Mǐdòu yī mó, liángfěn yī wǎn; suānlà yī jī, kāiwèi yī xià. — One grind of rice and bean, one bowl of cool jelly; sour-hot one lift, the appetite opens.
Xiushan rice tofu (秀山米豆腐, Xiùshān Mǐdòufu) is the county’s cool-weather snack: a jelly made from rice and bean flour, set firm and cut into cubes, then dressed sour-hot with vinegar, chilli oil and the local pickles — the Wuling range’s standard answer to the summer appetite. The dish is a market and street trade rather than a restaurant signature, and its register is the plain one: the jelly’s own mild, faintly grain-sweet coolness is the point, and the dressing is sharp enough to announce it.
The jelly’s material is a rice-and-bean grind rather than a single starch, which gives it a slightly grainy, firmer set than the pure-starch jellies of the region — a texture that holds its cubes in the dressing rather than crumbling. The making is a household and village-summer trade: the batter is cooked into a set block, cut to order, and dressed at the stall. The dish belongs to the same cold-jelly family as the region’s other summer foods, with the rice-and-bean character as its local signature.
The correct purchase is the fresh block cut at the stall and dressed to order; the packaged version loses the set’s delicacy. Locals eat it as the opener of a chilli-heavy table, and the dressing is poured over at the last moment rather than mixed in advance. The dish is a summer trade — look for it from the hot months onward.
flowcloud would say that the county’s summer jelly is a grain jelly — and that the sour-hot dressing is the only thing on the bowl with a temperature.
Where to find it: a market and street trade — the fresh block cut at the stall and dressed to order, from the hot months onward. All checked October 2026.
Words and Names
米豆腐 mǐdòufu — rice tofu, the rice-and-bean jelly · 凉粉 liángfěn — cool jelly, the category · 酸辣 suānlà — sour-hot, the dressing · 米豆浆 mǐdòu jiāng — the rice-and-bean batter, the material