I'm generally not a big risk-taker when it comes to food. Fully conceding that my pathetically delicate stomach likes the cleaner things in life, I generally avoid eating street food. During my recent visit to see the Terracotta Army in Xian however, my stomach, tempted by the smells wafting through the air in the Muslim Quarter, was persuaded that street food was the best way forward and, perhaps even more luckily, it was proved right.
Despite sitting outside for what in my books was probably a little too long, the kebabs were very well cooked through (while remaining tasty) and so we indulged in a couple. We were also tempted by what we thought were fried potatoes with chili (damn silly with hindsight given Shaanxi cuisine does bread, not potatoes or rice). It actually turned out to be fried bean-starch jelly which, though quite a dull substance, was good as a bland background to the chili sauce (although slightly smaller pieces of the jelly would have been better in my opinion). The highlight of our first night was definitely a fabulously tasty flatbread covered in dried red chilies, sesame seeds and cumin seeds. I couldn't get enough...
Biang Biang noodles was another dish on our culinary itinerary. The noodles are really thick and certainly rather challenging to anyone less than expert with chopsticks (particularly with a rich tomato/chili sauce threatening to splash at any moment!!). Once mixed, the flavours were really good with a great chili kick.
I was tempted to try one of the persimmon pancakes available in the night market, probably because they rather cunningly look like doughnuts, but the taste wasn't anywhere near as good as I'd expected. It wasn't unpleasant, just rather odd. The rehydrated persimmons (also known as sharon fruits) are mixed with flour, osmanthus, rose-petals and sugar and baked until golden. I suspect that if you're a fan of persimmons as a fruit then these are a dream come true but I'm just not that fussed about the fruit. Bizarrely, it is thought that the raw fruits can cure constipation (by causing diarrhea) and the cooked versions can treat diarrhea and dysentery which seems a bit contradictory but wiki assure me it's something to do with the osmotic effect in the raw fruit sugars and the high tannins in the cooked fruit. You learn something everyday...
The star dish was the yangrou paomo, a noodle soup dish that requires the eater to tear some quite solid round breads into tiny tiny pieces before the bowl is filled with noodles, mutton and broth. To that you add chili, coriander and cloves of garlic that have been marinated in vinegar and sugar for several months. Our first attempt at yangrou paomo at a cafe in the night market was tasteless and dull - indeed the bread was pre-torn which was a bad sign - but we persevered and found an excellent one outside the city walls at Lao Sun Jia Restaurant, one of Xian's most famous restaurants.
Xian is famous for its dumpling banquets so we decided to try the 18-course dumpling banquet on the second floor of De Fa Chang. It was probably the culinary low point of the weekend with rather over-cooked dumplings and heavy, thick dumpling cases. It was a shame because some of them were really pretty, shaped like fish and birds.
The exception to the not so great dumplings rule were the rather bready walnut dumplings which were excellent - crammed full of chopped walnuts. The flavour and smell was really nutty and they looked fantastic, shaped to look like actual walnuts.
We tried a fried version of the steamed mincemeat filled bread which is popular in XIan. It was so good that, despite protests by our arteries, we had to have a second. According to various internet sources, the filling involves boiling the meat with wine, rock candies, fresh gingers, shallot stems and a herb bag of teasel nuts, cardamon seeds, cloves, cinnamons and aniseeds for 3-4 hours.
We kept seeing massive queues outside one shop selling mungbean cakes and therefore felt rather obligated to give it a try. We were offered black sesame, rose petal and peanut mungbean cakes(there were other options but the woman got bored halfway through explaining the varieties, insisting they were all good...!). To be honest, mungbean cake (cake is a loose term - more heavy paste) has a bit of an acquired texture. The peanut one was definitely the nicest tasting but I can't say I'm going to rush to locate some in Hong Kong!
And the award for best dish of the weekend goes to ... the rose petal mirror cake. There were stalls like this all over the Muslim Quarter and so I put aside my slight concern about the jams left al fresco, and took the plunge. Apparently a breakfast item, they are made from steamed glutinous rice cooked in these traditional round wooden steamers and coated in rose petal jam, sugar, crushed peanuts and black sesame seeds. Presented on a stick like a lollipop, they aren't particularly sweet but have this lovely rose flavour.
Definitely a week of dieting required.