Chinese Diners Flock to Biden Restaurant

Chinese diners are flocking to a restaurant in Beijing whose house specialty is pig intestine in soup after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden lunched there last week, The Global Times reported on Monday.

Biden took time out from official talks in the Chinese capital to eat at the small, family-run eatery in downtown Beijing, earning plaudits from netizens and headlines in China's state-run newspapers praising his "noodle diplomacy".

Since then, queues have formed outside the restaurant and people have travelled from around China to sample the "vice president's meal" -- pork buns, noodles and cucumbers -- the English-language Global Times daily reported.

"I decided to come after watching the news on TV, since I thought it was cool to eat at the same place as the U.S. vice president," one customer who had travelled from Shandong province around 200 kilometers (125 miles) away told the paper.

The restaurant, called the Yaoji Chaogan, said it had no plans to make the "vice president's meal" a regular menu item, though customers have been demanding it and it is a major topic on China's popular micro blogs.

Its signature dish -- known as Chao Gan in Chinese -- consists of pork liver, lungs and intestines served in broth.