Tianjin Thin Foods

Last updated 2026-11-09 — Thin foods are soup-based, filling meals, often served in the morning, hence also called breakfast thin foods. Tianjin’s thin food varieties can be broadly divided into soup, stew, and porridge types, numbering nearly a hundred with diverse styles. Among the soup varieties, there is one where chicken breast is coated with dry starch, repeatedly pounded with a wooden mallet into thin sheets, then cut and mixed with egg whites, water, and flour to form a slightly firm dough. This is rolled out into noodles about the thickness of spaghetti, boiled, and then ladled into a bowl. Salt and MSG are added, and it is topped with “three-mix soup” (made by simmering chicken, duck, and beef in water). This is the traditional “Pounded Chicken Noodle Soup.” Before liberation, this dish was a delicacy for wealthy families. The “Eight Great Chengs” (restaurants known for serving Tianjin-style cuisine under the “Cheng” brand) used to prepare and sell it. With carefully selected ingredients and exquisite preparation, it had a unique style—snow-white, tender yet smooth noodles, clear and piping hot soup that was both delicious and nutritious. Using the same method for making “Pounded Chicken Noodle Soup,” one can also make “Pounded Shrimp Soup Noodles”; if the sheets are made into wonton wrappers and filled with meat, they can be turned into “Pounded Chicken Wontons.”