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A Taste of Turkestan
CHARLIE WINTERMAN GOES ON THE FOOD TRAIL IN HER FORMER HOMETOWN OF XI’AN AND REVIVES CULINARY MEMORIES OF THIS ANCIENT TANG DINASTY CAPITAL
DURING an official trip to China 13 years ago, the visiting Japanese Emperor Akihito issued two formal requests: that he should stay in the far-flung western city of Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi province, for at least a day longer than anywhere else in order to enjoy its many historic sites and, while he was there, he wished to dine on a local speciality, “tuoti geng”.
The Swiss Executive Chef at the hotel where his Imperial Majesty was due to stay was thrown into a panic. He asked around his local Chinese kitchen staff, but no one had heard of the dish.
When he finally managed to get an English translation of the culinary speciality, he was aghast, for “tuoti geng” was Chinese for “camel hoof gruel”, a regional delicacy long since forgotten.
The chef asked around the city and eventually found an elderly cook in the kitchens of the old hotel called Ren Min Da Sha who knew the ancient recipe.
The Ren Min Da Sha (Xi’an People’s Hotel) was – and still is, an imposing Soviet edifice built of taupe concrete, surrounded by delightful fountains and gardens. Since the 1950s, it had been a State-run hotel, famous for its banquets thrown in honour of visiting kings, queens, heads-of-state and, not to mention, top Chinese leaders.
It was, in the words of the Sofitel’s General Manager, Michel Molliet, “the only place in town”.
Needless to say, thanks to the Ren Min Da Sha’s cook, the Emperor did get his soup – cooked to perfection according to age-old traditional recipe.
PASTE END PRESENT
Xi’an is not new to Imperial edicts. It is an ancient walled capital where 13 dynasties of Chinese emperors lived and died. Many of these emperors were buried in tumuli together with priceless artefacts and vast ceramic armies, now known as The Terracotta Warriors.
Culturally, Xi’an is a world apart from China’s other boomtowns and is perhaps one of very few Chinese cities to retain a real sense of history. For many, this huge city’s main fascination is its diverse ethnic make-up resulting from the invasion of Mongol forces from the north who extended their reign right across central Asia. They imported 
slaves and labourers from as far west as Iran to Xi’an – then known as the capital Chang An, travelling along what would become known as The Silk Road.
Thus, for well over 1,000 years, Xi’an’s residents have included clear-eyed, fair-skinned people, officially labelled as members of the Hui Minority. With their Semitic features, these Sunni Muslims look faintly European or Middle Eastern; they still practise their Islamic faith, 
worshipping in the city’s 1,200-year-old Great Mosque and used to use a form of ancient Turkic script related to Arabic – not Chinese, which can be seen written alongside many Chinese signs. Indeed, it is this unique fusion of Mongol, Arab and Turkic influences that gives Xi’an its cultural and historic edge over anywhere else.
Fusion Food
Gastronomically, Xi’an therefore offers a quite extraordinary range of culinary fare that fuses both Chinese and Central Asian cuisines; with a strict avoidance of pork.
Xi’an’s proximity to the Gobi Desert, which straddles the sparsely populated Xinjiang province to the north, means a prolific abundance of dried fruits such as apricots, dates and figs, brought down by tradesmen. Over a decade ago, any melons, raisins or sultanas sold in China hailed from this inhospitable desert region.
Look in any of the Xi’an markets nowadays and the stalls are full of heaps of walnuts, desiccated persimmon (a local favourite), kiwi or mango slices or dried sunflower and pumpkin seeds (guazi) – eaten as snacks on long journeys.
Sickly sweet, green bean paste patties are cut into squares and imprinted using wooden moulds with auspicious Chinese characters; these have fillings such as dates, almonds or toasted sesame.
Pavement stalls sell melt-in-the-mouth dry peanut cake, a sort of mille feuille of soft, sugary peanut flakes as well as the teeth-rattling peanut brittle.
TOP FIVE SAUVORY SNACKS
1. jiaozi – filled steamed dumplings
2. xiaochao pao mo – torn bread with fried lamb, vermicelli noodles and sliced tomato
3. majiang mian pi – cold bean noodle often served with bean sprouts and doused in sesame or spicy sauce
4. rou jia mo – roast lamb-filled flatbread
5. shaokao yangrou chuan – lamb kebabs
FIVE STAR FARE
Zhao Tong is the Sous Chef of the city’s newest and perhaps most impressive five-star hotel, Sofitel on Renmin Square. He pointed out how, because of the city’s location in the deep hinterland of China, the majority of local foodstuffs are those which travelled well and did not need heating or refrigeration. He also stressed the locals’ predilection for pickles and spicy food – not as bad as the folk in Sichuan, he jested, but here, the Xi’an diner likes it hot, and preferably sour.
The contemporary Sofitel, together with the Grand Mercure and a brand-new conference centre, occupy a beautifully tranquil piece of land in the grounds of the old Ren Min Da Sha (Mercure).
Today, Sofitel’s “Le Chinois” restaurant is located in a 1950s wing of the former Ren Min Da Sha and still has the unchallenged reputation for serving the best Chinese food in town. Although the menu leans heavily to the now popular Cantonese cuisine, true to tradition, it does offer some well-loved local dishes too such as the Northern staple, steamed dumplings (jiaozi) which some tourist restaurants in Xi’an famously sculpt into multifarious animal shapes.
OUR DAILY BREAD
As I wandered through the city’s smaller back streets, I found huge, dinner plate-sized roti, known more romantically as Thousand Layer Golden Thread Cakes (qian ceng jinsi bing) being baked in oil on a sidewalk griddle by two teenage kids, clearly enjoying the indentured tutelage from their Hunanese father. It is exactly this – Xi’an’s assorted baked, steamed, griddle-fried and filled bread – that always stays in the mind of the hungry traveller.
Xi’an’s classic flatbread, known as mo, is baked in rounds the size of a side-plate. These dry, white discs of dough, often nicknamed tuo tuo mo, are sold piping hot from roadside ovens and use little water, according to Chef Zhao, which allows them to last one to two months. Sometimes they are split in two and filled with chopped lamb or beef (rou jia mo), or baked with the meat or vegetables already inside, like an enclosed hamburger.
The mo is also used in the staple Xi’an Muslim dish called pao mo, literally meaning soaked bread, where the bread is torn into small pieces and then thrown into a wok of boiling lamb broth, together with vermicelli, vegetables and slices of cold roast lamb.
A variation of this famous hometown dish is a spicier version known as xiaochao pao mo, which supplements the standard ingredients with chopped tomatoes and chilli sauce; here, the cold, cooked meat (lamb or beef) is re-fried before being thrown into the bowl. Suffice to say, this is the prize meal for warming up cold toes in Xi’an’s frigid winters.
At night, the old Muslim Quarter at Beiyuanmen, built in the 1990s to resemble a Qing dynasty street, is crammed full of foreign and Chinese tourists dining out until late at roadside food markets and eateries, snacking on kebabs barbecued on small gas braziers or queuing for tasty layered sweets made from dates and sticky rice.
Endless stalls and various diners display two characters “Qing” and “Zhen”, denoting a Halal restaurant, an important consideration in this Muslim region.
TOP FIVE SWEET TREATS
1. chao shi bing – fried persimmon flour patties
2. dou sha gao – green bean paste patties
3. ba bao gao – “eight jewel cake”, which is dried fruit on sticky rice paste
4. shi bing – dried flat persimmon
5. zhi ma gao – sesame stuffed sticky rice cake (cut from a block using a taut thread) can also use dates.
NOODLE KNOWLEDGE
On the East side of the city centre known as 3rd, 4th and 5th East Road, I came across a lovely Muslim couple at the Lanzhou Lamian Dian – Lanzhou Pulled Noodle Shop. The young chef’s jolly wife, decked in a traditional headscarf, explained how her husband cooks homemade noodle every day for their customers.
The famous dish, known as la mian, is made by pulling long cylinders of dough and tossing them in the air until they separate into spaghetti-like strands. I later heard that the skill is now rarely passed down through families but can be learnt at training colleges.
Understanding the dozens of Xi’an noodle types is almost impossible; like Italian pasta, it comes in so many forms – from the three-inch thick kuan mian (broad flat noodle) to the skinnier spaghetti variety, xiguigui mian or the broad, flat squares called qihua mian, used in soups.
Noodles are not always “pulled”; some are rolled into miniature shells or cats’ ears. One particularly entertaining form is when a brick-shaped block of dough is held some metres from the boiling wok and using a special L-shaped knife, the chef chips away at the block of dough so that slices of dough fly through the air into the boiling water.
This dish, known as dao xiao mian, is believed to have come down from neighbouring Shaanxi province and can occasionally be seen sold on the streets of Xi’an together with another speciality, fried cubes of potato or wheat starch (chao liangshi) and the classic green noodles similar to tagliatelle verde.
Small stalls also serve delicious cold noodles (liangmian), made from skimming a circular paring tool across a mountainous lump of transparent blancmange-like white dough and dousing the skimmed strands in any number of cold sauces chosen from a series of large bowls.
FOODIE FAREWELL
After a week wandering around the food markets and sidestalls of Xi’an, it was easy to grow nostalgic for the food I had known so well in my late 20s.
As my departure grew imminent, I began cramming my bag not just with gifts for friends but, unable to resist, I also stuffed in a large packet of freshly-baked mo – some things are just too good to leave behind.
WHERE TO STAY
The following Accor properties are all centrally located and suit a variety of budgets.
Sofitel on Renmin Square, Xi’an, is a five-star modern property consisting 418 rooms and suites located in two curving, ziggurat towers. The hotel is considered the most luxurious in West China, boasting four restaurants and top-notch international facilities. Next to the Sofitel’s modern West Wing is the imposing classical roof of the city’s famous Grand Theatre.
Behind Sofitel is the 202-room Grand Mercure which occupies a Sino-Soviet-designed heritage property dating to the 1950s, formerly known as Ren Min Da Sha, where many foreign heads-of-state have stayed. In front of the hotel is The Terrace which provides a summertime brasserie managed by Sofitel.
The Mercure Hotel is a 111-room hotel next to a pretty garden courtyard and is close to the Sofitel Convention Centre.
For more information, visit www.accor.com
KEY TO MAP
1. From Street 2 northwards, these pretty, tree-lined avenues are crammed with tiny local eateries, Halal butchers, noodle-pullers, bakers and fresh fruit shops. Wander around and see real China at large.
2. Cold noodles are sold everywhere – look out for the tell-tale blue and white pottery bowls of sauces. Bei Yuan Men Street has some famous cold noodle shops serving takeaway (through the evening), and round the corner in Xi Yang Shi.
3. Walk just 50m out of the Sofitel on Renmin Square along Dong Si Street towards the Eastern section and you will come across a branch of Lanzhou Lamian Dian at 244 Dong Si Street. Watch noodle-pulling from 10am.
4. Renmin Square is translated as People’s Square and is home to the Sofitel, Grand Mercure and Mercure hotels. The Terrace is at the heart of this square.
5. The top of this pedestrianised precinct is full of dried cookies, and preserved nuts and fruit stalls. Look out for Old Ma’s homemade green noodles cooked by Chef Ma outside in a huge wok.
6. Old Sun Pao Mo is a simple Halal diner specialising in xiaochao pao mo with fried lamb and tomatoes.
7. All along Muslim Street, diners stay open late and at the very top, the dried fruit market takes advantage of hungry tourists, opening approximately from 6pm until midnight.
8. A busy night food market runs off Bei Yuan Men and is known locally as Xi Yang Shi (Western Sheep Market).
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