Residents of Kaihua, a county in East China's Zhejiang province, have a penchant for eating sweet potato starch noodles in the bleak winter days.

Although the spicy soup, made with sweet potato starch noodles, causes anyone eating it to sweat and their eyes to water, Kaihua natives still can not resist its smooth, chewy texture.

Jiang Zhongwang is the most renowned chef of sweet potato starch noodles in Kaihua county.

According to Jiang, Kaihua villagers start digging up sweet potatoes after September on the lunar calendar and use them to make starch noodles, which will last until just before the Spring Festival.

It is fast becoming a new custom in rural Kaihua, said Jiang.

"Delicious food requires patience to make, and the starch noodles are no exception," noted Jiang, adding that extra starchy sweet potatoes are also essential for making superior starch noodles.

Jiang first grinds the sweet potatoes into pulp after cleaning and peeling them. He said that it's best to grind the starch granules out of the sweet potatoes.

He then filters the pulp with a filter cloth and leaves the filtered sweet potato pulp in a bucket to precipitate for two days.

After two days of precipitation, Jiang dumps the water from the bucket and rubs the deposit into pieces. Then he mixes it into a paste with water and steams the paste after spreading a thin layer of it on a food steamer.

The well-steamed sweet potato starch pancakes are crystal clear. After cooling, Jiang cuts the starch pancakes into one-millimeter starch noodles and winds them into bundles.

Finally, he hangs them on poles or spreads them over a bamboo mat to air dry.

Jiang said that Kaihua natives are very particular when it comes to cooking sweet potato starch noodles. They usually cook them with camellia oil extracted in ancient methods, pork meat and a handful of chopped green onions and garlic.

Bundles of sweet potato starch noodles are air dried. [Photo/qz96811.com]