🍽️ Hanzhong Hot Rice Skin

South-Shaanxi hot rice skin.

Hanzhong Hot Rice Skin is a traditional breakfast of Hanzhong, Shaanxi, a southern-Shaanxi specialty. Rice is ground into milk and steamed into a thin, wide rice sheet; cut while hot into strips, it is dressed with chili oil, Sichuan pepper powder, mashed garlic, soy sauce and vinegar, often paired with a dish of vegetable tofu. The rice skin is piping hot, soft and smooth, springy without turning mushy, sour-spicy and appetizing; unlike the cold skins of Guanzhong, eating it hot is its hallmark. Hanzhong lies in the southern-Shaanxi rice country and abounds in rice, so hot rice skin is the most common local morning breakfast, classically paired with vegetable tofu and peanut congee. A bowl of hot, spicy, smooth rice skin settles the warm, moist southern-Shaanxi morning.