Founded in 2006, this noodle village, known as "Poor Lingluo" in Suzhou dialect, was full of people and cars as soon as it opened. It has been praised for its retro soup with ham, and even appeared in the Xinmin Evening News, where it was reported as an "unforgettable old taste". Now it has opened branches in Wuxi, Shanghai and other places, bringing the flavor of Suzhou-style fine noodles to diners from other places.
"Watching the play first and eating the noodles before drinking the soup" is a proverb in old Suzhou, which shows the importance of soup to Suzhou-style noodles. Generally speaking, the soup of Su-style noodles is divided into red soup and white soup. Many old-school Soviet-style noodle restaurants serve red soup in winter because diners have a heavy appetite in winter; White soup is served in the summer, as diners prefer lighter soup in the middle of summer. The Qiongling Pavilion sells red and white soup in all seasons, and it is this bowl of soup that makes it popular in the world. In addition to the common chicken bones, eel bones and pork bones, the soup of Qionglin Pavilion is specially added with ham meat from Shengchunyang, a well-known pickled meat brand in Suzhou, which is hung for four to five hours to make it unique in flavor.
The red noodle soup of Qionglin Pavilion is bright red in color, clear but not turbid. Finely chopped green onions float on top of the soup with oil splashes. The noodles are clearly placed in a bowl and garnished with a little ham on the surface. It is worth mentioning that the appearance of the noodles in the bowl can show the skill of the noodle master, who needs to quickly drain the water and roll the noodles tightly after they are out of the pot. The best fine noodles are sold correspondingly, as if the comb has been combed, and the jargon calls it "crucian carp back". This bowl of soup is fresh and sweet, not salty or greasy. The smooth noodles are evenly thick and tough, rolled with chopsticks, and the springy noodles are full of soup in the mouth, and the taste is not rich but very fresh.
The toppings are another highlight of Su-style noodles, and they also determine the value of a bowl of noodles. The mellow pork steak is the signature topping of Qionglin Pavilion, its sauce is viscous, very sweet, with a strong syrup flavor, quite Wuxi pork ribs. The steak is mainly lean meat, with less fat, and it tastes not rotten and has a slight chewiness. It is also very elaborate, requiring pork chops to be marinated in Suzhou's unique mellow wine, rock sugar, and soy sauce, and then fried, stewed, and juiced. The old Suzhou people like to eat the toppings and noodles separately, without affecting each other, and this way of eating is also called "crossing the bridge" by them.
The Shuyuan Lane store is the first store in Qionglin Pavilion, and the business is also the most popular. The interior of this shop has a distinctly quaint style. The name of the store is engraved on the plaque with gold letters on a black background, and the doors and windows are in an ancient carved style. The interior of the store is covered with circular brick arches, which have the atmosphere of a Soviet-style garden. Pacing upstairs, calligraphy and paintings are hung on the blue brick wall, which does not look pretentious in the overall atmosphere. The waiters at Qionglin Pavilion were quick with their hands and feet, took tickets and arranged seating in one go, and the speed of serving food was also acceptable.
