlighted by fragrance. Many say: love it, delicious.

　　According to some medical and nutrition researchers, sheep’s blood is a “cleanser,” an excellent health food. It is said to have considerable therapeutic effects for people with cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Whether this is true is unclear. But *Compendium of Materia Medica* clearly states that sheep’s blood “can counteract the toxicity of cinnabar, realgar, sal ammoniac, sulfur milk, stalactite, malachite, muscovite, azurite, actinolite, and pumice stone.” Li Shizhen also praised: “Sheep’s blood has such detoxifying properties, yet previous herbals did not mention this—it is indeed an omission.” Here, “previous herbals” refers to medicinal texts before Li Shizhen, and it was precisely his dissatisfaction with earlier works that drove him to spend his life completing the monumental *Compendium of Materia Medica*. As for chili, it is widely recognized to stimulate appetite, aid digestion, and has medicinal uses such as expelling parasites and inducing perspiration. Therefore, nowadays, more and more people are taking an interest in traditional Shaanxi favorites like Spicy Garlic Sheep's Blood, Vermicelli Soup with Sheep's Blood, and Spicy Hot Sheep's Blood, and it seems a wave of spicy sheep’s blood enthusiasts is on the rise.