Xi is not a city famous for its food, but her snacks particularly attract me. Some people say that a city can't form its own snack culture without profound cultural background. In fact, from another perspective, a city's snack culture can better strengthen the city's cultural heritage.
Like many cities, most of Xi 'an's famous snacks are served in Hui nationality gathering areas, commonly known as Huimin Street (Fang Hui). But Hui Street in Xi 'an is bigger. It is not a simple street, but a whole area. As one of the representatives of security style, Huimin Street is composed of several streets, such as Beiguangji Street, Beiyuanmen, Xiyangcheng, Dapiyuan, Huajue Lane and Sajinqiao. Eat one by one, three meals a day, and they are all genuine carbohydrates, which is definitely a paradise for staple food lovers.
Before I went to Xi 'an, I specially did some homework, but before I left the airport, my local gourmet buddy Yao Ge smashed my raiders and threw them into the trash can, saying that we locals basically don't go to the places you wrote above, just like you Beijingers, will we go to Wangfujing Snack Street?
"Sprinkling Golden Bridge" is the first feeding place promoted by Yao Ge, with a total length of about 800 meters. It is said that Xuanzong really sprinkled gold here. Compared with the "North Yard Gate" street near the Drum Tower, there are almost no tourists here, all of them are locals, but we got up early and came here. It was already crowded and many shops began to line up.
Soup buns, sour soup jiaozi, preserved beef buns, steamed buns with eggs and vegetables, water basin beef and mutton, meatball soup, Zhiliang steamed dumplings, eight-treasure porridge, persimmon cakes, candied dates and belt noodles ... Brother Yao outlined our next task of eating and drinking. Before he finished, I was rolling my eyes. If I eat all the way, I have to eat.
In fact, among these delicious foods, beef and mutton in soup and sour soup dumplings are the ones that make me covet the most.
In the eyes of most people, the food that has the closest relationship with Xi 'an must be beef and mutton bread in soup. After eating "Sprinkle Golden Bridge", Liu Xin's beef and mutton fried noodles and steamed stuffed buns suddenly felt that all they had eaten before were fake steamed stuffed buns.
I also know that steamed buns are made with "take off steamed buns", which I have heard for a long time, but no one has ever told me that there are four traditional ways to make steamed buns: walking alone, pulling dry, taking decoction orally and besieged by water.
The so-called "single walk", steamed buns and soup are served separately, steamed buns are broken into soup to eat, and a bowl of fresh soup is drunk after eating. There is another saying: various tastes; "Dry pull" is also called "dry bubble". When the steamed bread is cooked, there is no soup in the bowl, and chopsticks can still poke. "Mouth soup" means that after eating steamed stuffed bun, there is only one mouthful of soup left; And "Water Besieged City" is easier to understand, and it is wide soup, like a flood besieged city. So what I used to eat outside Shaanxi was "Water Besieged City". The key point is that I really don't know there are three other kinds, all of which are steamed bread cut by knife or processed by machine. How can you have leisure to say goodbye to yourself? There is no such atmosphere at all.
Here, you break the bun and put a chopstick in the bowl, and the man will understand that this is "dry pulling". Eating "oral soup" and "water besieged city" are not marked with chopsticks, because the size and cooking method of steamed buns are the same. The principle is that the soup is wide and the buns are big, and vice versa. An experienced chef will know how much soup to add when he sees the size of the steamed bread you broke.
"Tuotuo Xiaolongbao" consists of two parts. It is said that nine pieces of dead noodles and one piece of hair noodles are cooked together. Some people say that you can tell whether you are an expert by the broken steamed bread, and the size of the "bee head" is the standard. In fact, the size and cooking method of steamed buns are the same. Dried, soup and water are the best, and the size of steamed buns is soybean, peanut and broad bean in turn.
Break the steamed stuffed bun, take it to the chef, add mutton soup to cook it quickly, and add beef and mutton, vermicelli, chopped green onion, garlic sprout, coriander, high-quality (so-called high-quality), fungus, day lily, dried mushrooms, and then serve it on the table, looking at red-brown beef and mutton, green garlic sprout, chives, Huang Chengcheng day lily, shiny vermicelli, black fungus and what I just broke off.
Eating steamed buns is also particular. First, put the pepper in the middle with a spoon. Be sure to mix this with chopsticks before eating. Only then did I know that the authentic way to eat Chili peppers is that you can't stir them. Pay attention to dipping them with chopsticks and eating them by the bowl. This will not only keep the soup fresh (if there is soup), but also let the fresh heat of this bowl of steamed buns run away. Finally, don't forget sugar and garlic, such as eating instant-boiled mutton in old Beijing, which is boring, appetizing and crisp.
As for soup dumplings, it should be a variant or branch of beef and mutton paomo. The latter focuses on "soaking" (cooking), and stir-frying is naturally the word "speculation". There is little difference between the two ingredients, but some vegetables will be added to the cooking, and some eggs will be put. The biggest difference is that beef and mutton are cut into small pieces, fried with oil and spicy seeds and vinegar, and not clear soup. On the taste, there is not only the thick soup of bread, but also a little sour and spicy taste.
Brother Yao said that he saw someone eat nine steamed buns this time. I wonder if those so-called "big stomach kings" can eat a few when they come. Anyway, eating a steamed stuffed bun will make you full. But generally speaking, two buns are standard, and the boss won't care about you at all. The boss doesn't know that we have a whole street to eat. Fortunately, with the face of the demon brother, the boss actually promised to order only one steamed stuffed bun.
Wipe your mouth and leave, and immediately go to Fang Huima 2 Dumpling House, which is separated by a wall. This dumpling restaurant has been open for more than 30 years, and its biggest feature is that it only sells one kind of stuffing-beef leek, which is full every day. When it opens, it has to queue up.
There is a cauldron cooking jiaozi in front of the restaurant. The size of the cauldron is like fried rice in the canteen. It is not a problem to cook 100 jiaozi at a time. This season, the pot is boiling and jiaozi is cooking. It is steaming. It's enough to make people feel happy just watching jiaozi roll around in the pot.
There are two kinds of jiaozi: dry and soup. Dry is the jiaozi form that we usually eat, and soup is supplemented by sour soup. Unlike jiaozi, where we eat vinegar, this dry jiaozi dip is made by our own secrets. Besides vinegar and pepper, there are sesame seeds. Jiaozi takes a bite first, revealing the full stuffing, then lets it sink into the dip and bring it to his mouth. I will be there. That smell is really incomparable to ordinary jiaozi.
Based on the feeling of my stomach, all my expectations after tasting a piece of dried jiaozi focused on the sour soup jiaozi. In fact, diners who go to his house eat the most sour soup.
The bottom of the soup is also a secret, and the secret lies entirely in the pepper. Jiaozi was soaked in ruddy and fragrant oil, and learned that the local people had a mouthful of sour soup first, which was not as spicy as it looked. In addition, I added a sour soup made of coriander, chopped green onion, sesame and balsamic vinegar, which made me awake instantly. The vinegar in the sour soup is not so exciting, but it is the tender and sour feeling, gentle and good, and has a big appetite. I feel that even if the weather is cold, there is such a bowl of sour soup dumplings that I really love.