Nanjing Food---Yiji Pig Skin Noodles

易记皮肚面

Pig skin is a very cheap and seldom used ingredient in conventional Chinese cooking. The skin of a pig is so thick and quite stinky, and not easy to be processed as well. However, there is a famous snack with pig skin pieces as the main stuff in old Nanjing city. It is called Pig Skin Noodles. Just like the ever-popular Lanzhou Lamian Noodles (兰州拉面) and Fujian Shaxian County Snack (福建沙县小吃) which are very easy to sample throughout China, this noodle delicacy is not always authentic and delicious as it is advertised.

As an old Chinese saying, "the fragrance of excellent wine wafting through the long alley", the best known restaurant that serves authentic Pig Skin Noodles is in a narrow lane called Mingwalang (明瓦廊), where can be found by walking down Xinjiekou Street (新街口), passing through Dayang Emporium (大洋百货) and Shigu Road (石鼓路). Small snack eateries of different specialties are operated on both side of Mingwalang Lane, where the last one you will find is the Yiji Pig Skin Noodles. This is a small noodles shop indeed, but often fully packed with customers.

It is quite hard to find a good seat here. The Pig Skin Noodle bowl is full of stuff – fresh vegetables, pieces of pork and skin with good looking, and fragrant cooking oil floating on soup, which has lots of essences from these quality foodstuffs. The pig skin pieces are really incredible. They are filled with mouth-watering broth and excellent smell of meat. The noodles are tougher than common Chinese kinds, but this will not affect the overall goodness of the bowl.