Silk Road Questions

[Alex Whiteman]

Well, first thing let me post some links I've found. . .

 

http://www.chinatravel.com/xian-travel/food/

http://www.chinatravel.com/zhangye-travel/food/

http://www.chinatravel.com/dunhuang-travel/food/

 

The web has a lot of these things but I have some doubts:

 

a) Is this what you actually find at a run-of-the-mill restaurant? what people eat everyday? Seems to me it's just depicting traditional stuff.

b) As much as I occasionally enjoy the Lanzhou Lamian places in the big cities, the variety of dishes they offer is, frankly, limited and - if you care about nutrition - the quality is also very bad. . . so it's not something I see myself eating everyday. The question is if it gets any better as you move westwards (different dishes, more/better meat, etc. . .).

c) Any differences between Gansu, Xining, Wulumuqi, Ningxia?

 

The other question is Tibetan cuisine in Xining. The only thing I keep finding over and over is that butter-tea thing.

What do so-called Tibetan restaurants have to offer?

[abcdefg]

Some of the items mentioned in those articles are common. For sure the various noodle dishes are daily fare. Lots of the same restaurants will offer 拉面，刀削面，and 炒面片, the latter with various selectable toppings.

 

肉夹馍 is common, everyday food. They cost 6 Yuan at 陕西 snack shops 小吃店 near where I live in Kunming. Also, we have a large 回族 population, people that moved here from western China, hence lots of small restaurants featuring those regional cuisines. 羊肉泡馍 and 牛肉泡馍 are both frequent, especially in winter.

 

I have an idea that the camel's hoof and camel's hump dishes mentioned in one of those tourist articles are less common fare. Cannot remember them from Dunhuang. But then I probably wouldn't have ordered them even if they were available. I did have dumplings in Dunhuang, but they were 水饺 and not 蒸饺。

 

In Xining I recall having chunks of boiled mutton, served by weight. Very simple. Side dish of noodles and boiled cabbage. In Ningxia, Yinchuan 银川 I recall 大盘鸡 being popular, in addition to the usual beef, lamb and noodle fare. 乌鲁木齐 was really boring from a food standpoint. Of course it's always possible I didn't go to the right restaurants there.

 

The Tibetan restaurants I've visited in NW Yunnan seem to often feature yak meat hot pot 牦牛火锅。Also some flat breads, different from those of Xi'an. Thicker. They call them 粑粑。 

 

Don't know whether selection gets better or more healthy as you go farther west. Interesting question. When traveling out west, I sure did eat lots of 拍黄瓜 because other vegetables were hard to come by in the usual 小吃店。Some silk road towns are known for their fruit, particularly grapes in Gansu and melons 哈密瓜 in Xinjiang.

 

I believe one active member, ChTTay, used to live in Yinchuan. Maybe he has some thoughts or insights.

[ChTTay]

If Chinese people have heard of Yinchuan/Ningxia they usually just know it because of the lamb/mutton. It's famous for good quality lamb/mutton in China. There are a variety of different "level" restaurants that specialise in this - some reasonable, some ridiculous.

Otherwise, Chinese people who have no ties to Yinchuan/Ningxia or haven't heard of the meat, usually don't know anything about it beyond the name and that its Muslim.

The food in Yinchuan was excellent. I can safely say I never had a bad meal there, even if just picking a random place. Maybe I was just lucky. The food itself doesn't differ massively from what you'll find in the rest of China - in terms of "dishes" anyway - they have all the usual home style stuff.

The Muslim restaurants all have green signage (sometimes yellow or blue but 98% are green). The noodles you talk about are all common fair as are various gai fan / on rice dishes. The 拉面 is better and cheaper than found in Beijing. It's available eaten throughout the day in many, many places. It was 5rmb a small bowl when I lived there but think it's more like 7-8now.

The noodle dishes you get in these Lanzhou/Xingjiang restaurants are fairly similar to what you can find. However, there is currently a fashion in Beijing for these La MIAN restaurants that pretty much just serve La MIan and some cold dishes, maybe one fried noodle. These didn't really exist in Yinchuan when I lived there. Most were smaller restaurants that sold a wide variety of noodle dishes, including fried noodles with different sauces, in soups or dry etc. there's a lot of choice of noodle dishes. I guess there has to be when you eat it every day. Most smaller places don't have picture menus but if you have basic grasp of Chinese you can usually pick the names up easily - things like 鸡蛋拌面，炒拉面，"blah blah-干拌面” or "blah blah-炒面”. Blah blah signifying a variety of names.

The Muslim restaurants in Yinchuan are all run by Muslims too. Often they are tiny hole in the walls all in a row. Some places that serve la MIAN here are not. There are a fair few Xinjiang places that serve standard stuff you'll find anywhere.

There are a few things I've had there I've not seen elsewhere. There was a place near my house that specialised in Pigeon. Sold a great 面片儿 noodle soup with a rich tomato sauce, in a cast iron pot. Of course the meat was pigeon. You could buy half/whole birds in dishes but I never did. The noodles were too good. There was also a couple of great 砂锅 restaurants that specialised in that. Not really seen that much in BJ.

Also, a lot of Muslim places sell some really great stir fried mutton dishes. I also remember some of the best 豆干 dishes I've ever had. Yinchuan City also has a wide variety of other restaurants like Yunnan, Sichuan, Henan.

Rou Jia Mo isn't a Muslim thing as far as I'm aware. It's from Shaanxi province, right?

Fruit was always very seasonal, at least outside the big supermarkets. There would be two weeks of gloriously tasty nectarines here one day and gone the next. You'd wake up one morning with pick up trucks lining the street selling different types of Melons.

Anyway, if you visit I hope you enjoy the food. Might be better to see if you can find a local to show you good places or do some research on Chinese language websites first. I was largely shown good places to eat at first then might have had fantastic luck picking places later on.

[abcdefg]

Rou Jia Mo isn't a Muslim thing as far as I'm aware. It's from Shaanxi province, right?

 

Right. It's 陕西 and not necessarily 回族。I didn't say that clearly. Will go back and try to fix it.

 

Your observation about fruits being highly seasonal in Yinchuan is definitely true here in Kunming too. When I see something like that, I feast on it for several days running, because it might be gone next week.

 

When I think of Nignxia 宁夏，I don't think of lamb as much as I think of 枸杞 berries. The best ones in all of China come from there.

[imron]

Rou Jia Mo isn't a Muslim thing as far as I'm aware

Yep.  Plenty of places selling pork Rou Jia Mo in China, so definitely not Muslim.

[ChTTay]

Yeah I forgot that ...very true. A lot of people like Dates and Goji berries from Ningxia as well. They make good gifts for Chinese people certainly.

[anonymoose]

Personally I think Yinchuan is underrated as a city. From the short time I spent there, I found it to be a lot more interesting than many of the more well-known cities around China.

 

Anyway, some of the best food I have had has been in Yinchuan (admittedly out of a very small sample), including things like 扣肉.

[ChTTay]

Yeah, I'd consider moving back there definitely. A great place.

[abcdefg]

#5 -- Haha, yes of course, Imron. The 肉夹馍 places I know here in Kunming all use a slow-stewed, fatty cut of pork. I had not thought of that. Definitely not Halal.

 

Wish they used better meat, or should probably say wish they used a different cut of meat. Chinese seem so fond of these fat cuts, especially if they are enhanced with tendon and cartilage.

 

I would eat rou jia mo more often if leaner, cleaner meat were used. I like the concept and the seasonings. But the meat puts me off.

[imron]

I like the concept and the seasonings. But the meat puts me off.

I look forward to your upcoming how to make homemade Rou Jia Mo post

[ChTTay]

You can ask for 瘦肉 which is usually a lot less fatty. A few places near my work also have A beef version which hardly has any fat.

[ChTTay]

also, to the OP, there was/is a thread on here about a trip through GANSU province with some good info/itineraries on it. I can't find it but maybe you can using the joys of google.

[abcdefg]

To the Original Poster -- Alex Whiteman --

 

OK, it's time to come back now and tell us why you were asking these things. Are you planning a trip, a move, or was it just idle armchair wondering?

 

And have you found anything else in your own independent research that sheds light on the most interesting question?

 

The question is if it gets any better as you move westwards (different dishes, more/better meat, etc. . .).

 

Or in other words, do dining options change as you move further west? If so, how?