Viral Chinese Street Food Looks Like a Lump of Black Hair

A new snack served on the streets of Chengdu, in China, has been getting a lot of attention because of its unusual appearance; it looks like a lump of black human hair.

Fa Cai or Fat Choy is a type of dried cynobacterium that has long been a part of Chinese cuisine. It grows mostly in dry and barren desert areas such as Gansu, Shaanxi, Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia in China, and is processed by air-drying immediately after harvesting. Because of its dark, filiform shape, it is commonly known as the “hair vegetable”. Fa Cay – scientific name Nostoc flagelliforme – is most often served as black vermicelli in a variety of broths and soups, and served on New Year’s Eve for good luck, because its Cantonese name sounds very similar to the phrase “struck it rich”. However, the dark treat recently went viral as a new street snack that makes it seem like you’re eating human hair.

Fat Choy gets its nickname, hair vegetable, from how it looks in its dried state, like a lump of black hair, but rehydrated as part of a hearty soup, it just looks like black vermicelli. However, some street food vendors in Chengdu recently came up with a new way of cooking Fat Choy that preserves its hairy appearance.

It turns out that you can simply barbecue a lump of Fa Cai and then season it with some hot sauce before biting into it like you would a lump of black hair. It looks weird those who have tried it swear that it tastes pretty good. The visual effect of biting into what looks like human hair has attracted a lot of influencers and caused the new snack to go viral on social media.