HuLa Soup — Xi’an Chili
The perfect life of a Xi’an foodie is like: HuLa soup for breakfast, YRPM for lunch, skewers for diner. Okay, let’s get to the breakfast.
Chili is the English recipe that’s closest to HuLa soup. In Chinese, “Hu” means a bit burnt, “La” means spicy. Sounds a bit vulgar, only if you know it used to be called “the King’s Soup”. It stayed in the palace for nobody knows how long. Until 400 years or so ago when an evicted imperial chef brought it to the street. That imperial was soon overturned, along with it, the royal taboo upon Hula soup. It swept the middle section of China — where the major Chinese ethnic “Han” resides, to be the first bite in the morning. Apparently people were not drawn by the loyal aura — they soon tagged it with a tacky name, but the loyal recipe was no joke. It’s awakening — using a lot of pepper and chili oil, nutritious — a major meat plus lots of vegs, invigorating –hot in taste and temp. Finally, it’s creamy — Gordon powders are added delicately. The powder turns the soup into a dark look through cooking, burnt as it appears, but it only gives your tongue a thickened touch.
The royal chef fled afar so Hula soup gained its traction outside of Xi’an. When it came back, about 1950s, the major meat was chopped pork. The talented Muslim chefs turned the pork into beef meatballs. Then it grew into one of the “can’t live without” for many locals. Since the tourism booming in the 90s, it became one of Xi’an’s iconic food.
The dark, sticky surface might scare off some first eaters. But the first stir should suffice to ease the nerve –surprises come one after another. Potato, cabbage, and French beans, all diced, are the basics to set up the refreshing tune. Pre-cooked meatballs are the gem. Whether pre-fried or boiled, they tend to assure a cute, bouncy bite that arouses the taste buds. This sense grows fast in the past decade among foodies, especially the younger ones, when it comes to anything chewy, like meat balls or chunk, candies, and pearl milk. They have invented a word, “Q-tan”, to capture this ephemeral sensation. “Tan” means bouncy in Chinese. Obviously this is a cute Chinglish word.
They won’t come up without noodle cues –after all, Xi’an is a noodle city. Laminaria Japonica, Day Lily, and transparent vermicelli are added. Sometimes pellets are added, like peanuts or yellow beans, to boost the chewing effect. The secret is that all the ingredients won’t mess up with one another. They are fried a bit before the water is added. The boiling time is short, with the Gordon powders to assure the rich soup.
Like the cold-skin noodle, many restaurants only sell HuLa soup in the morning. The CK noodle might be a better breakfast in the summer. But in the cold, dry winter, the hot, rich Hula soup will send you to an energizing day.
