🍽️ Guagua

Made from buckwheat, sour-spicy, a Tianshui snack.

Guagua is a buckwheat snack unique to Tianshui, Gansu. Buckwheat flour is cooked into a paste, then worked and formed into a dense, chewy mass. To eat, it is torn into small pieces and dressed with vinegar, chili, salt, garlic water and sesame paste, topped with cucumber. It hits tangy-spicy-savory richness, sticky and smooth, with a clear buckwheat aroma, appetizing and filling. Tianshui versions prize seasoning and kneading, soft yet springy; it is a home breakfast and afternoon bite for locals. Plain in looks but bold in flavor, it carries the street character of this small Longshang city, best with a bowl of hot soup.