Datong Food

As with many of the other places in Shanxi Province, Datong is a town whose dining is little influenced by the rice based diets that can be found further south.

The locals tend to favour products made from wheat and other cold-resistant cereal strains, making noodles a common favourite on most tables. If noodles are not really your thing, then there are a variety of other, lesser known specialties that makes dining here interesting, if not special.

Millet Cakes are famous here, good for their fragrant taste, especially when eaten with the gravy like substance that often accompanies this dish. Perhaps more healthy are the Naked Oats Noodles, a coarse grain specialty that is rich in fiber and goodness, despite its somewhat simple flavor.

Hotpot (Huoguo) is another northern specialty that features prominently on the Datong menu list, sometimes a little spicy! Otherwise try, if you dare, the dumplings and other general snacks that you will find on the stalls across the town.

Restaurants and Food Areas:

The area around Da nanjie and Nanguan dajie is highly recommended for good restaurants. Best of these is probably the Yonghe Restaurant (Yonghe dajiudian) that serves decent northern Chinese food at a reasonable price.

The Chezhan Restaurant (Chezhan fandian) next to the railway station. This is more an inn than a restaurant in the real sense, but you can sample typical Chinese fast food here, with dishes such as dumplings and noodles.

The Hongsheng Restaurant (Hongsheng fandian, Tel: 0352-5037994) at 3 Yingbin donglu. Serves general Chinese food and good dumplings (Jiaozi).

One of the best places to go to for lunch or dinner in town is the Red Flag Food City (Hongqi meishi cheng), it has cheap, authentic Datong dishes.

The Huayan Restaurant (Huayan fandian) on Da xi jie is also good for regional cuisine.

The Hongya Restaurant (Hongya dajiudian, Tel: 0352-5022467) at 1 Yingbin donglu. Serves a variety of local and regional specialties, including a good roast duck.

For food more upmarket, you should try the Hongqi Hotel (Hongqi binguan) just across from the northern end of the railway station or the Gucheng Hotel (Gucheng binguan) at 14 Huanghua jie.

Millet Cake (Huanggao) (黄糕)

The millet cake (Huanggao) is a regional food specialty that is popular amoung the locals here, both for its healthy consistency and the ease with which it is made. The millet is first ground into flour, neaded into small piles of dough with warm water, individually steamed for around 20 minutes and then added together to a large cake that is annointed with oil to reduce the oncoming hardening. The best way to sample the food is to dip it into the gravy that usually comes with it.

Naked Oats Noodles (Youmai) (釉麦)

There are a number of cereal strains in and around the Datong area, suitable for the cold that hits much of this region from November until March. Of the more famous of these is the so called Naked Oats (Youmian), that are popularly used here as a base ingredient of noodles.
The flour of the naked oats is fairly unusually created by first heating the grains in a large cauldron before it is ground. The flour is then mixed with water, stretched into thin threads of dough (You mian) and then st

Preserved Apricots (Yanggao xingpu) (杏脯)

Yanggao County, not far from Datong, has a long history of growing apricots. The slopes of the nearby Liuleng Mountain (Liuleng shan) are studded with their trees, as are most of the villages in this area. The preserved apricots (Xingpu) are stoneless, and are well known for their golden colour and sweet taste, making them great nibbles to take on train or bus journeys.