Gourmet Guide to Xi'an - Part 2

When I told my coworkers that my backpacking trip would start in Xi'an, I received mostly blank stares. But when I mentioned the Terracotta Warriors, everyone had at least some idea where I was heading.

It's unfortunate that most foreigners equate Xi'an with only the Terracotta Warriors. To the Chinese, Xi'an is synonymous with the most incredible, cheap and authentic fusion food – not from the 21st century fusion food craze, but from 1,500 years of inter-cultural mingling along the Silk Road. From here the Chinese exported their silk to the Roman Empire, and partially in return acquired Middle Eastern culinary traditions that evolved in Xi'an into a diverse repertoire of Muslim-Chinese cuisines and peasant dishes. GREAT FOOD, and not the Terracotta Warriors, was why I chose Xi'an as the start of my trip.

Here I'll continue with Part 2 of my review:

MAP LEGEND:
1.LAO MI JIA (stir-fried unleavened bread in mutton broth)
2.HONG HONG (Halal lamb skewers and fried rice)
3.BIANG BIANG MIAN (sheet noodles in specialty 3-in-1 sauce)
4.SUN JIA (meatballs and vegetables in spicy soup)
5.JIA SAN (soup dumplings and best plum juice ever)
6.SHENG ZHI WANG (cold noodles in sesame paste)
7.ZHAO JIA BAO (rose-honey flavored glutinous rice cakes)
8.QING ZHEN SHAO JI (Halal roasted free-range chicken)


2. HONG HONG -- HALAL MEAT SKEWERS AND FRIED RICE

Food Review: HONG HONG (Muslim Quarter, Xi'an)
Address: Beiyuanmen 106, Linhuqu, Xi'an
Hours: 11:00-22:00
Website/Map: From Dianping.com (in Chinese)
Directions: See location #2 on my Xi'an Gourmet Map. Start from the Drum Tower and head north on Bei Yuan Men. It's on the left hand side.

My personal favorite among all of Xi'an's gourmet offerings is the bite-sized meat skewers of the Muslim Quarter. While skewered meat is quite the ubiquitous fare at every market in Northern China, the intense competition among eateries here in the Muslim Quarter always ensures excellent tastes at reasonable prices. I'm not suggesting that you should hit any random roadside stand of questionable hygiene though -- my safe recommendation here goes to one of the most crowded eateries on the crowded Bei Yuan Men street.



Introducing Hong Hong, best known among Xi'an locals for its trademark Suan Cai Chao Mi (fried rice with pickled vegetables) and its cheap, addictive skewers. You can just smell the alluring aroma of charbroiled meat emanating in the air, even before walking through the door. Even at 21:30 on a weeknight, both of its floors were still teeming with locals and Chinese tourists alike vying for half a table. Expect to be seated on one side of a table across from a couple of locals, if you arrive in a party of two or less. Second floor of the restaurant seemed to be full of larger groups. As usual you can tell it's the right place when there are no English-speaking tour groups in sight.



My favorite skewer was only the number two best selling item on this night, according to a quick glance of our neighboring tables. EVERY TABLE STARTED WITH A FEW PLATES OF FRIED RICE, followed by skewers of each person's choice, and accompanied by cups of iced Suan Mei Tang, or plum juice. Well if that's what the locals do, it's good enough for us.



No English menu here -- just like the rest of the Muslim Quarter -- which is no surprise. Small skewers including charbroiled beef and tendon, beef tripes, tofu skin etc all cost a miniscule RMB 0.5 (CAD$ 7.5 cents) each, with a minimum order of 10 skewers. Large skewers such as lamb chunks cost RMB 1 (CAD$0.15), with a minimum order of 5 skewers. Then there are other barbecued items ranging from chicken wings (RMB 5) to a whole pomfret fish (RMB 20). Their famous fried rice, available in several different variations, cost RMB 8 a plate.



My favorite meat skewer by far is a Xi'an specialty, the perfectly tenderized, perfectly boiled, and perfectly spiced Shuan Niu Du, or flash-boiled beef tripe. It was easy to be instantly seduced by the aroma of sesame paste and chili peppers, whether you've ever had tripe or not, even before the plate landed on the table. These thinly sliced morsels came drizzled in a sesame-based sauce, and were so soft and yet chewy that I personally could have easily finished 30 skewers. Both my wife and I agreed that this was one of our favorite dishes in Xi'an.



As expected the skewers of lamb, beef and tendon were all heavily spiced with cumin and chili powder, as would be expected anywhere in Northern China. Interestingly both the beef and the lamb smelled of lamb, possibly as a result of the preparation process, and we could hardly taste the difference. My wife also ordered two skewers of chicken gizzard. Not bad, but nowhere as spectacular as the flash-boiled beef tripe.



This is the one dish that every table have come to order, the Suan Cai Chao Mi that prominently features in the full name of the restaurant, Hong Hong Suan Cai Chao Mi. I must admit that I did not expect to see fried rice this far north in China, deep in the noodle country of Shaanxi Province. But the fried rice did turn out quite good, boldly seasoned with cumin and chili oil, mildly spicy green peppers, diced onions, beef and of course, Suan Cai (pickles). The rice was a little oily if I were to nitpick, but that was really not a problem since everyone washed down the fried rice with a cup of iced Suan Mei Tang (plum juice) to quench the spiciness and cleanse the palate in the process.



Greasy, spicy and mouthwatering, this place had everything that a night-market fried rice stand was supposed to taste like, delivered in a family-run eatery setting in the Muslim Quarter's busiest section. Though next time I would probably skip the charbroiled lamb and simply order 30 skewers of beef tripe to go with the fried rice. As for the plum juice? I would just walk a little further down the street and get the amazing hawthorn-and-plum juice from the century-old local favorite of Jia San.

Bill for Two Persons

Beef Tripe Skewers x 10	RMB 5
Lamb Skewers x 5	RMB 5
Beef and Tendon Skewers x 10	RMB 5
Chicken Gizzard Skewers x 2	RMB 4
Suan Cai Chao Mi (Fried Rice with Pickled Vegetables)	RMB 8
Plum Juice x 2	RMB 4
TOTAL	RMB 31 (CAD$4.7)

3. BIANG BIANG MIAN -- XI'AN'S OWN UNIQUE NOODLES

Food Review: BIANG BIANG MIAN (aka Noodle King) (Xi'an)
Address: Nanyuanmen 80, Beilinqu, Xi'an
Hours: Unknown, but approx 10:00-20:00 according to my observation
Website/Map: From Dianping.com (in Chinese)
Directions: See location #3 on my Xi'an Gourmet Map. It's a 15 minutes walking distance south of the Muslim Quarter.

While fried rice remains somewhat of a delicacy to the masses of Xi'an, handmade, homey noodles remain the main staple food of common folks. But if your idea of noodles consists of long threads (or ribbons) of flour common all over East Asia ... well you need to visit Xi'an.



Xi'an's contribution to the world of noodles/pasta is its signature, extremely wide and long ribbons known generically as Ku Dai Mian (belt noodles), or as the commercially trademarked Biang Biang Mian. Nobody seems to have a clear explanation what Biang Biang means, though some say it's the sound of your teeth bouncing off the "al dente" texture of the noodles. There are several Biang Biang Mian outlets in town, and the one I visited is marked #3 on my Xi'an Gourmet Map, on Nan Yuan Men street near the centre of the city.

It's a small shop with 8 or so tables and walls covered with pictures and signatures of various local celebrities. There were no English menus though, which on the other hand also meant very cheap prices. Noodles were generally in the range of RMB 8-10 depending on size, and side dishes of marinated vegetables were RMB 10 each. Only one type of noodles was served, not surprisingly, though there were several flavors to choose from: Saozi (spicy minced pork), Zhajiang (meat gravy), Tomato and Eggs, or San He Yi (3-in-1) which was the combination of the above three.

Everyone ordered at the front counter then found a table at the back. As the shop was still busy at 15:00 in the afternoon, some random local dude walked in and sat at my table, ordering a bowl of 3-in-1 and a bottle of local beer served in a bowl.



The spiciness of hot chili peppers filled the air as my own bowl of 3-in-1 arrived. One can actually pick out the three flavors in the picture -- meat gravy from the 4 o'clock position of the bowl to 9 o'clock, spicy minced pork from 9 o'clock to 12 o'clock, tomato and eggs from 12 o'clock to 4 o'clock, and topped with a wallop of green onions, dried hot peppers and chili oil. The noodles were, just as the legends say, extremely wide, smooth and chewy. Imagine cutting very long strips of al-dente-boiled lasagne lengthwise, serving in a rich gravy sauce with minced pork and tomatoes ... wait that almost sounds Italianesque!

Although I should have asked for Wei La, or mildly spicy, the combination of gravy and minced pork was quite delicious and the noodles were wonderfully chewy. A mere RMB 8 (CAD$1.2) for a tasty, authentically Xi'an meal in the city centre, this was quite a bargain even by Chinese standards. I spent more on a bottle of yogurt at the supermarket after the meal ... go figure.

Bill for One Person

San He Yi (3-in-1) Noodles (small)	RMB 8
TOTAL	RMB 8 (CAD$1.2)

4. SUN JIA -- 100-YEAR-OLD SPICY SOUP WITH HALAL MEATBALLS

Food Review: SUN JIA ROU WAN HU LA TANG (Muslim Quarter, Xi'an)
Address: North end of Beiyuanmen, Lianhuqu, Xi'an
Hours: 6am until Sold Out
Website/Map: From Dianping.com (in Chinese)
Directions: See location #4 on my Xi'an Gourmet Map. Start from the Drum Tower and head north on Bei Yuan Men. It's on the right hand side towards the end, across from the entrance to Xiyangshi street.


Beijingers love their deep-fried dough and roasted meat sandwiches for breakfast, and the people of Hong Kong crave their rice porridge and macaroni in soup. As for Xi'an, one of the most popular and cheap breakfast fares is a simple bowl of Halal beef meatballs in a thick, extremely spicy soup known as Rou Wan Hu La Tang.

Take an early morning walk in the Muslim Quarter and let your nose follow a certain distinctive pungent spiciness. Chances are you'll come across one of many little shops with a large metal pot out front, and a middle-aged guy yelling "Hu La Tang!" This particular morning we sat down at the 100-plus-year-old Sun Jia on Bei Yuan Men street.



We followed the stream of locals to the big pot/barrel outside the shop and ordered two bowls of soup and one slice of bread -- after all that's all they sold for the past hundred years. The ingredient here seemed to be quite a mishmash of grape-sized beef meatballs, Chinese cabbages, potato cubes, carrots and zucchini.



But warned that this Hu La Tang was the spiciest of all things we tasted in Xi'an, a city well-known for its love of chili peppers. The key here is not the spiciness of the chili oil, but the numbing effects of a serious dose of Sichuan peppers. In fact not only my tongue, but my whole mouth was in a state of tingly, pins-and-needles numbness the whole time, which should sound familiar to fans of Sichuan cuisine. If you're a lover of all things spicy and hot, this breakfast is for you.

Bill for Two Persons

Hu La Tang (Meatballs in Spicy Soup)	RMB 3.5
Hu La Tang (Meatballs in Spicy Soup)	RMB 3.5
Tuo Tuo Mo (Roasted Bread)	RMB 0.5
TOTAL	RMB 7.5 (CAD$1.1)

Gourmet Guide to Xi'an - Part 1

This series of articles is dedicated to the amazing varieties of mouthwatering cuisine of Xi'an, the home of China's Terracotta Warriors.

Xi'an's Muslim Quarter is widely known among Chinese travelers as a foodie mecca, where 1,500 years of cultural fusion with the Middle East has produced some of China's greatest peasant dishes and street snacks. The problem for Westerners though is that eateries in the Muslim Quarter typically have no English menus and signages. To help readers navigate the area, I've created the map below to indicate the location of the eateries in my review.



Navigating the Muslim Quarter should be easy -- go to the Drum Tower with this map and follow the crowds north on Bei Yuan Men, the main entrance into the Muslim Quarter. Many of Xi'an's best local dishes can be found within a 3-block radius.

MAP LEGEND:
1.LAO MI JIA (stir-fried unleavened bread in mutton broth)
2.HONG HONG (Halal lamb skewers and fried rice)
3.BIANG BIANG MIAN (sheet noodles in specialty 3-in-1 sauce)
4.SUN JIA (meatballs and vegetables in spicy soup)
5.JIA SAN (soup dumplings and best plum juice ever)
6.SHENG ZHI WANG (cold noodles in sesame paste)
7.ZHAO JIA BAO (rose-honey flavored glutinous rice cakes)
8.QING ZHEN SHAO JI (Halal roasted free-range chicken)



For the past 1,000 years the mecca of Xi'an's culinary tradition has always situated here in the Hui Min Jie, or Muslim Quarter. Here you'll find the authentic flavors that every Xi'an schoolboy has grown up loving. Nowadays fancy restaurants attempt, often unsuccessfully, to replicate these peasant dishes and over-charge tourists in the process. But in the Muslim Quarter you can still find Xi'an's best, filling meals at bargain bottom prices, mostly below RMB 20 (CAD$3) per person.


1. 100-YEAR-OLD MUTTON BROTH AT LAO MI JIA

Food Review: LAO MI JIA (Muslim Quarter, Xi'an)
Address: Xiyangshi 127, Beilinqu, Xi'an
Hours: 8am until Sold Out (~11am)
Website/Map: From Dianping.com (in Chinese)
Directions: #1 on my Xi'an Gourmet Map. There are two Lao Mi Jia side by side -- choose the one on the right hand side (east side).


The Yang Rou Pao Mo is an enormously filling meal in the form of a soup bowl, one (or two or three, if you insist) piece of hand-crumbled unleavened bread is happily bathed in a flavorful clear mutton broth. From its humble origins, this Xi'an specialty has been elevated to star status by two of the city's most venerable restaurants, Tong Sheng Xiang and Lao Sun Jia. But if you ask the locals (refer to www.dianping.com), nobody does it better than the 100-plus-year-old Lao Mi Jia, deep within the Muslim Quarter.



One problem for visitors ... there are two different Lao Mi Jia located right next to each other, and many unsuspecting tourists get it all wrong. Local gourmands opt for the one on the RIGHT side, named Lao Mi Jia Da Yu Pao Mo in Chinese. This is what the store front looks like -- take this picture with you if nobody in your group can read Chinese.

Before anyone gets turned off by the “gamey” taste of lamb/mutton, let me tell you that my wife does NOT even eat lamb, let alone mutton, in Canada. But there is something special about how the Chinese-Muslims prepare their goats that entirely softens the taste and still retains the full flavor and the tenderness. This dish is a MUST try, for anyone who visits Xi'an for the first time.



First you need to order, but there is no English menu in sight. No worries. Just walk up to the cashier and ask for a Yang Rou Pao Mo. They'll probably give you a You Zhi (premium) Yang Rou Pao Mo, with better meat and more ingredients in the soup. As of 2011, the premium cost us RMB 21 per bowl.



Next, take a free dish of Tang Suan (sweet pickled garlic) from below the cashier -- that's what the local lady sitting across from us at our table showed us. Peel the tough garlic skin off before you use it to cleanse your oily palate between scoops of Pao Mo.



After paying for your bowl of Pao Mo, you'll be given a bowl with a piece of flat, white unleavened bread (Mo). Sit down and crumble it, into pieces as small as you can manage, just like the locals do. The smaller the crumbs, the better they soak up the flavor of the clear broth. So get crumbly.



Bread all crumbled and fingers all hurting? Now take your bowl of crumbled bread into the kitchen, along with the little plastic tag with your order number on it.



Your crumbled bread will go into the old iron wok along with the shop's trademark slow-cooked bone-based soup stock for a quick stir fry. The mutton, which has been simmering in a separate pot for hours, should be eagerly waiting on the sideline. Your Yang Rou Pao Mo should be delivered to your table in about 10 minutes.



The end result is a steamy, mouth-watering concoction. The stir fried mixture of bread and bone soup stock goes into the bowl first, followed by glass noodles, Muer mushrooms, green onions and Jinzhen (golden needle) flowers. Then the slow simmered slices of tender, flavorful mutton go on top. Finally more soup stock is added to fully submerge all these magical ingredients.

The act of eating the Yang Rou Pao Mo is an interesting culinary experience in itself -- just watch how the locals do it. NOBODY stirs and mixes the soup, as that would turn the bowl of crumbled bread into a slimy porridge. The typical approach seems to involve chopsticks in one hand, a soup ladle in the other, chili paste in the ladle if desired, and the process of slowly working on the little mountain of crumbled bread and soup into the ladle with as little stirring as possible. When the tastebuds start to become saturated with the full flavor of mutton, the sweet pickled garlic from the earlier step would serve as a surprisingly refreshing palate cleanser.

Lao Mi Jia is one of those remarkable eateries that deliciously define Xi'an -- don't miss it if you're the type of traveler who enjoys good, authentic local food (which I expect you are if you're reading this far into this article). A wonderfully satisfying meal and a cultural experience at the heart of Xi'an's Muslim Quarters, all for a measly RMB 21 (CAD$3.2), may just be more interesting than the Terracotta Warriors. And while you're chowing down on the mutton, don't forget your free plate of Tang Suan.

Bill for Two Persons

Premium Yang Rou Pao Mo	RMB 21
Premium Yang Rou Pao Mo	RMB 21
TOTAL	RMB 42 (CAD$6.4)

Xi'an to Beijing Overland in 16 Days

This is the INDEX PAGE of our overland trip from Xi'an to Beijing in 16 Days, with major focus on authentic local cuisine and culture (and sometimes culinary culture).

This trip spanned 1,500 km with stops in Xi'an, Dangjiacun (Hancheng), Pingyao and Wangjia Dayuan, Datong, Hengshan, Wutaishan, and finally to Beijing.



Beijing Food Trip - Part 5: Imperial Cuisine vs. Peasant Snacks
Click HERE to Enter



Beijing Food Trip - Part 4: Legendary 200-Year-Old Eateries
Click HERE to Enter



Beijing Food Trip - Part 3: Showdown of Two Peking Ducks
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Beijing Food Trip - Part 2: Lamb Hotpot and Jiaozi
Click HERE to Enter



Beijing Food Trip - Part 1: Itinerary and Hotel
Click HERE to Enter



Navigating Past Fake Monks at Wutaishan
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Datong - Three World-Class Sights in One Day
Click HERE to Enter



Traditional Cave Houses of Northern China
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Imperial China's 2nd Grandest Residence - Wang's Family Courtyard
Click HERE to Enter



Ancient City of Pingyao - Part 5: Favorite Photo Locales
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Ancient City of Pingyao - Part 4: More Food Reviews
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Ancient City of Pingyao - Part 3: Best Authentic Food
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Ancient City of Pingyao - Part 2: Hotel Review
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Ancient City of Pingyao - Part 1: Practical Info
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The Hidden Valley of Dangjiacun
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Best and Worst of Xi'an - My Opinionated Guide
Click HERE to Enter



Gourmet Guide to Xi'an - Part 3
Click HERE to Enter




Gourmet Guide to Xi'an - Part 2
Click HERE to Enter




Gourmet Guide to Xi'an - Part 1
Click HERE to Enter

A Guided Hike to Canada's World Famous Fossil Site

One very unique experience offered by the Canadian Rockies is the chance to set foot on one of the world's best known fossil sites, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in itself, led by a Parks Canada Guide. Imagine walking into a massive burial of prehistoric creatures 500 million years old, where fossils are so abundant that you CANNOT possibly take a step without stepping on some animal more ancient than any dinosaur. That is the uniqueness of the Burgess Shale fossil beds at Yoho National Park.



To put into context how famous the Burgess Shale is: I still remember reading about it in my high school science textbook, many years ago, where it probably discussed the Cambrian Explosion. In fact if you walk into a Cambrian (500 million years ago) fossil exhibit at any major natural history museum in North America, there's a good chance that many specimens came from Burgess Shale. This is the kind of place you read about in National Geographic, and I couldn't resist when I heard about this guided hike into the site, located just 2 hour's drive from Banff.



At the time of writing Parks Canada offers two different guided hikes to what is collective called the Burgess Shale fossil sites. Both hikes must be carried out under the supervision of a licensed guide, and both fossil sites are under constant video surveillance to ensure that no fossil is removed by visitors. Walcott Quarry is a 20km round-trip, 10 hour hike; Mount Stephen is considerably shorter (6km round-trip in 7 hours) but very steep towards the top. We signed up for the short and steep hike up Mount Stephen, thinking it would be relatively easier. Well ... it wasn't easy, as we're about to find out.



The hike has to be booked at least a day in advance, online or at the Visitor Centre in the town of Field, at the cost of CAD$55 as of 2011. Our hike started out very early, 7:30am in fact, in the town of Field where our guide Claudia assessed the group and gave a great introduction on the Burgess Shale and our upcoming hike. The atmosphere turned serious when she took out a large collection of old hiking/ski poles and made very sure that each of us would carry a pair before we set out. Everyone knew then that this would be no easy hike.



It was all uphill from the town of Field, with close to 800m of elevation gain to be covered in about 3 hours. The first 2.5 hours of the trail cut a winding path through a pristine forest of cedars and firs, with the occasional view point down towards Field. The steepness did not yet require hiking poles, which made us a little apprehensive. Somewhere along the trail we came across this serious-looking sign that we're about to enter a restricted area, and most importantly, that the removal of fossil is illegal.



In the final 45 minutes the trail became increasingly steep, to the point where we had to scramble with our hands at times (just look at the 40-degree slope in the picture's background). It was then apparent that poles would become crucial later when working our way downhill. But for now, we had arrived at the entrance of the famous trilobite beds of Mount Stephen.



The whole fossil site was a steep, barren shale quarry, situated right at the treeline at an elevation of 2000m. 1200m below the site lies the Kicking Horse River valley and the town of Field, and anywhere above the site is mountain goat territory. This is high, high up in the Canadian Rockies, and it's difficult to imagine that it used to be an ocean floor, back in the age of these fossilized creatures.



Claudia gave a lecture on paleontology at the only relatively flat spot at the site. At about 5 metres in diameter this was the only possible landing spot for helicopters in case someone in the group could not make it down by his/her own power. And given the steepness of the trail, that was a real possibility.



This was the gold mine that everyone in the group came to see -- a quarry of countless prehistoric fossils, all lying unclaimed at our feet. Our guide did remind us again though, that taking anything out of the quarry could get us prosecuted. Practically every piece of shale here contained the body or imprint of some prehistoric creature, and it was impossible to walk anywhere without stepping on, and possibly breaking, some fossil.



These beautifully complex trilobite shells were everyone's favorite fossil at the beginning. But after 30 minutes they had become so commonly found that one can hardly look anywhere without coming across a few new ones. In fact I personally probably broke a few just by walking around the quarry.



The discovery of fossils like this is what makes Burgess Shale one of the world's most important fossil sites. The preservation of shells and bones is common; having soft body parts and tissues preserved as fossils is very, very rare. Burgess Shale became a UNESCO World Heritage Site particularly for its excellent preservation of soft-bodied marine animals, such as this catepillar-like Aysheaia here.



After an hour's digging and lunch it was time to take the same trail downhill back towards town. This was the toughest part of the hike, starting with 30 minutes of descending a 40-degree steep narrow path of nothing but loose shale and eroded soil. See the slope in the background of the picture -- it was really that steep.



To make matters worse, two of the old hiking poles we borrowed weren't properly locking in position, making my wife very nervous on her way down. Thankfully our guide Claudia was kind enough to exchange one of her own poles with my wife, and to patiently teach my wife the proper way of using her poles as anchors on the downhill hike. We definitely wouldn't have made it safely downhill without her help.

At the end I kept wondering whether it would have been wiser to join that 20km roundtrip hike to Walcott Quarry. Yes it's much longer, but the elevation gain would be more gradual and the trail probably wasn't quite as steep. But we certainly have no regrets -- we were granted a rare opportunity to hike into one of the world's premier fossil sites, and came away with some great memories and a good story to tell. And even without the fossils, it's still a wonderful hike to a great panoramic vista at the top. It's an experience I fully recommend to my friends ... as long as they're reasonably fit and are not afraid of steep trails ...