Xi'an Muslim Quarter

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Today I visited the Muslim Quarter of Xi'an - I was asked by the girls in the hostel reception whether my stomach was strong and after walking through the streets in this area I could understand their concern. There was literally hundreds of stalls all selling food, most of which was really tempting and smelt amazing. However we then entered the butchery area and although I have always prided myself on trying anything, I finally feel China may have beaten me! You could take your pick of any type of 'meat' - stomach lining, cow hooves, heart, skull, eyes, up to you... Now that doesn't bother me two hoots, I'm pretty strong stomached in that respect and will happily eat offal, but here you select your offal from piles on the floor, or if you are lucky in dust covered plastic crates. There were cats sleeping on the meat, and mice running around in the blood. The Chinese also have a somewhat different attitude to spitting than we do, and hack up and spit anywhere they chose, including all over the floor they then placed meat on.

Ok, so I wasn't really all that sold on the meat but the Muslim Quarter in general was a fantastic experience, with all sorts of unusual smells, sights and sounds. I tried a Muslim snack made with rice flour and plum which was really good, and spoke to lots of the locals, looked at the dishes they were cooking up and watched how they served and ate them. But I probably won't be fancying meat for a little while!

When we got back to the hostel we were roped into a Chinese dumpling making lesson. We were shown how to make the filling and then how to make the pastry and stuff and fold it by the chef. There was a funny moment when he proudly showed us the MSG we had to add to the meat, yummy! We all had a go and some of the resulting dumplings were pretty funny shaped, however once they were steamed and dipped in chilli sauce they tasted just fine 😊

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Photos

Sugar glass blowing
A man making sugar mice and other animals from toffee