recently returned from a nearly week-long stay with Xi'anu. Xi'an is the former capital of the country, much richer than the history of Beijing, a city world-famous primarily as the discoverer of the famous terracotta army of the first emperor China, Qin Shi Huang 秦始皇. Almost every trip, who came to China, is in the program visit the terracotta army museum.
Photo - Former street leading to the biggest museum of stone steles - the oldest and calligraphy - in China:
Photo - Former street leading to the biggest museum of stone steles - the oldest and calligraphy - in China:
My stay in Xi'an focused on the daily practices of the master - get up at 6:00, drive to Muslim district 回 坊 for breakfast, a passage under the city walls (Xi'an is surrounded by calculating the over 600 years of massive walls), the exercise of a master and a group of his students, then the transition to lunch, back to the hotel, siesta, again exercise - first standalone , then the house master dinner at his house, coming back to the hotel, taking notes, the silence of the night. After 2 days, then decided that I will not be wasted time for an afternoon nap, and twice I went to the famous temple of the Eight Immortals; evening and ridden to the Muslim quarter, which you can not refuse specific color - a lot of wide assortment of food, shops, lots of people, tourists, Hui Muslims both nationalities 回族 and 维吾尔族 Uighurs, a completely different side of China ...
photos - a favorite place for morning exercises residents Xi'anu parks are situated along the huge walls of the city:
photos - Gate Wenchang 文昌 门 in the southern parts of the wall:
Writing about Xi'an is a must to mention local dishes. I was in town several times, both alone and with family, as well as leading tours of the Polish. Attractions in the form of monuments little different variations I have already trimmed (except perhaps the Shaanxi Provincial History Museum 陕西 历史博物馆, in which a visit is always a fascinating trip into the deep past of China). Food in Xi'an is not bored me at all, however. So I can not skip it here. Probably the best kitchen you can find in the Muslim quarter. First • No pork, which to me means the opportunity to eat everything; second great taste - distinct, with a predominance of Arabic spices, and of course the ubiquitous hot peppers; third swietne sweets - including authentic halva, which is not unlike me to associate with childhood, when she was a rare and a true rarity.
Photo - pepper-paprika soup 胡 辣汤 tastes like cream in the morning ...
morning usually ate soup pepper-paprika Hulatang 胡 辣汤. May seem strange that the morning matches Aug. empty stomach spicy food, but somehow I had never, therefore, no stomach trouble. Soup comes in two versions - henanskiej (from the province of Henan 河南) - Is a thick, glossy, have entered into starch, with cabbage, potatoes, sweet peppers and meatballs wolowymi, taste a little bit of goulash soup resembles ours, and the variety of Shaanxi 陕西 - this is dark, with a damn what he knows, because it is opaque, but is also very tasty.
Photo - Muslim soup sales company Hulatang on the street:
Mandatory For soups are bought from Mo 馍 thick cake, said to be the typical thing for the Arab cuisine, which grinds to a rather thick pieces, melted them in the soup , and so is eating. Because the soup is quite thick, often after it drank the warm milk or soy Doujiang 豆浆 rice gruel, or thin Xifan 稀饭. For some reason unknown to me Chinese people do not drink tea in the morning, at most hot boiled water or rice gruel already.
photos - all kinds of nuts, almonds and dried dates offered at stalls in the Muslim district:
One day we took a break from the soup, and the variety we had probably the most typical Chinese breakfast - a kind of "caddis" cooked deep oil, ie. Youtiao 油条. Virtually all of China in the morning you can see how the street, on makeshift stoves made from metal oil drums, cooking August Youtiao, stand next to the tables at which customers are free it consumes the air, most often by eating soy cheese also called light "soy Brain" Doufunao 豆腐 脑, the consistency of jelly, to which is added different spices and silage, we have our Youtiao eaten with soya milk.
Photo - Mi Family Restaurant serving Paomo is always full:
When it comes to lunch, my favorite is dominated Paomo 泡 馍. Paomo is a typical Muslim food delicacy. In short you can say that it is a kind of soup with meat and pieces of cake. It is an interesting Preparation - in which, moreover, client takes an active part. The first thing is to pay the bill - then it must also decide whether you want to beef or mutton soup. Generally, the latter is considered to be tastier and more nutritious (Chinese people regard the lamb meat, "warm", whose eating effectively warms the body and protects against the cold), what's interesting, yet i found Paomo of mutton, which would have had a nasty smell of this characteristic, which You can often meet with mutton dishes served in our country. Gets empty bowl and a few (depending on orders) small patches Mo 馍. In addition, everyone gets - the money - a small saucer of pickled garlic, sweet T angsuan 糖蒜 and acute pasta with peppers.
photos - head of the pub is holding money (my husband is not worthy of trust) on the small talerzykach cakes, sweet garlic and hot pepper:
With all this sits at the table - but how about the place is not open for lunch easily - and proceeds to tear the cake into small pieces (in the case Hulatang pieces were large and the Paomo the finer, the effect is better). Drac cake you can talk with my friends, this is - I'm usually in Chinese cuisine - a great opportunity to exchange views, develop closer systems, etc.. After reduction in August it gives the cake the waiter, who in a dirty smock uwija August between the tables. He asks what we want soup (beef or mutton) then gives us a quickie metal. The kitchen in our meat is thrown into a bowl, usually with a big piece of fat, soya noodles 粉丝, some vegetables, poured soup, then a whole is boiled. After about 15 minutes the waiter comes out of the bowl and wywrzaskuje our number - and gives us the soup after its presentation. Interestingly, in muscle can see no longer fat - it completely melted during cooking.
Photo - Beating cake Mo :
My favorite place, in which it is served is Paomo Family Restaurant Mi 米 家 泡 馍 馆 in a Muslim neighborhood. It is very famous, all the elements - meat, garlic, cakes - are made according to special recipes, which gives a rather unique taste effect. Unfortunately, sometimes it comes to mistakes, and get a cake soup with crushed not ours, but strangers dirty paws. The pub is mentioned as a family one day daddy took her son, money, and illegal factories surrounded the few football teams. As a result, they lost one million yuan, and then for a long time, not only with Paomo quality has deteriorated rapidly, but also service firmly declined. But I guess either already went out on his own, or come to each other, because during this visit, the food was better than ever. Paomo served in several ways, depending on the amount of soup in which you are given up to them for consumption. Family prepares them to me so. dry 干 泡 way - gets to eat pieces of cake soaked in soup, so that in the bowl, there is practically liquid, another way to enter is called. The city is surrounded by water 水 围城 - in this case is so soup in a bowl that surrounds it, and placed in the middle of present-soaked pieces of cake.
Photo - croissants Mahu served in the "oily tea from fine bone:
Another delicacy is called. 麻花 Mahu, a type of baked, twisted hard "croissants". They are served in the so-called. Oily tea Youcha 油茶 - thrown to her, cooked through moments to soften, and served in a bowl with soup. Sam Youcha is brewing on the brown powder - quite recently learned that the bones are ground beef. "Tea" is often used for sweet - sugar, walnuts and raisins. Muslims do in fact have a knack for cooking. Besides Paomo and Hulatang course, offers lamb skewers Famous 羊肉 串, pancakes stuffed with meat, Xiao Chao 小炒 (made as Paomo, but with hot pepper), various pasta (served in soup - something like our soup with noodles ) or fried. It can not miss also ravioli Jiaozi 饺子 of whom Xi'an is famous (in the tour is called. dumplings 饺子 宴 Adoption, during which serves dozens of kinds of dumplings with different fillings and different shapes). Most are Jiaozi in sour soup 酸汤 饺子 - as the name suggests, they are served in soup with plenty of vinegar. It's particulars, and besides them there are also other specialties - dried dates, walnuts, almonds, and hundreds of different candy - I especially liked the above-mentioned halva and walnut stuffed 花生 酥 persimonowe cakes flavored with osmanthus 黄桂 柿饼. The latter requires explanation.
Photo - Persimonowe pancakes during frying:
Now persimony is a type of fruit, which looks a bit like tomatoes, the trees grow and mature in autumn. You can eat them raw, but only mature, because before that are horribly bitter. Persimon mature is one who is in the middle is completely liquid, and the skin is very soft. You can eat teaspoon flesh is very sweet. Somewhere in October 1990 the school took us on a trip to the imperial tombs in Beijing. There is a lot of fruit orchards, including many already persimonowych. A colleague from Bangladesh polakomil on them, buying a few from a roadside shop assistant, and began to consume them on the bus. After a few minutes drive was messy like a baby, because I do not persimony daly to eat normally in his hand. After returning to the dorm in August led to right, but the dozen or so hours later it started to be cleaned from inside the hey ... Madre write the book, with a ripe raw persimon good for constipation, but consumed in large quantities evokes diarrhea. Interestingly, cooked, in turn, stops the diarrhea ... Persimony are stuffed with candied walnuts and beaten with sugar osmanthus flowers (they are very small, most often yellow flowers, a very intense aroma, bloom in autumn), look like small, round cakes, and are sold at many stalls in the Muslim quarter Xi'anu.
Photo - Senior Muslim reading newspaper on the street - even better winter to go out than sit closed in the house:
Muslims in Xi'an is a fairly closed community, clutching each other in their enclave 回 坊. Have a great knack for trade, also the fine, they work hard, often from an early age. Employed are often teenage boys aged 12-13 years, originates from the poor western provinces of China polnconego (usually 甘肃 Gansu and Ningxia 宁夏) gets 70 yuan (about U.S. $ 10) per month, plus the wasted food, a place to sleep you have to find themselves, usually somewhere in the basement. If the landlord will allow for them to sleep in a bar on the complex tables, then consider this as a distinction. He gets up at 3 am, they go to buy products to prepare breakfast for clients, then helps them cook, sell meals, then work again in preparation for lunch, 3 hours of sleep, and again work, usually about midnight. Work is a slave, boys are often treated brutally by the owner, no wonder it is precisely among them the criminality is rife. Authorities look at the affair through her fingers, because the issue of minority national pride - especially those who profess Islam - has always been a delicate (frequent conflicts between native Chinese - Han - a Chinese Muslims), and beyond that - as the old saying goes - in the fresh water fish, not live can 水 至 清 则无 鱼.
Photo - pancakes stuffed with vegetables or meat and vegetable fried are on the spot:
PEOPLE ...
... in the north of China is clearly different from those in the south. Most southerners are slim and petite, but Chinese people from the north are distinctly larger, roslejsi. To this have different facial features, and strongly generalizing can say that those from the north look more "classically". Chinese people from the north refer to southerners, rather contemptuously, sometimes calling them "petty thieves," 瘪三 (Shanghainese this term, but already widely accepted throughout the country) because of the rickety appearance and falsehood in his eyes ... During my stay I had the opportunity to watch a lot of street scenes, and talk with friends from Xi'anu.
Photo - Fried Mo in two sizes - larger for stuffing, less grinding:
First of all, they know how to drink, really. Overall opinion about the Chinese is such that it can be drunk small amounts of alcohol (which is a joke with a beard - the student says, "we bought a bottle of beer at three and then I do not remember already "...). Apparently, even the scientists noticed that some Chinese people are missing an enzyme that breaks down alcohol, the dose of small stocks allows them to your leg. My observations, however, are completely different. Inhabitants Xi'anu can drink, and it's a lot. Prefer skunk above 50 degrees (weak alcohol punches to the head of the delay, falls under the table before a man realizes that he has enough - so I explained.) Minor drink glasses, but a lot, starting from the general toast and then drink each with each, or more of one. A friend told me that one of his friends likes vodka, I once got drunk heavily, came out of the pub, and after a few steps, he began to vomit. How do I ask him whether there is still a drunk, then replied that in 80%. Once again it took time, but the same question, replied that in 60% ... Another drank until the bleeding from the stomach. It's all about who can not refute the myth of the Chinese drink.
Photo - Muslim pub - in the middle of August dumplings served in soup, sour and sweet on the outside of what sells-bit - pancakes persimonowe:
Another thing - are eager to fights. I was witness to a situation where two guys were sitting next to each other on the sidewalk, and had cleaned the shoes pucybutow. Suddenly, suddenly roared to a second, the second cast in the bunch, they both stood up, then one suddenly went first and scored on him in the face. That even will not be shaken, he started to throw more first bluzgi, the first probably lost a little rezonu, pulled out mobile phone and started dwonic for help (when I joined the crowd of onlookers to hear what goes wrong): "Take three men and come quickly, not forget to take giwer (带 三 个人 快 过来, 别忘 带 东西). I think myself will shambles, but the second as he heard that he left it fast, also caught on the corner and drove off ... The situation quite like the movie.
Photo - pucybuci street - in a place I have witnessed fights:
Travelling from Xi'anu bus to the airport I saw a similar situation - the taxi driver muttered something there, after an unsuccessful course of catching the customer to the airport, the customer is heard , then moved on, yelled at him, but laid the taxi driver learns at each other, started to look at the sides and silly smile (smile is a sign of embarrassment at the Chinese people.)
Photo - pasta can be done in different ways, also squeeze in those wooden jaws:
colleague told me that often comes to fighting, he repeatedly he took part in them. Once a friend from school were at the mall. Came to the flame war with seasonal workers, the laborers struck a friend, it felt like blood, it conquered the rage, grabbed a person on a bicycle, and with all his strength zdzielil nearest assailant, the man covered in blood, he fell unconscious to the ground (the rule is that in the event clashes with a lot of attackers, you should not fight with everyone, but we choose possible weak and cripple him in this way rejecting others to fight). She came by the shop called police, she colleague, his friend and a group of laborers to the police station. The officer looked at my colleague He said: "You can see right away that nice of you scamp." Suddenly the phone rang, the officer went out for a while, then came back and asked the workers: "Are You Xi'anu outside, do not you know that its inhabitants speak quite sharply, but this is normal with us, and I do not mean to argue with someone. " "And you" - here he turned to his colleague and friend - "you have to pay 200 yuan for disorderly conduct." The guys paid for, the workers left, and when the doors were closed behind them, the officer ... gave them the money! It turned out that in the meantime, a friend rang to a friend, who is head of the local branch of our militia 武警 counterpart in Xi'an, and he immediately contacted the police station commander, and the matter was settled. The guys came out of the station and waited for their workers with an apology, saying "we are outsiders, we do not have trouble here, we have gathered together 400 yuan, please, take them to consent."
Photo - roasting nuts in the hot sand - all mixed in a special mixer:
This story, told to me by the character of events, by the way is well illustrated by the power of law in the Middle ... No wonder that last year when a peasant from Xi'an demanded the justice, went to take a bus of Australian tourists as hostages, in return, posing a meeting with the Chief of Police in the city. This situation ended in August, like all similar - Terrorist shooting by a sniper.
Returning to the fighting - these situations are unlikely to have their own place in the south - yes, there are flame war, but it rarely comes to blows. And if at all, it is usually a woman wrap guy ...
Photo - Muslim sells halva (in red papierkach):
Drivers in Xi'an ride very fast and generally have a foot deep. This is not a rarity, cultural drivers in China can be counted on the fingers. In Shanghai, I got used to "enforce" precedence during the transition to stripes on a green light (taxis usually cut down before passers-by, or allowed to enter between them on the strip, especially when the twist and have a conditional green light). In Xi'an also so tried, and some times literally brush with death, in the end buddy did not categorically forbade me this behavior. Besides, during my short stay in Xi'an occurred inch series of accidents, including one particularly tragic, where the truck "Liberation" 解放 entered the group of children going to school on bikes, killing four of them, the driver fled the scene. Police offered 100tys. yuan reward for a person who will help find it (NB in \u200b\u200btoday's newspaper already read, the driver turned himself in to police).
town lies on the trail of the wild west of China to the east, also drug transport routes, hence the criminality is large, especially be careful about around the railway station, which locals have a bad fame. Foreigners in China who may feel more secure, also victims of attacks - a friend from Germany before the train It took two teenagers walkman (it was half of the 90s) under the threat of a knife.
Xi'an has its own atmosphere, interesting stories, lots of monuments, on which the need to explore the full year, plus Starbucks, with free Internet access. It has dark and light side, like every place, but it can be liked.
Especially for the food ...
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