Stir-fried stones is the latest bizarre food trend to go viral

Stir-fried stones are the newest and most bizarre food trend going viral, especially as the stones themselves are inedible.

Every now and then, a new food fad goes viral on the internet, with everything from the mysterious Pink Sauce to the TikTok famous baked feta pasta capturing people’s imaginations.

Now, it is the turn of Chinese street vendors to have their moment, as a dish named soudui (“suck and throw”) has taken off online.

What are stir-fried stones?

The dish is a stir fry made of inedible pebbles, vegetables and spices that coat the pebbles with delicious flavour.

Ingredients added to the stones on a griddle include chilli oil, garlic, rosemary and pepper.

It is consumed by sucking the stones to get the flavour off, then discarding them. It costs around $2 per serving.

Despite taking off with huge popularity now, the dish is thought to be centuries old having originated in the central Hubei province. It started when fishermen ran out of food and used the pebbles for sustenance instead.

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After going viral online, hawkers and street vendors have been jumping on the trend which has also been given a boost by Mukbang content creators, who film themselves eating.

石头也能当菜吃？自制湖北“爆炒鹅卵石”，原来这才是最硬的菜www.youtube.com

According to local news, Chinese social media platforms Weibo and Xiaohongshu are awash with videos of street hawkers making the dish and people sampling it.

But, opinion about the dish appears varied, with many focused on the obvious point that the stones can be reused.

One translated TikTok comment read: “After eating, wash and continue to fry.”

Another joked: “How do you see which ones are cooked or not?”

“Can be recycled,” another said.

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