🍽️ Hot Rice Skin

Southern Shaanxi rice sheet served hot with chili.

Hot Rice Skin is a speciality of Hanzhong in southern Shaanxi, part of the region's rice-noodle family. Rice is soaked and ground into a batter, steamed into thin sheets, cut into wide strips while hot, then dressed with chili oil, garlic water, soy and vinegar, and tossed with bean sprouts or spinach. The sheets are soft, slippery and steaming; the chili oil is red, aromatic and not harsh, while garlic and vinegar brighten the dish. Unlike the cold skin noodles of the Guanzhong plain, Hanzhong's version is served hot, so a bowl in winter warms you through. Rice-skin shops line Hanzhong's streets, often paired with a plain vegetable-tofu porridge for a classic southern-Shaanxi breakfast.