PressReader.com | River snail noodle magic hits town
I read this yesterday. Apparently good news for some people. A man from China (maybe) has opened a luosifen place in Christchurch, New Zealand. And thankfully a self-appointed Chinese food foodie has deigned to inform us all about it.
It starts of with the claim that when he visited the restaurant, he had to leave a couple of times to breathe fresh air because of the smell. In 30 years of eating luosifen in Liuzhou, I’ve never, ever seen anyone doing that. Locals of visitors. My daughter didn’t like the dish or its aroma, but she never ran out gasping.
He then goes on to tell us all about the dish. He claims it went viral after Covid. WRONG. The dish, in its instant form went viral during Covid, becoming China’s top selling instant noodle variety. Only after Covid did we see millions of Tok-Tok jokers descend on the city to try it at source and talk similar nonsense about it.
He then describes the dish. Beef and chicken bones are simmered for three hours with the snails. WRONG. Pork bones are simmered for a minimum of 12 hours, more often 16. He also states that the snails melt into the broth, so don’t appear in the final dish.
I first read this theory many years ago and doubted it then, so I bought some of the relevant snails and simmered them for 16 hours. They don’t melt at all. The meat turns into hard inedible balls so are removed, leaving behind the flavour.
He points out the dish is finished with a drizzle of chili oil. WRONG. More like a pool . It’s meant to be a spicy dish.
The the owner, who does sport a common Chinese family name joins in, claiming that all the ingredients are imported from China (although he doesn’t say from Liuzhou) before admitting that it is illegal to import the snails to New Zealand, so instead he dries Chinese snails (not necessarily the snails used in Liuzhou)* and powders it to add to his broth. The type of snail used are very specific to here and found in few places in China.
I get the impression that he has read the ingredients list on a bag of cheap instant luosifen and tried to recreate the dish using them. Beef is used in some brands to replace the snails.
He also mentions that he offers a snail free version! Luosifen without luosi? That makes as much sense as chicken free roast chicken or clam chowder with no clams.
I don’t recall any members here from New Zealand otherwise I’d be begging them to go to check the place out.
* As I’ve mentioned before ‘snail powder can be a mistranslation of luosifen. Luosi are the snails and fen can mean powder but is here an abbreviation of mifen meaning rice noodles.
They have also created a dysfunctional video for YouTube. Bah! Humbug!