The rotten vermicelli dish has a controversial durian smell in China

While many praised the flavor of luosifen, others said they could not stand the strong smell of the noodle dish.
Luosifen, or rotten snail vermicelli, has become the center of controversy on Chinese social media after the country’s leader inspected the food production center in Liuzhou on April 26, SCMP reporting.

The scent of luosifen almost resembles a durian, so strong it can smell over the entire restaurant and the surrounding streets. It is this special taste that has made the Chinese online community fiercely divided. “It’s rotten but it tastes great. The more you eat the more you get addicted,” commented one person. The rotten snail noodle dish is increasingly popular in China despite conflicting comments. Photo: Handout. Another wrote: “I am a loyal fan of luosifen. I often tell my friends who dare not try this dish: ‘How do you know how it tastes if you don’t try it?'”. However, the number of people who hate luosifen is as much as the number of people who love this dish. “It smells terrible. When you eat, the smell will make you lose your appetite, ”wrote one on WeChat. “When I eat luosifen at home, everyone in the family stays away from me,” wrote another. “They told me to take the bowl and go out to eat. They dare not even touch the bowls and pots used to cook my vermicelli.” Sometimes the controversy was so great that the police had to get into it. In November 2019, a Chinese student in Italy was fined $ 48 for cooking luosifen at home after his neighbor called the police for smelling a biological weapon, B eijing Evening News reporting. Luosifen consists of many ingredients, in which bamboo shoots and snails are said to create the distinctive flavor of the dish. Photo: CNN. Luosifen consists of noodles, broth stewed from river snails, pork or beef bones, pickled bamboo shoots. Additional ingredients can include peanuts, fried beans, black mushrooms, dried radish. The strong odor comes from bamboo shoots that have been fermented according to a secret recipe. Bamboo shoot is considered as the soul of luosifen because it is the amino acid from the fermentation process that helps the dish taste fresh, delicious and addictive. Ten years ago, luosifen was not known by many people and was limited to the Liuzhou region. However, now this dish is becoming very popular among young Chinese. In 2014, the pre-packaged luosifen was produced for the first time. Last year, sales of packaged luosifen made by factories in Liuzhou reached 11 billion yuan ($ 1.7 billion), CCTV reporting. During the Singles Day 2020 shopping festival, this vermicelli is one of the 20 best-selling products on the online shopping platform Taobao.