Trip report: Xi'an and GuangZhou
I took a trip up to Xi'an and Guangzhou during Easter. A friend from Xi'an kindly asked her cousin to give me a tour of the city. Thanks to her I was able to get into the famous ShangXi History museum (free entrance, which means an impossibly looooong line). Another friend of hers turned out to be a Chinese muslim with 500 yrs roots in Xi'an so they took me to a few Chinese muslim restaurants as well.
The Muslim district in Xi'an is the center for tourist actions right behind the drum tower. We went to the Grand Mosque (~1000 yrs) and then Mr Jia III's Soup Dumpling (GuanTang Baozi) on the tourist main throughfare. The soup dumpling were pretty good but what's really wonderful was the sweet 8 treasure congee. This place reminds me of those state-owned establishments so expectation for service from the waitstaff should be minimal.
Then I took the food pilgrim around the area the next few days- Muslim side: Lamb soup soaked Mo, Mr Fan's Rou Jia Mo (Chinese burger) on the non-muslim side of the drum tower, and some random noodle places in the neighborhood.
Guangzhou was only a stop over for a day on the way back to SG. I only went to Guangzhou Restaurant - my parent had fond memories of the place decades ago. The place looked promising - many retirement-age ladies gathering with family and friends. And the food didn't disappoint. I had olive conch soup and cumin grilled neck muscles. The other items on the menue looked nice too. Will head back to try more when opportunities arise.
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M_Gomez
Aug 5, 2010 07:57 AM
My, my, I am salivating at your description! It would be nice if you can also provide us with addresses and preferably also numbers to call, if possible. Somehow, Chowhound moderators disable the address-map link here which is made available to US boards.
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re: M_Gomez
Xi'An
Muslim
Jia III's Soup Dumpling 贾三灌汤包子馆: 回民街北院门93号 029-87257507
(Beef or Lamb soup dumpling + 8 treasure congee. No need to order anything else)
There are a few vendors for lamb soup on 大皮院 Big Skin Court a block north
Non-muslim:
Mr Fan's Rou Jia Mo 樊记腊汁肉店: 竹笆市街53号 029-87273917
(Fermented drink + The chinese burger)
There is a Liang Pi place right across the street from Mr Fan's and there is a little food court right next in the residential complex with nice layered onion cakes, noodles and pastriesGuangzhou
Guangzhou restaurant: No.2, Wenchang Rd., 020-81888388
First floor garden bistro type ( I posted the menu) and the higher floor is for banquets
Ha, I found a reference here: http://www.china.org.cn/english/trave...-
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re: Ting Ting
don't think so...
(sg san gabriel?)
lintong fire crystal persimmons-
pictrue at
http://forum.globaltimes.cn/forum/showthread.php?t=9451
and picture of the cakes at
http://01062458.member.lotour.com/bulletin36047.shtml
chinese story on cakes at
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:4H_cpEyqQf0J:county.aweb.com.cn/2006/12/1/7584858.htm+%E9%BB%84%E6%A1%82%E6%9F%BF%E5%AD%90%E9%A5%BC&cd=14&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
google will translate the page.a very good page with links to lots ofinfo in english on xi'an food and snacks
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityg...-
re: Jerome
SG=Singapore
Interesting! I did see some reddish cakes being made and sold. I think I even bought one and took a bite. I do read Chinese and the story was a bit folksy. There were some theory on how the character Biang for the biang biang noodle didn't exist in written text and was created solely as a marketing ploy.
I was really intrigued by how much Xi'An tourism was centered on the muslim district though, considering that they are less than 1% of the population and mostly decedents of the 50k-ish survived the 1860s bloodshed. I had no idea about this part of history before my visit to the city.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungan_r...-
re: Ting Ting
For another nice hidden riff - esp on the genocide on bannermen in the 1911 revolution look at
http://www.amazon.com/Manchus-Han-Rel...
Rhoads, Manchus and Han. the 1911 section is the part i found most intereting.
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