Hi everyone! Today, I would like to share what food we tried during our trip to Xi’an. We visited the city in early April and stayed there for 4 days and 3 nights. It was about 3 hours by direct flight from Shenyang to Xi’an.

Xi’an was built in the 11th century BC and 13 dynasties have changed during over 2000 years. It was the capital of China during the Ming, Tai, Han, Sui and Tang dynasties.

We found that the some parks had light-up shows when we were exploring the neighborhood in the evening. The girls wanted to jump and have their pictures taken but it wasn’t so successful. haha About the places that we went sightseeing, I will write about it on my blog another time.

Today, I want to share what food and sweets we ate in Xi’an with some of the pictures that we took.

Ok… so the first one is this…

It was a popsicle in the shape of a soldier. We bought this at the Terracotta Warriors Museum, a world heritage site. It was strawberry flavored. I felt this popsicle is so special because we ate it at the Terracotta Warriors Museum and while seeing cherry blossoms.

I had a goosebumps and felt so excited to see these statues, which I’ve learned about in a history class when I was a kid in Japan. In ancient China, there was an old custom that soldiers, wives, and children all related to the emperor had to die together when the emperor died. But after the custom was opposed and banned, these statues were buried instead.

These statues were underground for 2000 years until they were found.

Xi’an is located in the center of China, and also is known as the starting point for the Silk Road on the east side.

Photo credit: Archaeologists Uncover Another Branch of the Silk Road

I didn’t know too much, but the Silk Road wasn’t only one route. There were several routes and a wide variety of ethnic groups had intertwined, as well as their food cultures in Xi’an. There is a Muslim quarter in the city center of Xi’an, with many restaurants serving many kinds of foods.

We went to the Muslim Quarter Street for lunch!

These are Lamb Meat Dumplings called 灌湯包(Tangbao ) that my daughters are eating.

These are Lamb Skewers with a lot of different kinds of spices. I felt like I witnessed the origin of Japanese Yakitori….!

Aren’t these breads so beautiful? They are Uyghur bread from Xinjiang.

Uyghur style pizza, spicy meat with vegetables 👆

I forget the name of this one, but it was roasted eggplant with spicy bean starch noodles and chopped mini garlic. It was good with the rice.

黄桂柿子餅 (Huanggui shizibing) is a Xi’an dessert that’s like a deep-fried donut filled with persimmon paste.

Xi’an was warmer than Shenyang where we live.

There is also a famous noodle in Xi’an called “Biang Biang Mian,” which uses wider noodles with also lots of spices.

We could choose the spice level for the noodle but it was pretty spicy. And here is how Biang Biang Mian is spelled in Chinese.

I cannot write it but it has 57 writing strokes.

The bowl for the noodle was so big…!

I wanted to take a picture of my daughter and the Biang Biang Mian but… it’s just so hard…

My children got some fried rice and fried green beans.

This is the noodles (水盆羊肉) that I ordered. It had slices of lamb meat, noodle made from bean starch, coriander, and chopped green onions.

The lamb soup came with this bread. You can also enjoy by scooping some of the soup into the bread.

Here is another special food from Xi’an called 肉夹馍（Roujiamo Meat Sandwhich) There is a halal type of the sandwich and also sandwiches with pork.

Photo Credit：西安の名物料理5選

I posted on my Instagram stories but this is called 桂花糕（Jinghuagao). It is a Xi’an sweet made from glutinous rice.

It’s so colorful isn’t it!? The brown things on the top of the dessert are dates, the yellow color is from Osmanthus, and the color purple is from yam. It was not too sweet and I liked it.

I especially liked seeing how the sweets were cut with the big knife!! We tried all kinds of different foods and sweets. It was fun staying in Xi’an for 3 nights but our guide told us that it would be better if you have more than one week to travel around Xi’an because there is still so much to see and enjoy! I hope we can visit Xi’an again.

Thank you for reading my blog!