Food Varieties in Huimin Jie, Xian, China

Huimin Jie, the Muslim Quarter of Xian, had one too many hole in the wall places to eat in, so apologies for the absence of the restaurant title. It had a lot of people eating in, which is always a sure sign of good food to come.

Noodles in peanut and black sesame for RMB 5. The peanut lover in me is screamed - the perfect chemistry! I liked this so much I did not realized that I munched through the entire dish without speaking to anyone. The orange dabs are chili, another one of my lesser loves.

We ordered a beef baozi without estimating how big a baozi is (baozi are like large dumplings). The sample photos looked small, so imagine our surprise when we saw the baozi was instead BAOZI. That's my other friend Lin Zhen Long trying to emerge from the baskets of baozi

Beef baozi for RMB 12. Hail very cheap food.

Seafood baozi for RMB 10

Lily Variety of Dumplings, Xian, China

This is rather belated, but two weeks ago we headed to Xian to discover a bit of Chinese history. After a full day of walking, we landed ourselves in the food court (and it really is a court, with a court yard and sturdy walk ways) and into probably the best place that offered comfort food - Lily's Variety of Dumplings (my guess is its Chinese title sounds more appealing).

Our good friend Seb was more than adept in ordering us the best dishes on the menu. It's not quite like Din Tai Fung, but it did well, and my favourite is their beef with noodles!

Beef with noodles for RMB 22. I LOVED this. After everyone was done with their serving, I took the sauce for myself and used it for my dumplings.

Cucumber plate for RMB 10.

Steamed spicy chicken dumpling for RMB 20. This one was my other favourite.

Steamed dumpling with seafood for RMB 15

Steamed sesame duck dumpling for RMB 20

This is the beginning of my love affair with dumplings.

Random snaps from Huimin Jie

The rest of our random food snaps from Xian.

I suppose eating street food is fine this time around because Huimin Jie is a famous tourist area so they had to maintain cleanliness is the way they handle their food.

Hmmm I'm not quite sure what this is but it tasted a lot like puto bungbong but the jam holding the peanuts is somewhat bittersweet.

Shi Zi Bing - buns made from persimmons, stuffed with black sesame paste for RMB 2

Lu Dou Gao (green bean cakes) that come in sesame and nuts for RMB 1 each

Yang Rou Pao Muo (specialty soup) from Huimin Muslim Quarters

The next one we tried on our trip to Xian was their specialty dish, the Yang Rou Pao Muo. It's basically a kettle of lamb soup with small pieces of unleavened bread (nan bread). Lamb is an acquired taste, and I haven't acquired that taste yet, so after each of us had a few spoonfuls, my good friend Seb happily devoured most of it. Trust the French to love all sorts of exotic dishes.

Again, rather crude, but this is restaurant we dined in. Just another mushroom restaurant along Huimin Jie.

Yang Rou Pao Muo for RMB 15

Rou Jia Mou (lamb burger) from Huimin Jie, Xian, China

We explored a bit of Xian over the weekend and tasted most of Wikitravel's food suggestions (cross researched with other sources). It was great how the French boys and Nik were more than ready to take our taste buds on an adventure.


Our first stop was the busy street of Huimin, where I got a taste of Rou Jia Mo. According to Wikipedia, some details:

Rou jia mo, means "meat burger or meat sandwich," is a street food originated from Shaanxi Province of China and is now widely consumed all over China. The meat can be pork, stewed for hours in a soup consisting of over 20 kinds of spices and seasonings. Although it is possible to use only a few spices (which many vendors do), the resulting meat is less flavourful. In Muslim areas in Xi'an, the meat is usually beef (prepared Kabob style and seasoned with cumin and pepper), and in Gansu it is often lamb.

Rou Jia Mo for RMB 5. Tasted a lot like very soft corned beef.

Bookworm Cafe in Sanlitun

I've been looking forward to spending an afternoon in Bookworm Cafe ever since my friend suggested it to me back when I was in Manila. Finally yesterday, I traveled downtown and paced Nansanlitun twice before I finally found it (Just off the village! Lonely Planet's map failed me). I loved Bookworm's interiors and it made the jacked up food prices very much worth it.

Warm lights, warm colors, warm interiors juxtaposed to the freezing temperature outside. I let afternoon slip into evening as I revisited and rewrote mind maps while slowly munching on Turkey and goat cheese, both ingredients I can't seem to find in the groceries.

Toasted Turkey Sandwich with Goat Cheese for RMB 42.

The Bookworm Beijing
Building 4, Nansanlitun Road
Chaoyang District
Beijing, China

Chinese Muslim Restaurant in NiuJie Muslim Community

This is rather crude, but my good friend Seb and I explored the Chinese Muslim Community in Niujie and ended up in a restaurant that was brimming with people at 2 pm in the afternoon.


We were quite adept in ordering in broken Mandarin and sign language, and ended up with the following dishes:


I promise to improve my posts! But thus far I still can't understand most of the characters and am stuck asking for "chicken" (鸡肉) or "beef" (牛肉).

Guilin Food Snaps

We joined another tour (and the last one! We know enough Chinese and are armed with research to do our own tours moving forward.) for the province of Guilin. Guilin's literal translation is "laurel wood," which describes the type of tree that grows on the rows and rows of limestone karst that lines the famous Li River.

I'm sure you've been on a tour in China, and as protocol goes, they serve food on a table that goes round and you just have to pick some for your plate before everyone else finishes the dishes. Some food snaps from the trip:

Food Snaps from Inner Mongolia 内蒙古

We joined a tour in Inner Mongolia, and like most tour food, there is nothing too notable except that they succeeded in feeding me an (almost!) all vegetable meal for 3 days. But I suppose that just fits because Inner Mongolia is known for its vast grasslands, and since it is difficult to travel (very cold and there are long distances between cities), families have to cultivate vegetation and there aren't too many meat sources in the neighborhood (fish is out of the question).






I've noticed that there are a lot of horses in Inner Mongolia, though, probably needed for the traveling that they do. Hence they also offer a lot of horse-based products.

Horse milk liquor (马 奶 厩). Loved the container, but the content has its own market.

Milky seed bits

Horse milk candy