🍽️ Pork Knuckle Rice Noodle

Pork knuckle broth over rice noodles, a Heyuan breakfast.

Pork-knuckle rice noodles are the most representative breakfast of Heyuan. They use thin rice noodles made from local rice, in a broth simmered for hours from pork knuckle with peanuts, star anise, ginger and garlic, until the skin is glutinous, the meat falls off the bone and the soup turns milky and rich. The noodles are blanched into a bowl, topped with chopped braised knuckle, ladled with a generous spoon of the knuckle broth, and finished with scallion and white pepper. The noodles are soft and soup-soaking, the knuckle skin sticky and gelatinous, the meat tender, savory and full-bodied. Heyuan locals start the day with a bowl, and in winter a hot bowl of this noodle soup is especially warming. It reflects the Dongjiang-valley Hakka breakfast tradition of serving noodles topped with meat gravy, and is a must-try everyday dish for visitors to Heyuan.