Xi'an Food

The plan for the evening was to eat, I mean spend the evening eating. Before that, we visited the Great Mosque, where we enjoyed the relaxing and calm atmosphere. We also tried to visit the beautiful quarters that were once occupied each by one specialized craft. I remembered flag-makers, blacksmiths, carpenters. We found almost everything torn down and turned into a huge construction site. In some streets a few shops were still operating while the house next to them had already been destroyed. What happens to those people ? Where will they go ? The picturesque little streets are being replaced by the standard wide boulevard-like Chinese city street lined with trees, then a sidewalk (paved with tiles ?), and then high-rise buildings (with tiled facades ?). Let us hope the development improve the lives of somebody else, other then the developers themselves.

Back in the Muslim quarter we located a very popular place selling dumplings, more specifically "soup dumpling" (Tang Bao), which turned into an unexpected culinary highlight of out trip. First imagine the place as crammed with round tables and people around it, all in cold white neon light, bustling with loud yelling across the dining hall, which mostly served to announce which kind of Bao-Zi were ready, and which were being asked for. Next to the dining hall there was the steaming shop in a narrow room opening towards the street, where bamboo steamers piled up into high towers. We were ushered to the first floor and put on a table with about 6 teenage girls. We studied the menu trying to figure out what we wanted to order, then got some assistance from one of the yelling people and decided for lamb Bao-Zi, vegetarian Bao-Zi and a sweet eight treasure soup (Ba Bao Tang), which we saw the teenage girls were eating. The maybe twenty Bao-Zi arrived after a while on a bamboo steaming tray, we tried to eat them, but our helpless approach again made the yelling person intervene and show us how to do it right. OK, in the end he dropped the dumpling into J?rg's soup and was very embarrassed about it, but we got the message, which is: during the steaming the lamb meat gives off a delicious soup, which is captured inside the dumpling skin, pure essence of meat juices. To eat it right, you use your chopsticks to poke a little hole into the skin and drain the juice onto a spoon, which you empty first, then eat the dumpling, meat and skin. Finally a spoonful of sweet Ba Bao Tang balances the taste, before you turn to next dumpling. Simple as it seems, it left one of the most lasting culinary memories of this trip.

Soup Buns (灌汤包)

Yet another 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!

Look for "Soup Buns", in the various snack restaurants in Xi'an like Baiyunzhang on

Jiaozi (Dumpling) Feast (饺子)

Jiaozi (Dumpling) Feast is a kind of newly created well-known feast of local flavor on the basis of the traditional dumpling recipe. Jiaozi feast is made of the selected fine ingredients, inviting and unconventional in appearance with a great variety of fillings, which tastes delicately sweet and rich in nutrition. It is indeed a mixed combination of good-looking, good smelling and delicate good taste. Now Jiaozi feast has 180 varieties. There are several dozens of feasts, such as " Court Dumpli

Sesame Bread (胡麻饼)

Sesame bread (Humabing) is made with special flour, plant oil, sesame seeds, and tianzhongcao herb as the main ingredients. It has a lightly salty flavor and keeps very well. It is also considered to be very nutritious. This type of bread has a long history dating back more than 1300 years.

Specialties:Calligraphy Rubbings (摹拓品)

Xi'an is a store house of anicent Chinese culture and calligraphy! There are more than 300 steles dating from the Han, Wei, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties collected in the Forest of Steles in Xi'an. Books of rubbings from some of the most famous Chinese calligraphers can be purchased there. If you are interested in Chinese history, language, or calligraphy, then this is an excellent oppurtunity to enrich your collection of calligraphic rubbings.

Specialties:Tang Pottery Replicas (唐三彩)

Xi'an's proud tradition as the capital of the Tang Dynasty is kept alive today by modern day replicas of Tang Dynasty pottery. Tang Dynasty pottery, with its distinctive blue, green, and yellow color glazes is still hand-made as it was during the Tang. Common themes include figurines and ceramic camels and horses.

Because of this revival in the art of Tang style pottery, buyers should be wary of any shop owners or hawkers that claim their pottery to be "old". Just a reminder! The Tang D