1. Xian Dumpling Dinner
Whether you are travell-ing in the north or the south of China, one delicacy you are almost sure to find on the menu is the dumpling. A universal favourite, the Chinese dumpling has a long history and is an essential part of celebra-tory meals such as those prepared for the Chinese lunar Spring Festival. The dumpling can be anything from a quick snack to a delicacy with which to entertain family and friends or the basis of a veritable feast.
A well-loved story tells how long ago during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD) a doctor named Zhang Zhongjing travelled back to his hometown in the county of Nanyang. He found the people were suffering from an outbreak of typhoid and dying from hunger and cold. In fact the weather was so cold that many had frostbitten ears to add to their troubles. The kindly doctor set about concocting a mixture of mutton, cayenne and a special medicine that he wrapped in a piece of ear-shaped dough. The dumplings he created were fed to the starving people and by New Year's Eve, not only were they saved from the typhoid epidemic but also their frost bitten ears were healed. The doctor's fame became legendary and thus the dumpling became a favourite addition to the Chinese diet.
Xian, an ancient city that has been the nation's capital during no less than eleven dynasties spanning more than a thousand years is regarded as the home if not the birthplace of the great dumpling tradition. It was here that the art of creating the most tasty and delicate of dumplings was refined and no visit to the city is complete unless you partake of a Dumpling Dinner.
Next to Tong Sheng Xiang is a great restaurant, De Fa Chang Dumpling Restaurant, with its own version of the Dumpling Banquet. Ingredients for the dumpling fillings include various meats, vegetables, and seasonings. Cooking methods include steaming, boiling, pan-frying, deep frying, and roasting. Many flavors, including salty, sweet, hot, and sour are offered. Other house specialties include Peking
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dumplings, steamed sweet bean
paste buns, steamed shrimp paste buns, and various uniquely spiced
dishes. While guests sample various delicacies, traditionally waiters
will explain the cuisine culture of each dumpling. This is an experience for the dumpling connoisseur, the flavours, shapes and colours will tempt the palette, while the elegant names and stories attached to each variety are truly amazing. It is no |
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| less amazing that a simple way
of preparing food has become so very popular and sophisticated that
it is now considered to be as much a work of art as a tasty morsel.
It is said that to visit Xian without seeing the fantastic Terracotta Army as well as having a Dumpling Dinner means that you have not really been to Xian at all! |
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| 2. Yang Rou Pao Mo (Crumbled Unleavened Bread Soaked in Mutton Stew) | ||
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Visitors to Xian must do two things: one is to see the clay figures of terracotta warriors and horses. The other is to taste Yang Rou Pao Mo (a soup dish that involves breaking wheat flour flat bread into a bowl and adding a delicious mutton stock). Before dinner, you will be served one or two pieces of wheat flour flat bread which you into tiny chunks, the smaller the better. The waiter or the waitress | |
| will then hand your bowl to the cook who mixes the bread and mutton soup with an appropriate relish. When the steaming hot meal is brought in, the waiter will also offer you sweet crisp pickled garlic, coriander, and hot pepper sauce. The most famous, the Tong Sheng Xiang (Prosperity and Fortune) Beef and Lamb Paomo Restaurant done in Tang Dynasty style, is a time-honored establishment |  |
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| in the Xian Bell and Drum Tower Square. Yang Rou Pao Mo is a local dish that is enjoyed throughout Shaanxi Province but is particularly popular in Xi'an City as a traditional nourishing meal. Not only do the local people enjoy it on a regular basis; it is also often appreciated by visiting celebrities.A highly seasoned mutton gravy in which bread is soaked, Yang Rou Pau Mo smells and tastes great. When the weather is cold, this dish is a sure way to warm you up! Many restaurants in Xi'an serve Yang Rou Pao Mo but among the best known is the Lao Sun Jia, established in 1898 and the Tong Sheng Xiang where they have been serving excellent food for almost a century. Both establishments can be recommended if you wish to try this special dish.How Yang Rou Pau Mo is served. The custom is both unique and interesting. When you order the meal you will be given a large bowl and a quantity of round, flat unleavened bread (nan bread). The amount of bread depends entirely upon the size of your appetite! You have to break the bread into small pieces so that it can absorb the flavor of the liquid. Be warned, the bread is hard and it will prove something of a test of strength for your fingers but the smaller you break the pieces, the better the result. Once you have prepared your bread, you pass your bowl to the chef who will stir it into a pot of hot mutton soup. After some five to ten minutes he will ladle the soup and bread back into your bowl with a quantity of mutton.Adding chili paste, caraway and a specially salted sweet garlic enhances the dish. These together act to reduce the greasiness so often associated with mutton.Yang Rou Pao Mo might not sound as though it could become a favorite with you but if you are seeking to experience something of the local food of the people of western China, this is well worth a try. If you want to taste it at its best, remember to come to Xi'an. | ||
| 3. Snake street (Muslim quarter) | ||
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To have the dilicious food and wine in Xi'an is indeed a pleasure and also a mearis to learn about food culture. The most interesting place is the Local Snacks Street(Hui Min Jie) near the Drum Tower, the most famous Muslem snacks street in Xi'an. On the two sides of the 200-m street, there are many | |
| restaurants of different cuisines
and snack shops of different flavors. Here tourists can have the true
Muslem cuisine and snacks, including mutton soup with cake,sausage,
mutton and porridge. While having food tourists can learn customs
of the Hui nationality.You can find almost of the local flower here.
One of Xian's most famous specialties is the Guan Tang Baozi (steamed buns served with sauces |
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inside) served at Jia Brothers' Restaurant in Muslim Snack Street. It is incredibly tasty variety of Chinese snack! These buns are actually a kind of dumpling that gets its name because of the juices that collect inside the bun when steamed. The bun's wrapper is thicker than most dumplings, but thinner than other steamed buns. With over ten types of seasoning, they are really quite delicious. | |
| With a little bit of vinegar,
they can make for a very satisfying meal! You'll know you're there when you see the monstrous blue arch over the entrance and a wall festooned with photographs of Xi'an notables -- TV hosts, writers, and |
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| musicians. The specialty dish is Guan Tang Bao Zi, with a choice of beef, lamb or "three flavors" -- lamb, mushroom, and prawns. The buns have piping-hot soup inside, so caution is advised. This dish is best washed down with Ba Bao Xi Fan, a bowl of sweet rice porridge filled with peanuts, sultanas, hawthorn, and medlar berries. | ||
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Another famous vendor of Shaanxi's most widely consumed snack is Rou Jia Mo,the foreigners say it is the ˇ°Chinese hamburgerˇ±.The food is finely chopped pork stuffed in toasted wheat flour flat bread. A piece of good-quality (youzhi) bread and a bowl of mung bean flour soup will cost you 13.7 RMB. The state-run atmosphere is quaint and friendly, and the numerous awards that decorate the walls are well deserved. The restaurant is in a lane opposite the Drum Tower, south of West Main Street. Besides guan tang baozi in Jia Brothers' Restaurant, there is barbeque in the Pingwa | |
| Kaorou Shop, sour cabbage and beef fried rice in Honghong Suancai Chaomi Restraunt, and beef noodles in Yifenli Restaur ant. Other offerings, including fried persimmon cake (shi zi bing), fried dumpling (guo tie), stir-fried bean jelly (chao liang fen),cold noodles, chopped mutton fried in a wok with fine-ground wheat (fen zheng rou), and beef and vegetable pie (xian bing) are available on both sides of the street.(Jiang shui yu yu)is also popular in the women's heart,some says if you want to lose weight ,it is the right food you should eat,and it is really very delicious. | ||
| 4. Qi shan shaozi mian | ||
| If you would like to taste all the local food at one time in a budget meal, Xi'an Restaurant (Xian Fan Zhuang) offers more than 100 varieties in its first-floor self-service restaurant. It charges only RMB18 per person, and is very popular with visitors. As the center of northwest China, Xian provides a wide range of table delicacies in addition to local and traditional cuisine. |  |
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| 5. Hot Pot | ||
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Zhu Yuan Cun (Village of Bamboo) Hot Pot Restaurant is one of the local famous-brand enterprises. With its many outlets, it is popular with locals who often line up for seats. The decoration style is unsophisticated with a spacious and bright dining environment. Service is hospitable and food is delicious. | |
| Addresses: 1. No.19 Lao Dong South Road (west suburb); 2. No.105 He Ping Road (east part of downtown); 3. No.103 Chang'an Middle Road, Xiao Zhai (south suburb). Locals also favor Hai Di Lao Hot Pot City for Sichuan flavor. Besides the tasty food and economical price, the service is worth mentioning. Waiters and waitresses are warm and thoughtful offering excellent service. Addresses: 1. No.88 Jian Guo Road; 2. No.2 Jian She West Road; 3. No.65 Dong Wu Road100 meters east of the Wu Lu Kou cross; 4. No.11 Yan Ta South Road, 50 meters north of the intersection of Da Yan Ta (Big Wild Goose Pagoda). Dong Lai Shun is very popular in Xi'an as its BeiJing Flavor ,the adress is: 1. East Street of Er huqn acrossing; 2 Lao Dong Nan Lu . |
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Fast Food There are 19 KFCs in Xian. The branches on South Street and East Street near the Bell Tower are the two most popular. In addition, it is easy to find KFCs in almost every commercial block in the city. There are presently only two McDonald's in Xian, both in the city center. One is in the northeast corner of the Bell Tower Square, the other in front of the Drum Tower on the roadside of west Main Street. The cheap fast food restaurant in the May First Hotel is good for travelers who want to taste local Shaanxi food, including many kinds of dumplings, noodles, porridge, casseroles, ravioli, soybean milk, etc. Address: No.351 East Main Street. It is easy to find Yong Ming Qishan Noodle Restaurant near the South Gate. Serving traditional fast food in Xian, it is popular with local people. The noodle is pliable and thin, served with sour soup and savory minced meat. The flavor can't be expressed in words. The restaurant has many branches around Xian city. |
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| 7. Western Restaurants
Customers line up outside a Pizza Hut branch opened recently on south Main Street opposite KFC. Aside from the five-star hotels and the KFCs, Xi'an has few purveyors of Western food; Highfly Pizza is an exception with its superb four-cheese and pepperoni pizzas, real oven-baked penne, tuna sandwiches, chocolate brownies, even Texas stew. There are vegetarian options; the kitchen is spotless; the entire restaurant is nonsmoking. Hours: 9 a.m.--11 p.m. Location: He Ping Men Wai, Sheng Li Fan Dian (Victory Hotel), Around Town. Other Useful Information: Shaanxi Local Food Restaurant Add: Dongda Jie, Xi'an Tel: 87251166 Description: It provides the most authentic local specialties. Type of Cuisine: Local Cuisine Opening Hours: 11:30am-2:00pm, 5:00pm-9:00pm Average Spending: $-$$ Credit Cards: Not Accepted Menu: Chinese Language Spoken: Mandarin Huili Restaurant Add: #1 Chang'an N. Rd, Xi'an Tel: 87285625 Description: It provides Japanese food. Type of Cuisine: Japanese Cuisine Opening Hours: 10:00am-10:00pm Average Spending: $$-$$$ Credit Cards: Not Accepted Menu: Chinese Language Spoken: Mandarin Bob and Betty's Add: Dongda Jie, Xi'an Tel: 87221255 Description: Selling pizza and apple pie. Type of Cuisine: Western Cuisine Opening Hours: 9:00am-9:00pm Average Spending: $-$$ Credit Cards: Not Accepted Menu: Chinese, English Language Spoken: Mandarin, English |
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