Yunnan crossing-the-bridge rice noodles, with an over 100-year history, is one of the best-known Yunnan snacks, and was listed as an intangible cultural heritage of Kunming city in 2008.

It is composed of three parts: stewed chicken or goose soup, slices of pork, fish and other vegetables, and rice noodles.

Yunnan's 100-year-old snack, crossing bridge rice noodles. [Photo/Xinhua]

People who have never tried these rice noodles sometimes make a muff of themselves as they scald their lips when drinking the non-smoking but boiling soup too quickly.

The soup is boiling but in a misleading, calm no-smoking way; its floating thick chicken or goose oil prevents steam and makes us try to taste it too soon. It is used to boil the raw meat slices and vegetables before the cooked rice noodles are added.

There are many stories about the invention of the dish.

One story is that during the Qing dynasty (1644-1912) there was a scholar who studies on an island of Mengzi city, Yunnan province. His wife made his favorite food, rice noodles, for him every day.

But the noodles always got cold when they were sent to the island. One day, the wife found that the chicken soup she sent to her husband was still hot. She soon figured out that the thick oil on the chicken soup preserved heat. She also found that the rice noodles tasted better if not boiled together with the chicken soup.

The smart wife therefore started bringing separated chicken soup, rice noodles and other ingredients to the island and combined them only after arriving at her husband's place.

The rice noodles tasted so good that the cooking method soon spread across the city. Local people named the dish "crossing-the-bridge noodles" in memory of the wife as she had needed to cross a bridge to the island every day.

Edited by Peter Nordinger