Erlong Funeral Home in Guizhou is experiencing an unexpected surge in visitors drawn by its popular noodle dish. The home will now serve a limited number of free bowls to outsiders while maintaining respect for genuine mourners.
Unconventional Dining: Chinese Foodies Scour Funeral Home for Viral Noodles
Unconventional Dining: Chinese Foodies Scour Funeral Home for Viral Noodles
A funeral home in Guizhou, China, has turned into a culinary hotspot as foodies flock to taste their viral noodle dish, leading some to pose as mourners.
In an unexpected twist for food enthusiasts, a funeral home in the southwestern province of Guizhou, China, has become a trending culinary destination due to a viral noodle dish served in its canteen. Known as the Erlong Funeral Home, the site initially catered exclusively to its mourners and their families. However, as news spread online about the beloved noodle offerings, many food lovers began to visit, with some even pretending to be grieving relatives to gain access.
The dish, especially loved for its spicy and sour flavor combinations, includes noodles typically topped with minced pork and peanuts. They are sold during breakfast and supper hours for approximately 10 yuan (about $1.38). As the buzz grew, it was reported that lines formed outside the canteen, with wait times sometimes stretching to a couple of hours.
One worker from Erlong expressed the challenge of distinguishing between actual mourners and food-seekers when the premises became crowded. The funeral home's management has since decided to accommodate this newfound interest by offering 50 free bowls of noodles daily to the public, as long as service to genuine mourners is not disrupted.
The frenzy began earlier this month when a social media post shared on Xiaohongshu highlighted the funeral home’s culinary offerings: "The queue for food is longer than the queue to lay flowers for the deceased," the user noted, recounting their own attempt to enjoy the dish when visiting a friend in the area.
Since then, the excitement on platforms such as Douyin, which is the Chinese counterpart to TikTok, has surged, with users sharing lengthy queues for the dining hall and raving about the noodles. One user commented on the fleeting nature of life, seizing the moment to indulge in another bowl. In this unusual intersection of mourning and feasting, Erlong Funeral Home continues to navigate the challenges of food cravings against the backdrop of its somber core mission.
