But it’s rare for an odorous dish to become a national favorite, which is exactly what’s happened with luosifen, now one of the hottest food trends in China. Just like the notorious durian ...

[Photo provided to China Daily] Ma Baozi ... noodles was included in the fifth batch of representative projects of national intangible cultural heritage. Ma Wenbin, a fourth-generation maker ...

and in China, as traditional would have it, the signature birthday dish is not a cake, but a bowl of noodles. The noodles are known as changshoumian, which literally means "long-life noodles".