Luosifen

Luosifen (Chinese: 螺螄粉; pinyin: luósīfěn; lit. 'Snail rice noodle') is a Chinese noodle soup and specialty of Liuzhou, Guangxi. The dish consists of rice noodles in broth with various toppings. The soup stock is made by boiling river snails and pork bones for several hours with spices such as black cardamom, fennel seed, dried tangerine peel, cassia bark, cloves, white pepper, bay leaf, licorice root, sand ginger, and star anise. It usually does not contain snail meat, but is served to taste with toppings such as pickled bamboo shoots, pickled green beans, shredded wood ear, tofu skin, fresh green vegetables, peanuts, and chili oil. Luosifen is known for its strong smell, which comes from pickled bamboo shoots. In Liuzhou, the dish has been widely served in stands and small restaurants since the 1990s. After it was featured on a culinary documentary in 2010, many luosifen restaurants opened in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, as well as abroad. Mass production of packaged luosifen started in 2014, making it a nationwide household food. In 2019, 2.5 million packets were produced daily and yearly sales were 6 billion yuan. It became more popular during the COVID-19 pandemic.