Chicken Vermicelli Soup
A bowl of thin, glassy vermicelli in clear chicken broth topped with shredded poached chicken and spring onion, eaten as a light breakfast or late snack in old Huzhou.
How to eat it
The bowl arrives very hot with the vermicelli sunk in the broth and the chicken laid on top. Use the chopsticks to lift the noodles and the ceramic spoon to catch broth underneath; the vermicelli is slippery, so take small bunches. Mix the chicken in rather than eating it first. White pepper and vinegar sit on the table and are the only seasonings locals add. Drink the broth at the end, holding the bowl with both hands. It is a light dish, so pair it with a baked flatbread or a parcel if you want a full breakfast.
The story behind the dish
Huzhou sits on the silk and rice trade of the Taihu plain, and its old snack trade grew up around boatmen and merchants who wanted something quick and warm near the canal wharves. Chicken broth with vermicelli was one of the standard offerings, prized because the stock could be kept simmering all day and the noodles cooked in seconds. It shares its stalls, and often its bowl, with the tofu-skin pork parcel, and the two are so often served together that many locals treat them as one dish. It remains a plain, everyday food rather than a banquet item.
For reference
Every kitchen does it its own way. What follows is the typical version — ingredients, heat and price shift from city to city and from one restaurant to the next, so take it as a guide rather than a fixed recipe.