Xi’an’s Local Snacks

Xi’an is famous for its long history and numerous historical sites, but one thing you may not know is that it is blessed with all sorts of special local food. If you haven’t tried it, you have not been to Xi’an.

      The most famous one is called Yang Rou Pao Mo, shredded bread in mutton soup. Yang Rou Pao Mo is a tasty in Xi’an specialty. And each portion is usually served with pickled garlic cloves (糖蒜). Once you have a trip to Xi’an, I am sure you will be invited to a fancy restaurant or a small local restaurant to enjoy it. Probably, some visitors and new comers are not used to enjoy it.

    Compared with Yang Rou Pao Mo, Cold Rice Noodles, or Liang Pi, as the natives call it, is a more common daily food to us, especially to girls. Liang Pi can be made of rice or wheat, steamed, cooled and then sliced into slender pieces before serve. When stirred, the cook adds sesame oil, garlic, and chili sauce to make it chewy and spicy. In summer, it is so popular that it is sold everywhere in Xi’an. However being such a unique in Xi’an that it is rare in other places of China to find Liang Pi.

      A dish of Liang Pi is great, but it would be perfect to serve it with a piece of Rou Jia Mo, which is also called Chinese Hamburger by foreigners. The so called Mo is baked in oven and is soft inside and cripsy outside. The pork inside which is stewed with more than 10 kinds of condiments is not greasy at all. By smell it, you will feel mouth-watering and a single bite of it will make your mouth full of its flavor. No one can resist the temptation of Rou Jia Mo.

      Another kind of unique food in Shaan xi is Biang Biang Mian,  the name of which is so complex in Chinese to write that you can not type it out in computer. It is a kind of noodles which is thick and long in the shape and chewy in the taste. Stirred with special produced meat sauce, it is beloved by the local Xi’an people.  

Qianxian Guo Kui
There is a literary quotation of Guo Kui that in the period of Qianling Mausoleum construction, due to the tremendous project, numerous labors, there is no time having lunch. Gradually, the labors learnt to bake round cake with helmets. Therefore, named “Guo Kui”.It is circular in shape with thick center and thin verge like a wheel. And it is easy to be stored and handy for that the wheat flour is mixed with a minimum amount of water and baked over low flame while making, so little moisture carries. Now Guo Kui has been regarded as one of the “Ten Strange Features” in Central Shaanxi.
Qishan Whistle Noodles
As the name goes, the noodles were derived from Qishan County back to Qing Dynasty. It is a must be hand-made noodles with various spices as pork shreds, day lily, egg, wood fungus and bean curd. Besides the noodle itself, the sour and hot soup offered also delicious.
Cold Jelly Noodles
The cold jelly noodles in central Shaanxi are mainly made of wheat flour through steaming while in southern part rice flour was chosen. Not as the usual noodles, the cold jelly noodles mixed with gluten, bean sprouts, sliced cucumber, chili oil, soy sauce, vinegar and garlic sauce. The dish could also be offered as a hot snack after stir-frying with sliced meat, sausage and vegetables.
Zeng Gao
Zeng is an ancient vessel in China, a kind of steam used for making a kind of snack from glutinous rice. Therefore the name Zeng Gao. It is a traditional breakfast in central Shaanxi. It is said that not only as a sort of soft, sticky and tasty food but possessing medicinal functions like enriching the blood and calming the nerves.
Buckwheat Noodles
Pressing the buckwheat flour through a special device with holes is the easy process to make buckwheat noodles. It is a kind of noodles that could be eaten either in hot or cold. If in the cold way, flavor it with salt, vinegar, mustard, garlic sauce and hot chili; while in hot, after boiling, it will mixed with stir-fried vegetables and meat. Taste bitter but beneficial for it's antipyretic nature all the year round.
Hulutou
Hulutou is a sort of broth with intestines and tripe inside, which is so popular in Xian. The special way of cooking was first created by Sun Simiao, a well-known doctor in the Tang Dynasty. And he imparted the secret recipe into an restaurant owner in Chang’an with a bottle gourd of medicine for the flavoring. The owner, based on the recipe as well some innovations made, created present Broth with Intestines and Tripe that lasted for thousands of years.
Concerning the method in details, the selected materials are intestine and before serving, we customer has to tear up pancake then the chef soaks in the boiling bone soup for three or four times with pork intestine, tripe, chicken, sea cucumber and squid on the very top. Still more, the lard and vegetables added and while offering the preserved garlic and chili jam followed.
Multi-Layer Steamed Bread
It is a kind of convenient food that nearly everywhere in Xian could be bought and eatern immediately. It shapes similar to wisps of gold silks to twine, one storey of tower buildings is folded. The soft silk floss is moist, fresh and cool with delicated looking that favors a lot your refined palate.
Fan’s Pancake Cured Meat
It is a traditional Shaanxi delicacy that pancakes of high-quality wheat flour filled with cured meat. A story related to the origination could be traced back to Tang Dynasty. To express gratitude of being imbursed by an official “Fan”, an orphan who had been got success in the business of cured meat, presented a delicate-designed Chinese prickly ash wood coffin with about 250 kilograms of lean meat hidden inside on Fan’s 80th birthday. But for a busy day, nobody pay any attention to it until ten years later when Fan died, the family were all in hot water immediately, there was no way of living but selling property. Finally they found the fresh fragrant cured meat that sold well and attracted more people. And more newly delicious meat was made by putting fresh meat into the original soup is OK. As time went by, it became more famous around.

Cured Mutton
Nian Zhi Po Cured Mutton of Lao Tong is a famous Moslem food store with over 200-year history for its ruddy, crisp savory cured mutton.
The local delicacy was connected a lot to a story of Empress Dowager CiXi, who was fond of it and gave highly price on it during her visit to Xian. And later to follow her advice, the three characters “Nian Zhi Po” were wrote down , as a tablet today over the store. From that time on, the Tong Family's Cured Mutton Store had come to front widely.
Cured Donkey Meat
It is a good choice while drinking wine and the history could be cast back to the XianFeng, TongZhi years. The making process is really a kind of art that would lasted for totally three seasons as summer, autumn and winter with shine, press, boil and salt down step by step, so to be a great enjoyment.
Xian Huanggui Persimmon Pancakes
To make the best use of the Lintong fire-crystal persimmon, Huanggui persimmon pancakes become a specialty in Xian. Mixed with wheat flour, osmanthus sause, rose-petals, walnuts and sugar, then be baked until golden-colored on both sides. There is an interesting story about its origin that in 1644 while Li Zicheng, a peasant rebel leader, occupied Xian and claimed king. As his amy started to attack Beijing, the locals wanted to give something but nothing could provide due to the great famine except for some persimmon pancakes that were very much hungry-resistant. With improved cooking method, the present pancake turn out to be a delicacy soft and tasty.
If one wants to taste all the special local food at one time, the Xian Restaurant, Xian Fan Zhuang in Chinese, would be the wonderful choice where more than 100 different kinds of delicacies are offered by the self-service restaurant on the first-floor. As well as indoor enjoyment, evening market of the Moslem Street of the east lightly in the south, can also go snack street right behind the drum-tower, that with archaic-styled constructions on both sides. On the 500-meter street, there are many restaurants of different cuisines along with unique snack shops. While enjoying true Muslim cuisine, tourists can learn customs of the Hui people. In a word, local-featured food are permeated here everywhere.
As a popular saying that Xian is a legendary as the “capital of table delicacies”where provides a wide range selections in front of the people at home and abroad.