Guozao, a dialect of Yichang, means having breakfast. The favorite food for breakfast in Yichang is spicy noodles.

Spicy noodles is famous for red soup and spicy taste . There are two kinds of spicy noodles: vegetarian noodles and meat noodles. Vegetarian noodles have no minced meat in it. On the contrary, the traditional meat noodles contain beef, pig’s large intestines, beef offal, and fried bean sauce. Later the mutton, mutton sweetbread and peas included.

The noodles are cut as wide as chopsticks, and placed in fluffs in a bamboo-woven pan. In the market of spicy noodles, there is a "hidden rules": the bigger the pot, the more delicious the noodles. The water in the pot must remain boiling at all times in order to meet the arrival of the diners.

Usually, the owner of the noodle shop will employ a young girl to cook noodles.  Only the people with many years’ experiences will have this opportunity because the amount of noodles and degree of cooking just depend on experiences, thus in terms of age, she is not "young girl". After receiving the order, she divides noodles into several parts according to the numbers of people, and then throws noodles into pot. In a short while, the noodles will start to roll up.

At the same time, the shopkeeper starts preparing bowls. The chopping board is stocked with condiments such as soy sauce, vinegar, pepper powder, pepper, aginomoto, oil chili, caraway, green onion, hot pickled mustard tuber and pickles. These are just used by diners freely, and in fact, the real secret condiment is already prepared in the bowl. In order to gain popularity, the key lies in the recipe of condiments, the special skill for both noodle shops and the shopkeepers to attract diners. Of course, the shopkeepers won’t tell it to anyone else.

Adding soup before noodles in the bowl is also very important. The delicate stewed beef soup is the soul for a bowl of spicy noodles. When soup is not needed, just put it into pot and stew by small fire. But when the soup is needed, remove the lid, ladle it out and pour into bowl and then cover the pot. The whole process should be done as soon as possible. The people on the side will be deeply attracted by the soup. The soup should be added neither earlier nor later, especially in winter. If earlier, beef tallow in the soup will be frozen before noodles are put into the bowl; if later, noodles will be cooked in the boiling water again, which will affect its taste. Up to till now, the common steps of both vegetarian noodles and meat noodles have been completed. So, even a bowl of vegetarian noodles, it is also filled with taste of beef. Finally, the bowls are placed in several lines according to the arrival order of diners. Then condiments at the bottom of the bowl are diluted and oil floats on the soup, just waiting for noodles.

 Noodles do not mix together due to the large pot. Cooking girl chooses noodles with different hardness into the bowl according to the diners’ preferences. The young girl\'s cooking skills are fully presented at this time: putting noodles into pot and stirring several times with chopsticks, and then pouring cold water. Now the noodles picked out of the pot are called rinsed noodles. After stirring once, hard noodles are picked out, and then the soft noodles. Each bowl with equal quantum belongs to different people, it will never be confused.

At the same time, the shopkeeper will add beef, broth, offal etc., and then sprinkle with parsley and chopped green onion in accordance with the requirements of diners. A dozen of bowls of noodles will be eaten out by the hungry diners instantly.

In Yichang, varieties of small noodle shops can be seen everywhere. There are many noodle shops with great popularity lined on both sides of Fu-Sui road which is just a few hundred meters; however, it is the most concentrated area in Old Town.  Many old and famous shops have been running their business there for many years such as Fang Ma, Xu Ma, Guan Ma, Chuang Wa and Laofangzi etc. Among these noodle shops, I particularly prefer the noodles served with sauce and broth in Langfangzi.

It has been more than 20 years since the opening of Laofangzi noodle shop. Laofangzi is regarded as a rising star among these spicy noodle shops. It’s really hard to survive and gain popularity in the fierce competition, which largely due to two treasures in the shop: the landlady and taste.

It’s not difficult to cook spicy noodles, even if secret condiments are not well cooked, as long as the beef soup is delicious enough. But the dry noodles don’t need soup, so they depend on the taste of condiments. For experienced diners like me, noodles with pig’s intestine are the first option because the pig’s intestine is the sole criterion for testing meat noodles. For one thing, pig’s large intestine needs to be cooked to the most appropriate state so that people can enjoy it with pleasure. For another, the duration and degree of heating when cooking pig’s large intestine must be accurate, otherwise it will be hard to chew or bring too much fat in month. So the perfect minced noodles with pig’s large intestine can be cooked only when everything is ready.

One spring, I was completely conquered by the pig’s intestine noodles of Laofangzi. Since then, as long as I want to eat spicy noodles, I\'ll go there straightly, and the preference has been there ever since. (Author: Liao Yingli, Three Gorges Branch of CCB)