stepho&crank

One last taste sensation that we had to try before leaving Xi’an was the widely known dish yángròu pàomó （羊肉泡馍）. At the urging of our trusty guide, the Lonely Planet, we settled on dining at Xi’an’s “most famous restaurant”, Lăo Sūn Jiā, which, the LP boasts, is over a century old. You could have fooled me. Walking in to the restaurant, which is just east of the city’s famous Bell Tower, felt more like walking in to a school cafeteria or your standard no-frills diner. I was not to be deterred, however, and quickly sat down, excited for my first taste of one of Xi’an’s most renowned dishes.

Apparently the waiters were privy to this fact because we never actually saw a menu. Correctly assuming we were there for the yángròu pàomó, the waiters brought out assorted accompaniments to the dish (pictured below), which included cilantro, a spicy tomato-ey paste, and the most delicious pickled garlic I have ever tasted. (Actually, I had never tasted pickled garlic before. But now I have. And I encourage all of you to do the same. It is quite simply the best thing ever. Seriously.)

We were also brought out a very dense, flat disc of bread, whose purpose we were sure had something to do with the impending meal but with which we quite clueless what to do. A friendly waiter came by after surmising our naivety and motioned for us to break the bread into tiny pieces in our bowls. After finishing (which took a surprising amount of time, for that seemingly small disc of bread…), we handed our bowls back to the waitress to be brought in to the kitchen. At this time the waitress presented us with our only choice of the evening, which was “niurou” or “yangrou” (beef or mutton). Mutton is the specialty for this dish but we wanted to try both so settled on one of each.

Some time later the dish, pictured up top in all its glory, finally arrived. The soup dish is made up of a meat broth and filled with noodles and the hearty bread we had worked so hard to shred, then topped with your selection of meat and the cilantro and tomato paste. The bites (or slurps) are interrupted by delicious bites of the pickled garlic, which combine with the rest of the dish to create a truly unique taste. The meal was quite unforgettable and I would highly recommend searching out your own yángròu pàomó if you find yourself in the Xi’an area.

Cost: ¥21 ($3.06)