Hu La Tang (Spiced Pepper Soup)

Hu la tang is Henan's most famous breakfast soup: thick and glossy, sharply peppery, and loaded with beef, wheat gluten, vermicelli and wood-ear, thickened with starch — spicy, savory and warming, a common sight at Luoyang's morning markets.

A hallmark of Central Plains breakfast culture, hu la tang has long been popular across Henan, its pepper-driven heat and thickened body reflecting a northern habit of warding off cold mornings with a hot, rousing soup; Luoyang, a major western-Henan city, is among the places where it is eaten daily.

Usually drunk piping hot for breakfast, paired with fried dough sticks, pan-fried buns or sesame flatbread; some mix it half-and-half with tofu pudding (liang chan) — one of the ways Luoyang people begin the day.

Its signature is the interplay of peppery heat and a thickened body — pungent and rich on the palate, long on the finish, warming you through. It is the first soup by which to know Henan's taste.