Quanzhou beef soup (牛肉羹, niúròu gēng) is a thick, glossy broth thickened with starch and loaded with finely sliced beef, a dish that has been eaten for breakfast and lunch in this city for centuries. The best versions use every cut of the animal — thin-sliced lean meat, offal, and tripe — simmered until tender in a broth flavoured with white pepper and rice wine. It is served with rice, local fried dough, or spring onion pancakes, and the combination constitutes a complete and enormously satisfying meal for a modest price.
The most famous beef soup restaurants in Quanzhou have operated for decades and open from around 6am to sell out of their daily batch by mid-morning. The area around the West Gate of the old city and the lanes behind the Kaiyuan Temple have the highest concentration of specialist beef soup shops. Locals eat it standing at the counter; there is usually a queue.