Cross the Bridge Noodles
on Tina's Journal (China), 14/Dec/2009 12:05, 34 days ago
One of the things I'll miss about being in China is eatingCross the Bridge Noodles. It is such a substantial dish that gives you a taste of everything! You are served a hot bowl of stock, either meat or vegetable, given a plate of mixed raw vegetables with raw meats thinly sliced, and a raw egg. You  add the food into the broth with a bowl of rice noodles. It cooks very quickly in the bowl and you just eat it all, from the same bowl. It's a typical Yunnan dish that is so called because many years ago, as the tale goes, a man was studying to be a government official of some kind and needed peace and solitude to study. He therefore left his family home to find a quiet place to work. His wife would take food out to him walking across a bridge to his place of study. One day, whilst she was carrying a bowl of hot broth to eat with noodles, her son threw a piece of raw meat into the broth. She scolded her son, but discovered that the meat cooked and added flavour to the stock. Thus the nameguo qiao mi xien(cross the bridge noodles).