Qishan, Shaanxi

This is why most people in China know the town of Qishan: over three millennia ago, the city was the capital of the Zhou kingdom (i.e. pre-dynastic Zhou, before they succeeded the Shang). But that was more than a hot second ago, and these days it’s much like any other small northern Chinese town… albeit scattered with museums with Zhou-era artifacts, a memorial temple for the Duke of Zhou, and (of course) a Zhou-era theme park. Pretty pleasant little place all in all [picture 2], and surprisingly not over-touristed — though admittedly we didn’t go to the theme park.

But that’s not why we went to Qishan. We went to Qishan because it’s known to be the originator of Saozimian (臊子面), a Shaanxi dish of noodle served in a sour, meat-sauce-based soup [picture 3]. We went to a place a little outside the city that’s popular with truckers, called Changhong Yali Mianpi (长虹亚利面皮). The dish was quite good, but what really stole the show for me was the ‘Saozi Stuffed Bun’ (臊子夹馍) [picture 1].

The saozi itself is made a bit like Sichuan-style Zha Jiang — you first render the lard from some fatty minced pork, but then instead of frying fermented sauces you’ll mix in chili powder and a non-insignificant quantity of the local dark fragrant vinegar. Rich, mildly spicy, gorgeously red, real tangible sour kick. Stuffed inside of a fluffy bun is just… perfection. We’ll definitely be covering this dish sometime in the future.

And when we do, I know 100% how I’m going to be translating the name:

“The Sloppy Zhou”

(I’m so sorry, I’ll see myself out)