Bu Fan Tang (Mung-Bean Pancake Soup)

Bu fan tang is a traditional Luoyang soup centered on a thin mung-bean pancake: skinned mung beans are ground into a batter and griddled into a wafer that needs no flipping — hence 'bu fan', 'no flip'. The pancake goes into a hot broth with vermicelli, kelp, wood-ear, dried shrimp, laver and chives, seasoned with pepper and aromatic vinegar.

Bu fan tang has been made in Luoyang for over 120 years, a homely taste shared by households and small eateries across the old city. It reflects a western-Henan habit of building a soup around mung beans and a thin pancake, and starting the day with a warm, appetizing bowl.

Usually drunk hot as a breakfast or light bite, the pancake soaking up the broth into a soft, slippery bite; the soup is clear, sour-spicy and rousing — a warm bowl familiar to old Luoyang residents.

Its character comes from that thin 'never-flipped' pancake and the bite of white pepper — oily yet never heavy, sour-and-hot and bracing. A humble bowl that holds the craft of western Henan's soup cookery.