Matsu Aged Rice Wine Noodles

Aged Rice Wine Noodles are a Matsu winter and postpartum-recovery soup made by simmering laojiu (a low-alcohol rice wine fermented from glutinous rice and red yeast mold) with sesame oil, old ginger, egg, and fine vermicelli. Matsu winters bring strong sea winds, and almost every kitchen on the island fills with the same aroma: the wine gurgling in the pot, sesame oil releasing the fragrance of ginger, an egg dropped in, and a handful of vermicelli added last. One bowl warms you from throat to feet — a home flavor Matsu people carry down from their Fuzhou ancestry.

The Matsu Distillery, originally founded as Zhongxing Distillery in 1956 in Nangan's Fuxing Village, is known for aging its liquor and laojiu in the natural 88 Tunnel; at the November 2015 Ma-Xi meeting dinner, Ma Ying-jeou's office brought eight jars of Matsu aged rice wine to the table (not the 2008 inauguration banquet, which used Kinmen kaoliang instead). Aged Rice Wine Noodles, meanwhile, are recorded as a core dish of Matsu's traditional postpartum meal in Taiwan's National Cultural Memory Bank.

What Are Aged Rice Wine Noodles

Aged rice wine noodles are built around Matsu's laojiu (glutinous rice fermented with red yeast mold, a low-alcohol rice wine commonly called "red label" or simply laojiu), combined with sesame oil, old ginger, eggs, and fine white vermicelli. The method: fry ginger slices in sesame oil, pour in the aged rice wine and bring to a boil so the wine fragrance is released and the alcohol cooks off, then add egg to form ribbon-like strands, and finally add the vermicelli for a brief simmer before serving. The broth is a faint red, with wine fragrance, ginger warmth, and egg richness interwoven — a quintessential Eastern Fujian nourishing dish.

Matsu's laojiu traces back to the Fuzhou tradition of fermenting glutinous rice with red yeast mold. The Matsu Distillery has been renowned since 1956 for its aged rice wine matured in the natural cellars of the 88 Tunnel, and the wine was once designated for use at state banquets. Almost every local family knows how to make aged rice wine noodles — whether for postpartum recovery, the Winter Solstice tonic season, or simply warming up after catching a cold. Specialty restaurants such as Jing'ao and Libin in Nangan's Fuxing area and Tangqi on Beigan provide it, but the most authentic version remains in Matsu families' own kitchens.

How to Drink It Like a Local

Local Know-How

Data compiled from the Lienchiang County Tourism Bureau, Matsu Distillery, and a large volume of public reviews; sponsored content has been filtered out. Photos will be replaced with the channel's exclusive footage after Dio's on-site shoot.