Stone me: suckable stir-fried pebbles sold as street food in China leave weird taste in mouth of astonished social media observers
- Millions view online video of night market vendor cooking up river rocks which he says can be reused to make other dishes
- Strange culinary creation has a centuries-old history in Chinese cuisine and is considered one of the country’s most weird dishes
Mainland social media has been rocked by the discovery that stir-fried pebbles are being sold at a food stall at a night market in China.
A June 4 video clip that has attracted 4 million views on Douyin shows a vendor in the central Chinese province of Hunan stir-frying small river rocks with chilli, garlic, purple perilla and rosemary before selling them for 16 yuan (US$2.3) a dish.
According to the vendor, the pebbles are not meant to be eaten – just sucked on – and serve to complement the taste of the other ingredients.
Not only that, after the meal is finished, diners can save the leftover pebbles and cook them up with whatever ingredients they chose at later meals.
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Stir-fried pebbles sold as popular street food in China
The cheeky food stall owner joked: “Pass on the pebbles for three generations. You may be gone but the pebbles will still be there.”
