Travels in Xi'an: Muslim Quarter

The Muslim Quarter, or Moslem Quarter, is the place to go for cheap eats and inexpensive souvenirs. During our 10 day visit to Xi'an, James and I ventured into the Muslim Quarter many times sampling the food and enjoying the vibe. Cheap souvenirs are to be had if you bargain hard!


Lamb, beef and mutton kebabs ready to be barbequed over charcoal.


Gigantic nan bread!


Rose mirror cake is a traditional Muslim breakfast item made with sticky rice flour. The cake is steamed inside a special wooden steamer. To serve, sprinkle the top with colourful sugar, crushed peanuts and sesame seeds.


A lot of street vendors sell sweet snacks: the honey comb sticks are extremely sweet! Inside the food parcels are red bean cakes and bean paste cakes.


The vendor is preparing a rou jia mo, or a meat sandwich. Mutton jia mo is probably the most popular, though there are different variations, such as beef jia mo, chicken jia mo, and even vegetarian jia mo. I found mutton jia mo to be too rich. I prefer the vegetarian version.


The place is famous for its rou jia mo.


"One rou jia mo please!"


I can feel my arteries clogging up just by looking at it!


Lots of vendors sell dried fruit, nuts and walnuts. One of my favourite snacks was dried kiwi slices. They were delicious!


Pomegranates are a common sight.


Yang rou pao mo is a popular dish among the locals. Pao mo is a bowl of rich mutton soup with pieces of nan bread soaked in it. The soup is delicious and very hearty!


At night time the sweet soup vendors can be seen everywhere.


The sweet soup contains Chinese pear, Chinese red dates, rock sugar and lemon slices. After a night of sightseeing and walking in the bitter cold, it was really nice to have a bowl of nourishing sweet soup!

Besides food, the Muslim Quarter is also a great place for inexpensive sourvenirs. As mentioned, you have to bargain hard and be prepared to walk away.


These cute little tiger cushions are probably my favourite sourvenir! I bought lots of them - they come in different colours and sizes. They are just so cute!




Other than tigers, you can also get cute little stuffed donkeys.




These make cute mobiles.


This woman weaves handbags using straw. I bought 2 handbags from her.




The obligatory souvenir: terracotta warriors.

Travels in Xi'an: supermarket

Photos taken on 23 December 2007.
One of the favourite things we love to do while holidaying is to check out the local supermarket. You get a real sense of how the locals live, what they eat and what they buy. Visiting the local supermarket in Xi'an was an education in itself: most of the food on display were foreign to me.


Boxes and boxes of milk.


The smell of hot chili sauce and preserved vegetables was very pungent.


Butchers at work.


Frozen chicken.


Hot food station.


Assortment of steamed buns and flat bread. If you add chopped pork to the flat bread, they become Rou Jia Mo (肉夹馍), or pork sandwiches, a popular food among the locals. You can see James enjoying a Rou Jia Mo in the post about the Muslim Quarter.


These look like toast but they are actually fried steamed buns. The steamed buns have been precut into squares and then deep fried.


Like crisps, they come in different flavours.


These deep fried twisted dough are called Ma Hua (麻花). They are usually eaten as snacks.


Ma hua can be sweet or savory..


These deep fried corn chips are called Guo Ba (锅巴), a favourite snack among the locals.  They are savory and come in different flavours.


These root vegetables are called shan yao (山药), or Chinese yam. 


These are called Shi Zi Bing (柿子饼).  They are sun dried persimmon.  There is also a deep fried version of Shi Zi Bing, but I like the sun dried version better. 


Chinese radish.