🍽️ Duck Blood Vermicelli Soup

Duck offal and glass noodles in light broth.

Duck Blood Vermicelli Soup is Nanjing's most everyday, street-level snack and a fixture of both breakfasts and late-night bowls. It is built around duck blood curd, duck intestines and duck liver, paired with thin sweet-potato glass noodles and simmered in a clear, deeply duck-flavored broth. The soup looks light but is full of savoriness: the blood curd is silky as tofu, the intestines snappy, the liver mealy and rich, and the noodles soak up every drop. It arrives showered with cilantro and scallion, often with a flick of chili oil or vinegar, best drunk steaming hot. Nanjing says no duck, no banquet, and this soup is the ultimate people's dish, making the most of every part of the bird. Inexpensive and fast, it is one of the most soulful flavors on Nanjing's streets.