Fuji Laoyoufen (Zhongshan Road)

Fuji Laoyoufen occupies a narrow shopfront on Zhongshan Road, the covered snack street that runs through Qingxiu District and is Nanning's best-known destination for laoyou fen, the sour-and-spicy fermented bamboo shoot noodle soup that gives the city its culinary identity. The kitchen has traded on this stretch for more than three decades and is recognised locally for a broth fermented to an unusually assertive sourness, alongside the bazhen fen, an eight-treasure bowl loaded with squid, mushroom and hand-formed meatballs on top of the base noodles. Seating is a handful of stools and low tables set directly on the snack street, with diners eating shoulder to shoulder with vendors either side; there is no dress code and no attempt at ambience beyond the theatre of the street itself, which runs loud, bright and crowded from mid-morning into the small hours. There is no beverage programme beyond bottled soft drinks, iced tea and the free tea poured to rinse bowls, in keeping with the stall's snack-food register. Reservations are not taken and are not needed outside the dinner and late-night peaks, when the narrow seating fills and diners often wait a few minutes for a stool to free up rather than book ahead.