Recently, a video of "fried cobblestones" at a night market in Changsha has been widely circulated on the internet. 

The ordinary stones have transformed into "ingredients" from "building materials", and "when drizzled with chili oil, they become lively and flavorful"; "with the addition of garlic seeds, the stones become fragrant as well".

 Several kilograms of stones, wrapped in various spices, tumble and collide in the pot, making a crackling sound. The fried stones, which take no more than 50 seconds from ordering to being served, are ready. 

Someone asked the stall owner, "How do you eat this?" 

"Take a bite and throw it away." "You can also choose not to throw it away; it can be passed down for three generations.

" In fact, this is not just a novelty recipe, but a traditional snack called "suo diu" from Enshi, Hubei. The way to eat it is to "take a bite and throw it away."

The charm of "fried stones" in the eyes of foreign media.

Without a doubt, humankind has crafted countless weird food trends, from Jell-O salads to freeze-dried ice cream. We've even invented Rocky Mountain oysters. However, the recent stir-fried pebbles trend takes funny fads to a whole new level.

Vendors pour chilli oil onto pebbles sizzling on a teppanyaki-style grill, sprinkle garlic sauce all over them, then stir-fry everything with a mix of garlic cloves and diced peppers.

They are instructed to suck off the flavors, then spit out the rocks – hence the dish’s name suodiu, meaning “suck and dispose.”

Suodiu is believed to date back hundreds of years. It was passed down for generations by boatmen through their oral history, according to a local media report.

Back in the old days, boatmen could become stranded in the middle of a river and run out of food while delivering goods.

 Comment section users at that time thought the blogger was joking.

 "On this app, I can no longer distinguish what is real and what is fake..."

Is this really not a joke? I really can't tell anymore.

A young Tujia man documented the entire process of making "Meat Mochi" by the riverside on YouTube.

Foreign netizens asked in the comments, "How can we try this dish in the United States?"

Upon seeing a video explaining the suodiu trend and how the dish is consumed, several TikTok users were actually excited. One person compared suodiu to licking the seasoning off chips (like how Chrissy Teigan licks the seasoning off Doritos), while others equated it to chewing gum.

Coincidentally, chewing gum also came about as a way to stave off hunger. As many of us have experienced firsthand, chewing gum releases a variety of flavors, while the simulated 'eating' helps suppress hunger.

 It seems that human wisdom in exploring food is universal. 

Would you like to try such snacks? What special local snacks are there in your hometown? Feel free to share in the comments.

 Editor: Chen Yuehua; 

Intern: Tan Xin; 

Source: The Paper, CNN, Mashed Vista.