Written by Clementine |
Xiāan has a very long history withĀ the earliest human civilization – a matriarchal clan at todayās Banpo Village RuinsĀ – dating back to 6,000 years ago. 13 dynasties established their capitals here. The splendid past has endowed the city with a large number of cultural and historic relics,Ā such as Big Wild Goose Pagoda, Bell Tower, Xiāan City Wall, Forest of Stone Steles, and of course the most important one, the over 2,200-year-old Terracotta Warriors and HorsesĀ which alone brings Xiāan to the world stage.
Besides, Xiāan is also known as the home of all kinds of delicious food, especially pasta. How many things can you make from simple flour? For Xiāan people, flour means endless possibility. Today we are going to introduce you Xiāan dumpling banquet which you should not miss during your Xian tours. Yes, you read that right, a banquet with Chinese dumplings of different fillings and made in different ways.
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- Chinese Dumplings – AĀ Traditional Staple with Special Meaning
- Chinese Dumplings were Favored by Ancient Royal Families
- An Innovation of Chinese Dumplings ā Xiāan Dumpling Banquet
- Whatās Unique about Xiāan Dumpling Banquet?
- Best-Rated Restaurants to Savor Xiāan Dumpling Banquet
- Cooking Methods
- Major Flavors & Fillings
- FAQs about Xian Dumpling Banquet
- Join China Xian Tour to Eat Through Xian
Chinese Dumplings – AĀ Traditional Staple with Special Meaning
Dumpling, known as Jiaozi in Chinese, is a traditional Chinese dish with thousands of years of history. Chinese archaeologists found Jiaozi in bowls at tombs of Tang Dynasty (618-907) in Turpan, Xinjiang, and they look just as the dumplings we have today.
Dumpling symbolizes reunion and is indispensable for New Yearās celebration especially in northern China. Itās pretty sweet to make dumplings and chat with families around a table at the same time. Chinese people even put coins in dumplings. It is believed that whoever gets the ones with coins will have good luck in the coming year.
Chinese Dumplings were Favored by Ancient Royal Families
Concubine Steamed Dumplings
It is said that Yang Yuhuan, the favorite concubine of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty, really liked dumplings but preferred steamed ones instead of boiled dumplings. In order to cater to Yangās taste, the clever cook made steamed dumplings stuffed with one of her favorite foods ā chicken wings, and presented the dish on her birthday.
Yang was very pleased with the dumplings, so emperor Xuanzong named it āConcubine Steamed Dumplingsā and it was kept as a royal court dish since then.
Empress Dowager Hot Pot
The story happened in 1900 when the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijing. Empress Dowager Cixi of Qing Dynasty (1616-1912) had to left the capital and fled to Xiāan. One night, she wanted to eat something special and it should be cooked in her presence. The chefs racked their brains for good ideas. Finally, they made small and exquisite dumplings with chicken breast as fillings and then boiled the dumplings in a pot of chicken broth.
After a while, a bowl of soup dumplings was served to the empress. This kind of dumplings cheered the empress and thus was named āEmpress Dowager Hot Potā.
An Innovation of Chinese Dumplings ā Xiāan Dumpling Banquet
Dumpling is one of the most representative foods of Chinese dietary. In Xiāan Shaanxi, dumpling is popular among eaters of various ages. Although Chinese dumplings are tasty and meaningful, they basically look the same and have only a few flavors for many years. However, the dumpling restaurants in Xiāan made something different and created Chinese dumpling banquet. It is a lordly feast composed by all kinds of dumplings with different colors and appearances as well as inside stuffs.
The first to experiment on dumpling banquet is Xiāan Dumpling Banquet Restaurant (the former Jiefanglu Dumpling House). In 1984, chefs were sent to many large cities throughout the country, including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenyang, and Qingdao, to study various styles of dumpling as well as learn tastes and preferences of people in different areas. They also went to some counties to explore traditional ways to make Chinese dumplings and studied how dumplings served for imperial families in ancient times were made.
After repeated tests, the restaurant finally made it. Dishes of Chinese dumpling banquet are tasty, aromatic, colorful, and pleasant to the eyes. And the banquet is classified into several grades, each with different fillings, shapes, flavors, and prices. Today, the special feast keeps being one of necessary foods in traditional festivals, such as Spring Festivals and Lantern Festival.
Recommended tour: Xian Tang Dynasty Show & Dumpling Dinner Tour
Whatās Unique about Xiāan Dumpling Banquet?
- The dumplings have a wonderful variety of shapes you can see from the photos, such as garlic, lotus root, and cabbage. There are also many other shapes like goldfish, butterfly, conch and flowers.
- Many materials are used. In addition to the common vegetables and meat, such as pork, chicken, duck and fish, chefs also adopted new ingredients to make the fillings, like hericium erinaceus, sea cucumber, shark fin and hair weeds.
- There are plenty of flavors to satisfy every palate, such as spicy, fish flavor, spiced flavor, salty, sweet, sour, and curry flavor, just like the saying ā100 dumplings have 100 flavorsā.
- The dumplings are cooked in a variety of ways. Chinese people usually steam or boil dumplings. Now because dumplings have different fillings, various cooking techniques are used to keep the special tastes of each kind, like steaming, frying, quick-frying, braising and stuffing.
- Courses are served in a unique way. For example, if there are 7 people, there would be only 7 dumplings on the dish and the second one with different stuffed dumplings would be served until the last one is eaten out. The dining would keep going on until customers canāt eat anymore. In the whole banquet, the same dumplings wonāt appear twice. It would be a great feast for both eyes and stomach during your Xian food tour of China.
Tips: If you are interested and want more information about Xiāan Dumpling Banquet food tours, please feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We will give you the best price!
Best-Rated Restaurants to Savor Xiāan Dumpling Banquet
Now there are many restaurants in Xiāan providing dumpling banquet. Here are some top-ranked ones for your reference if you are going to add a dumpling dinner into your Xiāan Day Tours:
Defachang Dumpling House (Bell Tower) å¾·åéæ
- Cost/person: CNY 200 – 400
- Serving Style: served in courses
Defachang, established in 1936, is the most famous restaurant of its kind with a wide variety of Chinese dumplings. The dumplings of Defachang even won a place in the Guinness World Records.
Bell and Drum Towers Branch éé¼ę„¼ååŗ
Location: No. 3, West Street, Lianhu District (at the northwest corner of the Bell Tower Square)
Grand Tang Dynasty Ever-Bright City Branch 大åäøå¤åååŗ
Location: Block F, No. 518, Yanta South Road, Yanta District
Xiāan Hotel (East Street)č„æå®é„åŗ
- Cost/person: CNY 150 – 300
- Serving Style: served with Shaanxi dishes in single-type batches
Xiāan Hotel is a time-honored brandĀ dating back to 1929. It once received many important domestic political and cultural figures. Now it has become a comprehensive hotel integrating catering, accommodation, entertainment, business, shopping, tourism and food industry. In addition to Chinese dumplings, it also provides many authentic local dishes.
East Street Branch äø大č”ååŗ
Location: No. 298, East Street, Beilin District (800m east of the Bell Tower)
Grand Tang Dynasty Ever-Bright City Branch 大åäøå¤åååŗ
Location: Block A6-F, No. 518, Yanta South Road, Yanta District
Daqinghua Dumpling House (South 2nd Ring Road) 大ęø č±é„ŗå
- Cost/person: CNY 50 – 100
- Serving Style: traditional ordering, served together or in batches of the same type or different types
- Location: No. 56, East Section of South 2nd Ring Road, BeilinĀ District
Daqinghua Dumpling House features northeastern Chinese cuisines. You can have yummy Chinese dumplings here and experience different dishes you may have never tried.
Shaanxi Grand Opera House éč„æęč大å§é¢
- Cost/person: CNY 200 – 300 (including the performance)
- Serving Style: served in a set mealbefore or during the intervals of a performance
- Location: No. 161, Wenyi NorthĀ Road, Beilin District
- Dinner time: 18:00-19:50; Show time 20:00-21:10
If the Tang Dynasty ShowĀ is also included in your Xiāan trip, you can try this theatre which also provides dumpling banquet. If you plan to watch the show, we highly recommend you to reserve the tickets online first and arrive in advance in case you are delayed or miss some parts.
Tang Dynasty Palaceåä¹å®«
- Cost/person: CNY 300 – 500 (including the performance)
- Serving Style: serve in batches or incourses as part of the main meal
- Location: No. 75, Changāan North Road, Beilin District
- Dinner time: 18:00-19:30; Show time: 19:30-20:30
Tang Dynasty Palace is also a great choice to kill two birds with one stone as it also provides both immersive Tang Dynasty Show and dumpling banquet following imperial menus of that dynasty.
Suggested tour: 4 Days Xian Food Culture Tour
Cooking Methods
The cooking methods for dumplings are mainly composed of the following 4 kinds, and each method offers you a different taste.
- Boiling: Boiling is the most traditional way. After the water boils, put the dumplings in. Add a small amount of cold water after the water boils again and complete the process three times. The dumplings are fully cooked as long as they float on the surface.
- Steaming: After the water boils, put the dumplings on the steamer for 10 – 20 minutes and keep a medium-high heat.
- Pan-frying: heat the pot first, and then pour in oil and put the dumplings in. Pan-fry the bottom to a golden color and add water to 1/3 of the height of dumplings. Put the cover. After the water is dried, the crispy bottom is formed and you can enjoy it.
- Deep-frying: Put enough oil in the pot. When the temperature reaches 160 – 180 ā, put the dumplings in and fry to a crispy golden outer skin over medium-low heat.
Major Flavors & Fillings
The classic flavor usually uses beef, mutton and pork and is paired with scallions, radishes, celery, fennel, etc. To meet diverse tastes, there are also common vegetable fillings, such as eggs and Chinese chives, mushrooms and green vegetables, and three fresh vegetables (black fungus, vermicelli, and tofu).
The royal flavors include fillings of seafood (sea cucumbers, shrimps, crab roe, fish) and mountain delicacies (shiitake mushrooms, wild mushrooms, yellow flowers). In recent years, creative flavors have also emerged with rose and chrysanthemum as the fillings.
FAQs about Xian Dumpling Banquet
How Xiāan dumpling banquet compares to typical dumpling restaurants?
The dumpling banquet is not just about eating dumplings, it is a show of culture and art. Each dumpling has its own unique shape, filling, historic story and cooking method. It is usually served in sequence and the server will tell you the story about it. It is more like a complete banquet.
Are vegetarian or vegan dumpling options available?
Usually, vegan dumplings are provided. You can confirm via a phone call before departure.
How many types of dumplings are typically served in a banquet?
It usually covers 10 – 25 kinds.
Is advance reservation required for famous dumpling banquet restaurants in Xiāan?
Yes, and it is recommended to reserve 1 – 3 days in advance.
Is the dumpling banquet available during lunch, or only dinner?
It is available both during lunch and dinner.
Join China Xian Tour to Eat Through Xian
Besides dumplings, there are also various kinds of representative foods in Xian, like lamb paomo, cold noodles, hulu chicken, etc. For foreign tourists, it is difficult to distinguish whether you will like it or not and it takes time to find the suitable restaurant. China Xian TourĀ is glad to recommend and book the restaurant according to your taste. Also, we can tailor a food tour with famous nearby attractions to enrich your travel experience. So do not hesitate to contact us.
