Guo qiao mi xian

Guo qiao mi xian (Crossing the bridge noodles) is a kind of rice noodle soup from Yunnan province, China. It is one of the most common dishes in Yunnan cuisine.

The general ingredients of Guo qiao mi xian are made from include paper-thin meat slices, raw quail eggs, ham slices, chicken slices, and vegetables. It is generally served first with a bowl of boiling hot soup, with temperatures over 100 Celsius. The attendants will then be on the other side and put the ingredients into the bowl, generally in the order from raw to cooked: meat first, then quail eggs, and then vegetables. Finally, perform the noodle "crossing" with chopsticks and the dish is ready to be consumed. The amount of oil, chili, and vinegar one puts in the bowl varies according to personal taste.

Guo qiao mi xian has a history of more than 100 years. It is said there is a scholar reading on a small island in a Lake and his wife sent him meal every day. However, the island is far away from his home, food became cold when sent there, the wife worry that the scholar would be ill after having the cold food. One day, the wife cooked a pot of chicken soup for the scholar, when she arrived the island, they found the chicken soup is very hot, a layer of chicken oil keep the heat. From then on, she sent scholars a bowl of chicken soup every day, with some rice noodles, vegetables, and pork, and then put all these ingredients into the soup after arrive there, a bowl of delicious hot noodle then is ready.

Due to a very long bridge needs to be crossed form home to the island, so the noodles are called Guo qiao mi xian (the bridge noodle).