Black pudding – perfect with Lingao Rice Noodles

Lingao black pudding [Photo/Hainan Daily]

A nice breakfast including Lingao Rice Noodles and black pudding is an essential part of daily life in Lingao, a northwestern county in Hainan province.

On chilly mornings, roadside breakfast bars are filled with various hot, steaming delicacies. After 7 o'clock, business starts picking up as customers roll in to enjoy their favorite breakfasts. Most Lingao local will order a bowl of Lingao rice noodles and thinly sliced black pudding.

The black pudding is a sausage made from pig's blood and intestines, which may smell a bit fishy but has a surprisingly splendid taste. It sells well in Lingao as there is no lack of black pudding lovers and many tourists visit the city specifically to get a taste of it. As one of the city's most popular street foods, Lingao Rice Noodles are rich in ingredients like beef jerky, crushed peanuts and shrimp.

It's interesting that black pudding, a famous cuisine in northeastern China, is so popular in Lingao. It is said that Lingao people used to get up very early in the morning to go out to sea and fish. One bowl of rice noodles wasn't enough to fuel them for a full day's hard work. Black pudding was gradually developed by cooks to serve as a high-energy snack, and it is served with rice noodles to this day.

With today's higher living standards, black pudding may no longer seem like a fancy food, but it is still as delicious as ever. Order a dark red-black pudding with bloody pig intestines and a little ginger and pepper to drown out the unpleasant smell. Take a bite and feel the tender sausage deliver a distinct flavor. To ensure quality, it is made only with fresh, warm pig blood.

One has not truly lived until they have tried Lingao Rice Noodles with black pudding. The dish may not be particularly easy on the eyes, but it is certainly easy on the tongue. The black pudding has also been known to cool the body, reduce fever, slow aging, and prevent coughing when eaten with sugar.

Today, the dish is rarely seen in breakfast stores due to its complex preparation process. It can only be found at a few shops on the streets of Linjiang.