Jinhu Traditional Meat Soup Introduction
Lin Hsu, known as "A-Jia A-Ma", was born in 1951. When her son was in the 4th grade, she and her husband set up a stand selling water-fried buns to help support the family. Later, they switched to selling meat soup, sticky rice dumplings, and milkfish soup, eventually gaining fame with their traditional meat soup, which has become a specialty snack in the Jinhu area. "A-Jia A-Ma"'s meat soup consists of two parts: pork and soup. The pork part involves slicing the pork, mixing it with seasoning and fish paste, and cooking it in boiling water until done, then cooling it down for later use. The soup part is made by boiling water in a pot, adding shredded bamboo shoots, seasoning, rock sugar, bonito flakes, and crispy garlic, and finally adding beaten egg. If there are no bamboo shoots, Shandong cabbage can be used as a substitute. When customers order, the prepared pork is briefly heated in the soup pot, then served in a bowl with vinegar. The soup noodles are made by adding meat soup to pre-blanched oil noodles. In addition to meat soup, "A-Jia A-Ma" also sells sticky rice dumplings and milkfish soup. The filling for the sticky rice dumplings includes pork, scallions, and glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves. The milkfish is locally sourced, and A-Jia A-Ma removes the bones herself, ensuring that her milkfish soup is bone-free.
