Mutton Saozi Noodles

Mutton saozi noodles pair springy hand-rolled and cut strands with a topping of diced mutton, potato, tofu and wood-ear mushroom stir-fried and sparked with vinegar and chilli, the broth glowing red and tasting sour, spicy and savoury, an everyday noodle bowl of Yinchuan.

Saozi noodles spread widely across the northwest; the Yinchuan version works local tan-mutton into the sauce with potato and tofu from the Yellow River farmlands, and borrows the Hui love of sour-spicy seasoning to find its own voice, becoming the city's all-day everyday noodle.

Served steaming in a large bowl, one first sips the sour-spicy broth to wake the appetite, then lifts the noodles together with the sauce, all the better with a side of pickled or sweet garlic, the commonest way to eat at a Yinchuan noodle shop.

The savoury tan-mutton sauce, the bright tang of aged northwest vinegar and the red blaze of chilli oil, set against springy hand-made noodles, are the marks of Yinchuan mutton saozi noodles.