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| Noodles, pulled into thin threads by chefs such as this one in Beijing, are an inexpensive meal for factory workers. Thorn Birds/ CNImaging /Newscom |
China's beef with 33-cent soup
Forced by a price cap to keep the staple meal cheap, owners are accused of skimping on meat.
By Simon Montlakefrom the August 21, 2007 edition
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Deng Derong cracks his hard-boiled egg against the wooden table, peels it, and drops the contents into his steaming soup bowl. As his chopsticks stir the pungent broth, a line of customers head past his table to the counter at the back of his drab restaurant.
Mr. Deng, a retired soldier who sports a white cotton trilby hat and black safari suit, bends to his morning bowl of beef noodle soup. The dish is a daily staple in Lanzhou, a city of 3.2 million stretched along the upper Yellow River,where generations of cooks have perfected its combination of hand-pulled noodles, peppery, oily broth, and tiny chunks of tender beef.
"This dish is for everyone. I eat it in winter, in summer. It's cheap," he says.
The last point is the most salient. On the menu outside Deng's local eatery, a large bowl of beef noodles, or "niu rou mian," costs 33 cents. (An egg is extra.) Across the city, at hundreds of similar noodle shops, though not all, the price is the same.
This coincidence is explained by a recent government decision to cap the price of beef noodles in Lanzhou, after restaurant owners tried to raise prices. The policy has drawn national attention, at a time of soaring national food prices that pushed inflation last month to a 10-year high.
Critics call it a throwback to China's old planned economy that doesn't tackle the problem of rising prices for meat and eggs, and a dozen or so other ingredients found in a bowl of beef noodle soup.
But proponents say that lowly paid workers in Lanzhou's factories need a filling meal, and nothing hits the spot like a spicy bowl of noodle soup. Sure, the cost of living is going up in China – housing is a constant grumble here, as in many cities – but anyone can slurp their way to contentment on a cold morning.
That's an argument that Deng picks up, as he puts down his bowl.
"Apartments here are too expensive, and I can't afford one. But I can afford beef noodles. If I don't have an apartment, I can always dig a hole in the mountains and live there. And I'd still get to eat beef noodles," he says.
Some consumers in Lanzhou grumble that the price cap, which took effect June 26, has led noodle shops to skimp on ingredients, especially the beef. "I like the low price, but I think the quality has gone down," says Zhang Shipeng, a businessman who says he eats a bowl every morning. "It's a habit."
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