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(ODDITY CENTRAL) – Suodiu is a bizarre type of Chinese street food that consists of small river rocks stir-fried with a mixture of spices and herbs. You are supposed to suck on the stones and then spit them out.
Roughly translated as ‘suck and throw away’, suodiu is believed to have been invented hundreds of years ago by boatmen who would prepare the dish when they became stranded in the middle of the river with no real food while delivering goods. To trick their stomachs, they would stir-fry some river pebbles with various condiments and then suck the stones dry. The traditional dish was passed down through several generations, and today roadside vendors in China can sometimes be seen stir-frying bunches of river rocks with cilli oil, garlic sauce, garlic cloves and a mixture of spices.
A series of videos showing the preparation of suodiu at roadside stalls have recently gone viral on Xiaohongshu, China’s version of Instagram, sparking the curiosity of millions. It wasn’t only the peculiarity of the dish that intrigued viewers, but also the steep price of 16 yuan ($2.30) per serving, considering that there is hardly any edible stuff in it.
The post Stir-fried river rocks? Street food that's literally hard to stomach appeared first on WND.
