Xi’an，China
Food occupies a very important place in my heart. I love nothing more than a good a meal and whenever I travel I always try anything I am offered. In my opinion, a culture transpires by the food cooked by locals. It is no wonder that Xian has been one of my favorite Chinese experience so far. The Xianese food is famous in China to be tasteful and spicy, one of the best. Our trip schedule consisted of meals scattered by visits to various tourist attractions. Xian’s most well known street is one dedicated to food, the Muslim street. It is a 丰富多彩 street, rich and colorful place where a great diversity of food is laid out in front of hungry tourists’ eyes.
This street is a paradise to anyone who loves food. Sweet options, salty options, adventurous options, comfort food, you can pretty much find anything. Amongst the most famous options figures sour plum juice, rice cakes, biang biang noodles and the 肉夹馍, pronounced Rou Jia Mo.
The 肉夹馍 is the equivalent of a Chinese burger, and it was by far my favorite thing. It’s simplicity makes it convenient to eat at any time and the content is delicious. I tested it twice, the first in a muslim restaurant and the second at a Muslim street vendor.
Xi’an’s Muslim community is one of the biggest in China. So more than simply the taste experience, eating肉夹馍 was interesting because it shows the impact the Muslim influence on Xianese cuisine.肉夹馍 are often made of beef and rarely of pork, depending on the shops you can sometimes find pork ones though. In Xi’an, finding pork is harder and most restaurants don’t offer dishes containing pork. There is a lot of sheep instead. Beijing food contains a lot of pork and beef, so testing sheep dishes was a nice break from what we ate on a regular basis in Beijing.
肉夹馍 is cooked in a savory sauce and a variety of spices are added to it. The bun in itself is pretty salty but it balances very well with the sauce of the meat. It is also very simple and plain which surprised me at first, it is a little hard on the outside while being softer on the inside. The overall taste is amazing; it is an explosion of savors.
Overall, I would recommend to anyone travelling to China to take a detour to Xi’an, if not only for the food, also to visit the Terracotta warriors and the other touristic attractions.