The world's toughest dish? Stir-fried stones are the latest food craze in China

Called 'the hardest dish in the world' – literally – this stir-fry, made with stones as its main ingredient, has sparked a storm of culinary fascination across Chinese social media.

Patrons are meant to suck on the small stones to enjoy the bold, spicy flavors of the dish, which hails from the eastern Chinese province of Hubei.

The instructions are simple: suck off the flavors and spit out the stones – hence the dish’s name suodiu, which translates to 'suck and dispose.'

Over the past week, videos of people trying suodiu have flooded Chinese social media platforms.

Videos also showcase how street vendors prepare the quirky dish. They drizzle chili oil over pebbles sizzling on a teppanyaki grill, then coat them with garlic sauce before stir-frying the mixture with garlic cloves and diced peppers.

While prepping the ingredients, these street-side chefs often entertain their audience with rhymes, as seen in videos on Xiaohongshu, China’s version of Instagram.

“A dash of spice awakens the passion,” one chef says in a video, claiming the dish is just as beloved as alcohol.

“Do I need to return the pebbles after I’m done?” a customer inquires in the same video.

“Take them home as a souvenir,” the chef jokes in response.

Suodiu is thought to have originated centuries ago. According to a local media report, the recipe was passed down through generations by boatmen, who shared their culinary knowledge orally.

In the past, boatmen often found themselves stranded in the middle of rivers, running out of food while transporting goods.

To “find joy in hardship,” as the report puts it, they would gather stones and combine them with other ingredients to create a meal.