Can you recall the weirdest food combination you have ever tried or heard? A few we can think of are orange juice and Oreos, apples with salt and pepper, Vanilla ice cream with soy sauce and Pringles with whipped cream. Feeling pukish? Wait till you see this Chinese vendor selling suckable stir-fried pebbles. 

Cultures across the world have no dearth of strange food combos. Surprisingly, some of them turn out delicious while others leave a bad taste in our mouths for life if we dare try them. The internet has now discovered a bizarre food dish selling on the streets of China. The unheard-of savory was sold at a night market's food stall in China. According to South China Morning Post, the video clip was posted on June 4, 2023 and garnered 4 million views on Douyin. The video showed the "vendor in the central Chinese province of Hunan stir-frying small river rocks with chili, garlic, purple perilla and rosemary before selling them for 16 yuan (US $2.3) a dish." For those wondering who can chew and digest a pebble, the vendor reassured us the river rocks are not meant to be eaten. They are complementary to the flavors of other ingredients. You suck the stones to enjoy the taste. That's not all. The vendor suggests other options on how food lovers can reuse them. 

If the idea of serving pebbles with food fancied you, the vendor lets you take the 'leftover pebbles' and whip up a unique dish at home by adding the stones to your next meal. Will you? Haha! The cheeky stall owner quipped, "Pass on the pebbles for three generations. You may be gone but the pebbles will still be there." We bet. 

The video was shared on TikTok from an account @k0pinions and gained 15.7K views. The netizens were stunned by the weird delicacy and also hailed it the "hardest dish in the world." Hunan Times also shared the video on their Twitter account. You may have heard this for the first time. However, this absurd delicacy is rooted in Chinese traditions. Yes. Surprisingly, when the facts emerged, they revealed that stir-fried pebbles hail back from central China's Hubei province with a centuries-old history. Wow!! 

A report published in the Guangming Daily explained the dish is renowned as suo diu. Its literal translation in English is "suck and throw away," and originated along the Yangtze River and was invented by boatmen short of food. The dish was said to give the taste of fish and went well alongside wine. A TikTok user, @simple_nando_1 was grossed out and said, "Reused?" Another user, @wolfizzy03 agreed, "I'm sorry people are spitting these out and then they're reusing them. No, f****** thank you." A third, @babymuncher9000 declared, "Most nutritious Asian dish." 

Some social media users cracked up. @grastlos joked, "The best food for losing weight." Another @bluecatredog scoffed, "Stop giving American ideas." LMAO! An online observer from Hubei Province mentioned that some veterans in the countryside kept this food practice alive while drinking.