Stone Me: Suckable Stir-Fried Pebbles Sold as Street Food in China Leave Weird Taste in Mouth of Astonished Social Media Observers

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.

The cheeky food stall owner joked: “Pass on the pebbles for three generations. You may be gone but the pebbles will still be there.”

Online observers were stunned by the weird delicacy which they hailed as “the hardest dish in the world”.

“It might be true that as long as the seasoning is good, even stir-fried shoe soles can be a delicacy,” one person quipped.

“Sounds like a perfect dish for dieting,” said another.

“Is this what they called ‘alchemy’?” a third said sarcastically.

The general air of surprise was compounded when it emerged that stir-fried pebbles were not a new innovation, but a traditional dish from central China’s Hubei province with a centuries-old history.

According to a report in the Guangming Daily, the dish, known as suo diu, or “suck and throw away” in English, originated along the Yangtze River and was invented by boatmen short of food.

It was said the pebbles tasted like fish and went well with wine.

An online observer from Hubei province said some elderly people in the countryside continued the practice to the present day, “eating” stir-fried pebbles while drinking.

The dish was also a tradition in southwestern China’s Yunnan province after it became popular due to the hardships of the Sino-Japanese war from 1937-1945.

Considered by many as one of the weirdest regional dishes in China, stir-fried pebbles do have some competition.

Among them is Beijing’s Douzhi, fermented mung bean milk – a grey-green drink with centuries of history that tastes sour and stinky, but is enjoyed by locals due to its richness in protein and heat-relieving effect.

Another is sipunculid worm jelly from Fujian province in southeastern China, a delicacy made from boiled worms harvested along the coast.