But this soup was more like eating something five times spicier than Hot Cheetos. My new lifelong friend Perry and I ate it, but we gave up half way as it was too spicy for both of us and we only had one water bottle at the time!
We watched how the food was prepared as it was in the campus cafeteria. The lunch ladies were boiling the broth, cutting up the vegetables and meat and sercing it to 50 + students as it was lunch hour for the whole campus. Lots of students lined up for lunch!
My friend Perry explained that it's local because they use ingredients from farms they have connections to. Perry also said the food is relatively cheap, like fast food. It's easy to buy a grab-and-go option. Then he explained the history of Fuzhou. It's a port city with lots of trade, which means many ingredients ended up in the broth I ate that day. We traveled around Fuzhou, and he showed us the famous Three Lanes and Seven Alleys. We explored there with a group of friends.
Even though I tried other Chinese dishes, I really enjoyed this spicy soup. I want to highlight it because it reminded me of home. At the time, I had been traveling in India and Japan for 2 months. I ate the soup with a new friend, whom I still keep in touch with. I also spent a full day with his friends and had an amazing time.
