Chinese internet users are increasingly embracing rocks as a new, cost-effective addition to stir-fried in these hard times.
The newest craze on Chinese social media is cooking demonstration videos of chefs producing stir-fried rocks. Others portray idyllic scenes of people cooking recently caught stones on a riverside, while some represent chefs frying pebbles with garlic and chilli at bustling night markets.
Suodiu (suck and trash) is a cuisine that is making a comeback, at least in films of people pulling practical jokes on unknowing pals. While some chefs on the internet maintain that the dish is wonderful, other films show unwitting diners spitting out the stones in terror.
When boatmen in the landlocked province of Hubei ran out of animals and vegetables while travelling down the Yangtze River, they reportedly turned to minerals, giving rise to the meal, which is thought to have been around for hundreds of years.
Unsurprisingly, one history of the dish claims that it lost favour when Hubei’s economy developed and motorized ships arrived, lowering the likelihood of boatmen becoming stranded without provisions.
However appealing they may be to the palate, many people are not sold. Choking dangers have been raised by certain people. Another commentator believes that the next big thing in cuisine will be dirt, which is simpler to consume.
