Xi'an is legendary as "the capital of table delicacies." The ancient city is famous for the delicious Shaanxi snack, the delicate Guangdong cuisine, various kinds of fashionable foreign delicacies, and the popular Sichuan cuisine, such as hot pot.
Local Food
Visitors to Xian must do two things: one is to see the clay figures of terra cotta 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 in the Xian Bell and Drum Tower Square.
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 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.
One of Xian's most famous specialties is the Guan Tang Baozi (steamed buns served with sauces inside) served at Jia Brothers' Restaurant in Muslim Snack Street. You'll know you're there when you see the monstrous blue arch over the entrance and a wall festooned with photographs of Xian notables -- TV hosts, writers, and musicians. The specialty dish is Gravy Baozi, 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.
Fanji is the famous vendor of Shaanxi's most widely consumed snack, Rou Jia Mo, 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 no more than RMB10. 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.
A fascinating lure for food buffs is Local Snacks Street (Hui Min Jie) near Drum Tower in Muslim Square. On the two sides of 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.
Besides Gravy Baozi in Jia Brothers' Restaurant, there is barbeque in the Pingwa Grill Restaurant, Pickles at Honghong Fried Noodle Restaurant, and Beef Noodles in Yifenli Restaurant. Other offerings, including fried persimmon cake (shi zi bing), fried dumpling (guo tie), stir-fried bean jelly (chao liang fen), 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.
If you would like to taste all the local food at one time in a budget meal, Xian 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.