LANZHOU, CHINA — Mention this city's name in China and people think beef noodles.
Once served only to royalty, beef noodles, or \o7niurou mian, \f7were brought out of the palace and into ordinary folks' homes about a century ago by Ma Baozi, a member of the Muslim ethnic minority group known as the Hui.
Today, more than 1,000 beef noodle shops cater to this western industrial city of 3 million on the upper reaches of the Yellow River, far from the prosperous eastern metropolises of Shanghai and Shenzhen. The hand-pulled noodle dish is a staple here, a cheap, soothing way for workers who toil in petrochemical plants, oil refineries and heavy machinery factories to fill their bellies.
So when one shop after another bumped up the price of a bowl from 33 cents to 40 cents last month, it came as something of a jolt. Beef noodle prices had risen before, but never as much as 20% in one swoop. Many consumers, concluding that shop owners must have colluded, howled to the government.
"I have no option but to eat less," said Chang Xueqin, 43, who was laid off from an engine factory here several years ago and now drives a cab. "If it keeps increasing like that," he added, "in the end I'll eat like a monk."
But behind the stewing in Lanzhou is a global surge in food prices that is driving up the cost of such things as a latte at a Starbucks in L.A. and a tortilla in Mexico. Food prices worldwide have risen 23% in the last 18 months, according to the International Monetary Fund, partly because of soaring demand for corn to make ethanol.
With farmers shifting to grow more corn, they are producing fewer soybeans and less wheat. That's pushed up prices of grains that feed livestock and poultry, lifting the price of meats, eggs and other goods. Milk in the U.S. costs 10% more than at the start of the year.
In China, meat and poultry prices have increased 20% from a year earlier; eggs are up 28%. Besides higher grain prices, an outbreak of "blue ear disease" at pig farms cut into pork supplies, while growing incomes continue to bolster demand for meat, particularly along China's prosperous east coast.
Even the price of cheap instant noodles is up; Chinese media said this week that it would rise this week 20% to 40%, in part because the cost of palm oil, a major ingredient, had nearly doubled in the last year. Palm oil prices have been driven up by rising demand for biofuel in Europe and strong demand from food sectors in countries such as fast-growing India.
