🍽️ Xiangyang Yellow Wine & Noodle

Yellow wine with beef-noodle breakfast.

Xiangyang Yellow Wine with Beef-Lard Noodle is the classic morning pairing of Xiangyang, Hubei. The noodle uses alkaline wheat strands tossed with a glossy red gravy simmered from beef lard, beef, chili and broad-bean paste—springy noodles with heavy, spicy oil. Xiangyang yellow wine is a local low-alcohol sweet rice wine, milky yellow and gently sweet-sour. The bold spicy noodle is balanced exactly by a sip of the mellow wine, heat alternating with sweetness, warming and waking up the senses. It is the standard pairing at Xiangyang's morning street shops—one bowl of noodles, one small jug of wine—eaten until a light sweat breaks. This 'spicy noodle, sweet wine' combo is a unique breakfast flavor of the ancient city north of the Han River, well worth a try for visitors.