 鸡蛋牛奶网糙 有一天我看过三个鸟 Mmm, that's good. That is honestly one of the best rojamoas I've ever had. I think every rojamoa should be built like this. Oh, that's so good in the soup. This was like one of the best things I've ever eaten, man. The quality is all-star-level. Our next Chinese region is not just a province, but an ancient trade route. At one point, the Silk Road was the only link from the Western world to the Middle East to East Asia. They traded things like silk, horses, spices, and of course food recipes. Some say it's how Marco Polo ended up bringing noodles and dumplings back from China to Italy. The food that occurred along the Silk Road is a fascinating mix of different influences. Each city along the pathway from Gansu to Henan to Xi'an and more was impacted in a different way by the Silk Road. Our first spot is Donghuang, named after a city in Gansu province on the edge of the Gobi Desert. There was a major stop on the Silk Road. Let's go. Are you guys starting off our Silk Road episode of what Chinese food are you actually eating, Andrew? We are starting in a place called Donghuang, Gansu. Now, Lanzhou is the capital of Gansu, but you know, it's bordering a ton of different places and you see that reflected in the food. Now, I think immediately a lot of people are not familiar with the name of Gansu, but it's a very, very significant province when it comes to the Silk Road, most notably the big cities as Donghuang and Lanzhou. And a lot of people are, of course, familiar with the Lanzhou Lamyen, which is, you know, the famous noodles, which they do have here. But what I love about Gansu is that they have a bunch of influences from Mongolia, Tibet, Xinjiang, Sichuan, Shanxi, Xi'an, you know, those places. So the food is very colorful, but it also uses a lot of the dry rubs. I will tell you this, guys. If you are only familiar with American Chinese food, maybe Shanghainese food, Cantonese food, Taiwanese, you are not going to recognize much of this. But I can assure you, Donghuang is delicious. I got to give a huge shout out to our sponsor of this video, Raw Wallets. As you can see, they got a brand new logo. We talked about this wallet about six or seven years ago. We gave it a great review. I still think it's a great wallet. As you can see, you can wear it in your front pocket, back pocket, key chain loop right here. Really sleek, you know, modern materials. They stretch out, room for your cash, membership cards, ID cards, credit cards, debit cards, metro card. And I like how the cash sticks out on both sides, but it really traps it in there. This, like, is not going anywhere, guys. This is not becoming loose, and it's low profile. For me, the way I carry AirPods, you know, light with me, everything, this goes right in my pocket. I'm ready to go Raw Wallets. Andrew, of course, we have the Dapanji. Man, I feel like this dish and its many variants made the most appearances on our channel before, David. Yo, what I love, these are all handmade, hand-pulled, hand-squeezed, hand-put-together noodles. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my goodness. Let's go in for this first. Mmm. That is a good Dapanji. Very herbal and a little bit more soupy. Personally, I like the sauce to be a lot thicker, but this one's pretty good. This is a very high-quality version. Next up here at Dunhuang, Andrew, we've got the Shou Dua Yang Rou. Andrew, this is actually a dish from the inner Mongolian influence of Neirongmungu. Yeah, and what I love is that it's all in the name, guys. Shou Dua means hand-held, and that means that you're supposed to eat this with your hand, and it's just going to fall off. And this is not the only time we've had this dish or covered it. You know, sometimes a lot of Northwestern Chinese food, you know, Qinghai, Neirongmungu, it has similar things, but Andrew, it's always a little different depending on which place you get it. Especially this restaurant, it's super high-quality and nice. They're going to give you this fresh garlic to eat with it. Along with the seasonings. Guys, let's go in. Mmm. The quality is all-star level. This plate was 20 bucks. Totally worth it. Totally worth it for the hand-held lamb. Wow. David, this is the best hand-held thing to drop since the iPhone. So, Andrew, Gansu province is actually very poor unlike most, you know, metrics, but it kind of goes to show you that poor places can still produce some amazing food. Here we have the world-famous Lanzhou Lamyen, and there's going to be a lot of spots that serve this dish, but the most distinct features are this noodle here. It was one entire noodle before we cut it with the scissors. Now, the oldest evidence of noodles in the entire world is 4,000-year-olds old, and it was actually found in a place that borders Qinghai and Gansu province. So, you know that this area has had noodles for thousands of years. That is crazy. There's not going to be any pork because it's from the Hui people, and the slices of beef are very, very thin and actually pretty lean. You guys, Lanzhou Lamyen around China, Andrew, I would say it's like as popular or maybe more popular than Japanese ramen. Well, guys, think about it. If Lanzhou in this area has some of the oldest evidence of noodles, and it's called Lamyen, and that turned into the word ramen, then this might, this is pretty much the closest thing you get to a Japanese ramen in China that's actually very, very Chinese. So, this is like an ancient, I would just, this might just be, you could just probably call this the original ancient Chinese ramen. Andrew, we have a beef and potato dish very, very simple. You know, they just do it a very certain way out in Dunhuang. You know what's funny? Because, David, no matter what part of the world you go to, beef stews, I don't know, like a lot of them kind of feel similar. This is really good though. Here we have some pretty cool appetizers. This is something that you do not see at a lot of Chinese restaurants. This is the Huoba Kaoping. You know, having to do something with fire. Kaoping, of course, grilled bread. Look how crispy it is. Dipped in chili oil. Guys, this is just roasted bread dipped in chili oil. Come on. Mmm. I'm a fan of mantos before they're grilled. Wow. I'm an even bigger fan post-grilled. This is like the spicy Chinese bread stick right here. I mean, you could dip this in anything too. Mmm. Andrew, like we said, Gansu Province has so many different influences. If you look at it, it kind of looks like a sock touching like seven other provinces. What? This is actually an influence from the Sichuan side, but this is Lanzhou style koshoi jeep from Sichuan. Yeah. So this is mouth-watering chicken. Obviously a very famous dish in Sichuan, but as you can see it, there's a little bit more greens and a little bit more color in this one. Mmm. Guys, here we have the roja more with lamb in it, and what I like to see about this is how many peppers and onions are in there. It kind of almost looks like a Mexican dish, but like I said, you know, there's actually similarities with Mexican food. As far as the spices, it doesn't taste the same, but it looks the same. Andrew, start your campaign right now, because I know you are a fervent advocate for putting more things in roja more. Yo, make roja more amazing again. Gansu roja more. It kind of does taste like one of those extra spicy beef empanadas. I did not have food from Lanzhou, Nguyenhuang, Gansu Province till much later in my life. And let me tell you this, I am glad I discovered it. What I think is so amazing about China as a whole is that you can get food like Shanghainese food, you can get really nice, soft, delicate food, and you can also just get some really spicy, kind of dry, cumin-y food as well, and it's all under the umbrella of Chinese food. And I think that is pretty incredible. Andrew, you are looking at a jidaniu na huangtao. Whoa! So basically, guys, this is a sweet egg dessert with egg whites and flour petals on top. A little bit of some chrysanthemum on top. Whoa! This is an egg dessert. This is a hot egg dessert. I have never seen this in my life. Steamed egg dessert, guys. Oh, my goodness. After having Tibetan and Mongolian milk tea, I don't know, I can't say, but it feels like that this might have some of that influence. But, guys, adding the egg is crazy. It's really just savory, a little sweet, creamy, but not very heavy. This was a nice way to end off the meal. This might be one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in New York City. Andrew, next up on our exploration of the Chinese cuisine, we are dealing with the zones that were pretty much the end of the Silk Road. So we're talking about Shanxi, Gansu, Henan. Now, a lot of these foods are Muslim-influenced, but they are, at the end of the day, still very Chinese. This region is most famous for its big, long, wide noodles that you're going to be pulling. It's very spicy, lots of cumin in them. And most notably, it is going to be called Xi'an food. This region also has a lot of influence from Northwestern China, Qinghai, also, Andrew, Inner Mongolia. So we're going to be including this whole section in this video. Andrew, opening up the Xi'an wave noodle food video. What do we got? You have the water, basin, mutton noodle soup. This is something that, you know, it's going to be hard to find. Now, the cool thing is about bites of Xi'an, they have some very, like, Americanized dishes that are going to appeal to the masses, but they also have this dish, which is very traditional. They didn't use the wheat noodles. They used the vermicelli. That was a cool switch-up. This is one of the best lamb noodles I ever had in my life. David, that's pretty crazy that you're saying that considering bites of Xi'an also has some Americanized dishes. What can you say to the people that are going to say, man, that's crazy? They did a good job of balancing what they wanted to serve with what the market demanded. Here I have the Qishan Salzi Mian, and that actually is referring to the cube cut carrots that are in this. And this is a pretty deep cut dish. You're not going to find this at every Xi'an restaurant. This dish actually dates back to the Shang Dynasty, so... Mmm, sour, spicy, a little bit pungent. Wow, that's flavorful. I think that is one of the more traditional, older-tasting dishes that can still be relevant today. Shout-out to Bites of Xi'an for serving this dish because they are really mostly known for, you know, lunch foods, but, man, they got some deep-cut historical dishes here. All right, you guys, this is the pork rojama. Like we said, some people do not eat pork in that region, but at the end of the day, it's still China. They love eating pork. Oh, my goodness, just give it a try. That is honestly one of the best rojama was I've ever had. Andrew, I suggest you try it. Oh, my. Wow. I think every rojama should be built like this. Every rojama should be designed like this with the flaky bow. Oh, my gosh. It's almost like eating it between two scallion pancakes minus the scallion. Next noodle dish we have is the Diao Diao Mian. And Diao Diao is referring to just the three elements that are mixed together. So it's almost like three separate dishes, just all in one bowl, but they complement each other. Here's you got the shredded pork. This looks like the same pork that's going to be in the rojama. Here you kind of have a zhajiang mian-style sauce right here, which I'm actually pretty sure is the sauce that they're going for. And then you have the tomato egg, which is also very popular, and you're just going to mix those two up. First time having Diao Diao Mian between the black bean fried sauce noodle, which is the zhajiang mian, mixed in with a little bit of the acidity from the tomato man. I love this mix. This is a good noodle. All right, let me try this, man. All right, you guys, this is the snack zone chicken dishes in Xi'an. Now, these are not 100% authentic, but Andrew, they do have a drenbing and they do actually have fried chicken in Xi'an. So these would be like street side. You could get them. It wouldn't fully look like this, but you know, they're working with the ingredients they got. The thinking is still there. Right. I mean, in America, it's going to be very common for them to just grab the tortilla and use it. Obviously, this is clearly a Mexican-style tortilla, but it could still work and be very similar to the traditional one. And obviously, this looks a little bit more like fried chicken pieces. However, I do think there is a fried chicken head somewhere. Is that the head? No. Okay. Mmm. Got a little Xi'an spices in the house. This is a Xi'an drenbing. Like we said, not 100% traditional, but you get the idea. Mmm. Wow. Some peppers, cumin, heavy onion, which is very representative of this general region. This is a great way for people who are not exposed to the Xi'an flavor to get into it, because this form factor is super familiar. Obviously, it's pretty much a Xi'an burrito. It's portable. It's quick. It's filling. Got flavor. I mean, they just got the right sauce on the right amount of noodles. And remember, too, either Qingzhan food or Qingzhan influenced food is usually pretty clean, too. A very popular drink in Xi'an is the pomegranate juice. Obviously, it's very hard to find in America. But the other option here is the plum drink. This is a popular Chinese drink. And I also like the bottle. So this is nice to watch down all the spices with. You know, this is a great way to end your lunch. Overall, my favorite Xi'an combo here for myself was the churro rojiamo with the water basin mutton soup. This was, like, one of the best things I've ever eaten, man. My favorite has got to be the chi-shan-yuro man. And this just has that sourness, pungent-ness that is just very, very unique to this region and unique to this dish. So, man, I think they did a great job. All right, everybody, that wraps it up here at Bites of Xi'an. Now, some people might walk in here and not say it's the most authentic Xi'an restaurant from top to bottom. But I will tell you this. They have some deep cut dishes. And the traditional stuff they do have is amazing. On to the next part. Guys, do you want to know a place that has been the home of seven different Chinese dynasties that has delicious food that nobody knows about? Well, welcome to He Nan food. So, this is one of the most famous styles of He Nan food. This is a hui man. And there's so many different styles in He Nan because it's so historical. But one of the main features is this milky lamb broth with some mutton right here. And mutton lamb, you know, mutton is the older version of lamb. Of course, it's still the same animal, of course. Different age. Clear noodles. Lots of kind of like little mountainous shrubs. Got some mushrooms here. But man, you know, this is delicious. And also we have the He Nan style rojiao more. Of course, you've seen the rojiao more so many times on our channel. But listen, a lot of people don't know about He Nan food. It's actually really, really delicious. That's only because He Nan is not like the most famous province right now. So here at New Spicy Village, the main chef is Fujianese but did live in Zhengzhou, which is the capital of He Nan for a little while. So that's why they know how to cook the food. But maybe it's not like 100% authentic. Here you have the hui mian. There's so many different styles in He Nan. This always has a milky lamb broth. And of course you have the He Nan style rojiao more, which I'm about to dip into the soup. Let me try this by itself real quick though. He Nan food is really interesting because part of it is really kind of based off the soap road because it was kind of at the end of the soap road. So it has a lot of that influence. But it's also really close to Shandong, which is like very, very Han Chinese style. So it's actually a really cool mixture and it's too bad a lot of people don't know about the food. So this is the rojiao more. This is the beef version. I have a pork version obviously. You know a lot of rojiao more from the Muslim areas are not going to have pork. Oh, that's so good in the soup. Real juicy. I'm not going to lie guys. This bao or mantou is actually kind of flat. Almost looks like, I don't want to say an arepa but it looks like a flat Mexican sandwiches. The next dish that you might have not seen before this is jiaozi in a sour soup. Now listen, we've seen one ton before but have you seen large dumplings in a slightly sour soup? Let me get a little goji berry in there. A little scoot in there. Oh, it tastes healthy. Homemade. Look at that. Lots of pork and chive in this one. Hanan food doesn't really strike you in either one way or one direction too strong but it has a little bit of everything which is really cool and it kind of reminds me of maybe a state in the Midwest like Illinois, something that has some East Coast culture some West Coast culture but might lean a little bit more East Coast I don't know but Hanan because it's so close to very different provinces and has such a long history I mean, you know, they're going to have all different flavors so I'm telling you the food is underrated. What kind of Chinese man would I be if I'm not dipping my rojiao more into the soup to eat? Yeah, I think it went better with the lamb bone soup but still really good. This is the combo right here. If you come to New Spice Village, you got to do this. Yo, David, we got to go to Kaifeng. We got to go to Chengzhou. We got to go to Hanan. One of the things I noticed is that Hanan food being sort of this mixture of North, South, East, West has a very moderate flavor that almost reminds you of Americanized Chinese food. And this is a pepper chicken dish and the use of onions in a wok with soy sauce, garlic is really, really common in Hanan and guess where else that's common, guys? In American Chinese food, almost like Panda Express. No, I do not think there is a single dish that I've ever had that was more authentic than this that tasted almost inauthentic. It tasted like American Chinese food because of the flavor profile, because it's a little sweet, because of the heavy onion usage. What we have as a dry-quai man, normally the more ones that are like popular in China have that milky bone broth that takes five hours to develop. You got to cook it out of the bones. This is actually a spicy lamb dry hui mian. Honestly, it's spicy, but it's not too spicy, which makes Hanan a perfect segue for people into the more like deep cut provinces of Chinese called food. They might have only had American Chinese food and then Hanan food. A lot of hipsters come to Spicy Village in New York City. All right, you guys, we are looking at Dapang Ji. Like we said, this was invented by the hui people. There are a lot of hui people in Henan, maybe not the most, but, you know, they have enough to have their own Suo Fa, basically their own methodology behind Dapang Ji. As you can see, the potatoes breaking apart, like just... They actually grilled this chicken prior. I think that some people don't do that. Andrew, I know, is a huge fan of the grilled chicken prior to being put with the other ingredients. Dapang Ji Henan style. This is actually one of my favorite styles. I think my two favorite styles. Number one is Shanxi with Xi'an style, Dapang Ji. Number two is Henan style. Especially on the East Coast, I think this is one of the trendiest noodle dishes, probably the trendiest noodle dish in America from the Chinese world, because it has so many unique flavors and it's such an interesting mix of some Middle Eastern influence and Chinese influence. I know that this Huijunni's own Henan spot is not fully representative of what you can get in Kaifeng or in Zhengzhou, but I actually thought they did a pretty decent reproduction. These are my two favorite dishes right here. As for me, my favorite dishes has got to be this combination, the rojomoi dipped into the hui man broth that took five hours to cook. That's why it's milky and it's lamby. This is my recommendation. What's up, you guys? We're in front of Fat Cat Guokui, aka Feimao Guokui. I got a brown sugar joint. This is actually where this style is from. They eat it a lot in Beijing, but this is the real authentic thing. Feimao is a brand from Hubei. Sort of the, you know, our Huai influence regions, which is, there's a lot of them. I mean Henan, Hubei, Shagxi, Xi'an. This one's brown sugar. They do really like this food in Beijing. We didn't put it in the Beijing food episode. We could have, but it is from Hubei. This ain't 2022 like delicious, but it's just got that feeling. I'm just back 2,000 years ago. This is one of my favorite snacks to have in China, and I haven't had anything from a chain from Hubei before. But look how big this thing is, man. You know they cook it in what looks to be like a tandoori-style oven. Break it. This is the salted pork one. Huge. They cut it in half for you. Look at this thing. I don't know all the full history, but this might be one of the best products that come from the Silk Road. So this is a very, very thin flatbread now. Different regions are going to do it differently. This one has one that they tout is the best one. I actually had one in Chengdu a long time ago. That was really good. So for me, it's hard to say, but this is the popular style. It's super, super thin. Just a little bit of meat. You can almost fold it up like three times. Just roll it up like that. Guys, this snack is blowing up all over Beijing in all parts of China. So we could have put it in the Beijing street food episode. However, you got to give credit where it's due. This is from Hubei. Wow, let's go.