The word on the street is good... and so is the food
IT SEEMS that ‘everyone’ has been talking about Xi’an Street Food since it opened earlier this year. Or so was told the day before I went along to see what all the fuss was about.
Regular readers will know that I occasionally ask this question, when there is sufficient excitement in the air about certain establishments. I have to say I was wondering why nobody had mentioned it to me before; the reason may have something to do with age. The Europeans in the queue — and it was quite a queue, but a fast-moving one — all seemed to be under 25.
However, I quickly realised that this is a poor excuse. I must have walked past Xi’an on several occasions and simply never noticed it. How did I do that?
Anyway, I’m very glad that it came up on my radar and, as you will have guessed by now, I concluded that all of the fuss was about good food. And entirely justified. Plus they don’t use MSG. Let joy be unconfined.
This is a true blessing. Monosodium glutamate doesn’t bother many people (a lot of processed food is lousy with the stuff). For me, it delivers an unpleasant thirst and lingering aftertaste. For some it can cause dizziness and numbness. It’s awful stuff and quite unneccesary.
Naturally-occurring analogues, without the side-effects, can be found in all sorts of foods and condiments from soy sauce to Parmesan. The intense flavours at Xi’an are proof that nobody needs to add MSG to good cooking.
For example, the ma po tofu, a dish of which I am inordinately fond. This Sichuanese staple is exceptionally well showcased here, the silky little tofu cubes bathed generously in a red sauce tasting profoundly of fermentation, salt and chilli, and sheer, unapologetic savouriness. And
then there’s the contrast of texture with the minced beef throughout the dish.
The spice heat is not what they would be used to in Sichuan, home of the asbestos palate, but certainly enough to get my endorphins working.
A dish described simply as garlic-fried pork belly was so good that it led to one of those, ‘No, honestly, have the last piece’ conversations through gritted teeth. The slices of meat were tender within, wildly savoury through some kind of marination, and crisply coated outside. Rice flour may have been involved. We could have eaten this all afternoon.
Dandan noodle soup was, again, flavour-packed and spicy, clearly based on a long-simmered chicken stock. In a sense it’s a carb lover’s delight, with a lot of spaghetti-like noodles in the depths of a fabulously savoury liquid with charges of pickled vegetables.
Pan-fried dumplings, or gyosa, with a pork filling and black rice vinegar for dipping were fine,
better than those at SiSu but relatively pedestrian at €5 for five.
On the other hand, golden crispy buns with condensed milk or ‘mantou’, as I now know to call them, were a totally new experience. There were four large cubes of bread dough — very fine, white bread — simply deep-fried until crisp outside. Dipped in a little pool of condensed milk, they reminded me faintly of doughnuts. To be honest, while it’s always good to try something new, I think the Spanish have this kind of thing nailed with their churros and dulce de leche.
Xi’an may annoy the purists and the food snobs with its deliberately pan-Asian schtick.
Panang curry rubs shoulders with ramen soup while gongbao chicken looks on aghast. People may be sceptical of a menu with almost 60 dishes, but you only have to look at the lunchtime queue and number of takeaway bags to realise that the wisdom of crowds doesn’t pay any attention to such concerns.
We ate messily, and probably too much, and managed to come away with a bill of €44.