Food enthusiasts in China have been drawn to an unexpected location – a funeral home – after a noodle dish served at its dining area gained popularity on social media.

The dish can be found at the Erlong Funeral Home in the southwestern province of Guizhou.

The canteen initially catered to the funeral home’s customers but started to receive attention as word spread about its noodles, with people, some posing as mourners, flocking to try the food.

Erlong has now announced that it will allow some members of the public to dine at its premises, as long as they do not disturb the genuine mourners.

During breakfast and supper hours, the funeral home offers various types of noodle dishes, which cost 10 yuan per bowl ($1.38; £1.09). The most popular type is reportedly the noodles topped with minced pork and peanuts.

One Erlong worker mentioned that they primarily served customers who came to the funeral home to handle matters, but others sneak in to get a bowl of noodles. At times, the queues at Erlong are so long that diners have to wait a couple of hours to get their food.

To meet the demand, the funeral home has decided to offer 50 bowls of noodles to members of the public daily, free of charge, provided they do not affect people’s mourning, according to Erlong’s chef.

The craze for the noodles started earlier this month when a social media user posted about the dish while visiting a friend in Guizhou. Since then, many Chinese social media users have shared their experiences eating the noodles.

On Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, a user shared a photo of the dining hall’s tickets, showing a crowd queuing up for food, with the caption mentioning the good reputation of the noodles and the realization of life’s brevity, leading to ordering another bowl.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjry8zz8yego