ANCIENT CHINESE FOOD FROM THE SILK ROAD - Xi'an Food! | Fung Bros

Qing Shi Huang Di has commissioned thousands of terracotta soldiers to be made and buried. Yo, what's going on everybody? Welcome to another episode of the Hot Pot Boys where the three of us go and discover and explore food of the Chinese diaspora. Yo, we are eating Chinese food from the province of Shanxi. Specifically, Shanxi is a very incredibly ancient historically relevant city in China called Xi'an. That was actually the capital of almost like 10 dynasties. It's also the home to the terracotta warriors. Now, had you ever heard of the Silk Road? Heard about it in my Asian American studies back in the day. So basically, it was the ancient trade route between Xi'an and the West. How do you think the food looks? It looks spicy and ancient. You know, some people might not like those words spicy and ancient, but guess what? Hot Pot Boys likes those words. Xi'an food, Shanxi garden, Hot Pot Boys, let's go! I think we almost got to start with this. This is Rou Jia Mo, and you have the Yang Rou, and you have the Zu Rou. To you, does this look like a Chinese hamburger? It looks better. I think the pork one doesn't have the veggies, and the lamb one had all the chopped up. Yeah. Rou Jia Mo, the Chinese hamburger. That tastes good, but that's a little spicy. I thought the pork one was good too, because it was dripping fat on my plate. You can see the oil. My fingers glistening. Look at that. I bet you this dish has been around for like thousands of years. I think the one thing the pork could use is some cilantro. I agree, but I don't think they're going to. Right. Because they gotta keep it traditional. All right. Yang Rou Chua. Now, this is the classic lamb skewer. You can find this at a lot of restaurants. So, this one, the meat tastes different. It doesn't taste as fired and a little bit more like baked or grilled. I killed it already. Two things, Andrew. What is the difference between Shanxi and Shanxi, and what's the difference between mutton and lamb? The shorter one is more on the eastern side of China, which is more towards the coast by Shandong, and then the Shanxi, the longer one with two A's, it's a little bit more inland, more center. This is where Xi'an is right now. The difference between mutton and lamb, it's just different stages of sheep. But lamb is just baby sheep, and then mutton is just a little bit older sheep. Guys, we gotta get into the Yang Rou Pao Mo. You see fen si, but you also see the ripped up pita. You also see the lamb pieces. You see the wood ears. This is actually mostly cooked by Muslim Chinese. Yang Rou Pao Mo. Cubed bread noodles. Wow. That's good. So, this one's not spicy. A lot of Xi'an food is kind of spicy. Yang Rou Pao Mo and the lamb burgers are probably the signature dish of Xi'an. Lamb dumplings and sour soup. Angsty. Let me show you the inside. I can really taste that lamb. I never had a dumpling that tasted like that in my life. Overall, what would you guys say so far? The noodles are very thick. Thick and carby, but probably, you know, not with the modern trends, but I'll tell you this, flavor packed. Chinese people, as you guys know, have like tons of different styles of noodles. And this is a special kind to me because it's very chewy and bouncy. So, guys, down the front. Nice and refreshing. It's really QQ. Bouncy, yeah. That one was super good. That was a five out of five. People should try things, even if that's not their favorite dish, for the sake of trying. Yeah, we're all ABCs, but we want to go back and explore the motherland culture, especially of regions where our family's not from. None of our family's from Xi'an. But yeah, I don't think my parents ever tried any of this type of food. Oh my gosh, David. This dish at various restaurants may be cracking my top 20 Chinese dishes of all time. Now, I think you guys might say, oh, top 20, Andrew, that's not that high. There's a lot of good dishes in Chinese culture. Yo, look at the potatoes, just the amount of peppers and onions that's been stewed together. Did you know this is one unbroken piece of noodle? When the noodles look like ribbons, that's when you know you're eating some Xi'an food. I didn't know that Xi'an had this dish. And you know what the chef said? The chef said, we invented it. He said Xinjiang got it from us. Spicy, spicy. Chicken's so tender. Wow. I love the way the potato breaks down into the starch that coats the noodles. Noodles are made out of so many different things. In the south, they tend to be made out of rice. But in the north, they tend to be made out of wheat. And these are very, very thick wheat noodles. I love it. It's because they soak up all the sauce. Eatability level, it's kind of hard to eat. You can't eat a lot of it. Big plate chicken. I mean, legit, it's a big ass plate. This might feed like 100 soldiers. Biangbiang noodles. Biangbiang. These are characters. They have the most strokes in the Chinese language. 58 strokes. Biang. It's onomatopoeic. It sounds like the flour dough hitting the counter. Biang. Here's the crazy thing about Biangbiang. They take hot oil right before they send it out and pour it right in. Almost like a little sauce. It's so delicious, man. Biangbiang. That was pretty good, but the big plate chicken was a little tight. All right, this is a steamed minced pork and rice and flour dish that they said is really popular for New Year. Kind of tastes like potatoes. You guys, I've got the cube liangfen. It's like the cold, clear noodle, but just in a gigantic cube, stir-fried. Oh, it's hot. Oh, it's hot. It's actually temperature hot. I burnt my tongue. That's pretty good. I like this style of eating, man. It's interesting. Well, it's less chewy than the cold version because the cold version, I think, is a lot more tighter. Do you guys remember the yangrou paomo from earlier? This is a stir-fried version of the pita noodles. I love the mixture that they have here. You got some lamb, you got spices, you got the little tree fungus here. Tastes completely different. Kind of sour, kind of spicy. More new school hipster Asian chefs, what they do is they go eat some ancient food, then they see what it can cross-reference from other cultures or more modern history, and then they find an equilibrium mixing point. A lot of kids don't want to sit and eat pistachios, but if you did pistachio ice cream, they're all about it. You've tried out of the soup. It's dripping. Look at this. It's crazy because half of the meat kind of looks delicious and the other half looks really gross. I've never had beef tripe sliced like this before. Who's gonna dip it in the sesame hot oil? That was good. It's a little chewy, but tastes good. Takes time to eat. What's your top two? I like the sour lamb dumpling. Okay. And I actually like the cubed liangfen. The original lamb burger. More places serve the pork, but I love the flavors in the lamb one. And then the liangfen. It's a musket item. So this is what I read, guys, because I haven't been to Xi'an. I will go at some point in my life. They said that this and the lamb burgers or the pork burgers always served in a combo. That's the burger and fries of Xi'an. You know what I noticed about this dish? It looks fake. No, it looks like it's plastic. It looks like, you know, those fake sample dishes that you see on the outside of the window. Yeah, the Japanese restaurant. Back in the day, tomatoes were almost more considered desserts. Respect the ancients. Eight treasure rice. Good. No, it's better with the tomato. There's just so many flavors in it. I think the glaze sauce is what tops it all off. This wins the award for biggest shocker. Most improved. What is your major takeaway about eating all this ancient food from Xi'an? It's really good to be able to taste what ancient food used to be like. A lot of people, like you said, when they think ancient, they might think, oh, it's old. It's not good. Hey, this ain't the flavor here. Let me tell you this. If a recipe lasts for like 500 years, you know it's got to be good. That's true. They would have just nixed it a while. Obviously, I think this is much, much older than the European food. Maybe like Caucasian person in America from like German roots or whatever, they would go back and have like a kielbasa sausage. That might be their thing that's like, oh man, this is what my great great grandfather was eating in what is now modern day Germany, right? But obviously for us, this is like goes back like maybe several thousands of years where it's like, this was made way back. We are going to be heading to Bistro Shah's for some homestyle Xi'an cuisine. All right, we have just landed here at Bistro Shah's down the street on Valley Boulevard, and we are here with none other than Charles. This is my mother's and my father's shop. It's called Bistro Shah's. We just opened a few weeks, so I hope you guys enjoy. If you don't remember, Charles showed up in one of our videos. We are here to try some Xi'an food. You ready to help us introduce it? Welcome to the kitchen at Bistro Shah's. This is the chou dou si. It's basically small thin slices of potato mixed with veggies. This is all hand sliced, not shredded. It tastes like a very nice light salad that's really refreshing. You can empathize or relate with Charles, right? To be honest, I think I might have been younger than him when my parents owned the restaurant. Is it an easy life or a difficult life? In short, I wouldn't say it's a difficult life. At the end of the day, it's good because you're helping out your family. You guys know those like small soup dumplings? I can eat 20 of those in one sitting. That's why I'm so chubby. Between the 170, 180. I think you won 30. I think you won 43. 128. All wrong, 168. You're 160? Arm wrestle Andrew right now. Three, two, one. Hey, you're a little strong, but you know. Come on, come on. It was a bad idea wearing this. You should take it off. Nope, I'm wearing nothing underneath this. Okay, all right. When we buy the tofu, we actually cook it and then we take off the skin. This beef is supposed to be cold and dry, but you dip it in the sauce like that. This is actually one of my favorite dishes. One of my favorite side dishes here is this tu dou shou, which is like these kind of spicy potatoes. They're not too spicy, but just a little bit. And they're shredded really thin here. This is thinner than most restaurants. This is our Chinese hamburger. Oh my goodness. My family specializes in this. The meat is stewed for hours. They got that smoky texture. More of a stewed flavor. More of that marinade. Charles, have you seen anybody do this? No. I haven't seen anybody do this. This is kind of like a delicacy. Nobody's like messing with it. Now I would say it's interesting at this restaurant where you guys serve both Shanghainese and Xi'an food. Yes, because a lot of other Chinese style restaurants is that they think one style is better than the other, so they serve that style. But we, we serve both because we think both is good. Sir Charles, it was an honor to be able to eat this amazing feast at your amazing restaurant, but I gotta go. Mr. Hairstylist. Next time I see you, you have a new hairstyle? I'm gonna have the same. We'll probably just dye my hair again. Okay. Do you ever think it's weird being Chinese but growing up in America? No, not at all. It's like an equal balance. When I go to school, I feel American. When I come home, I feel Chinese. We're breaking from the Xi'an theme, but guess what? We're not really fully breaking from it because this noodle doesn't exist in any province. She was basically saying it's really simple, but to make it taste this good with this simple of ingredients is incredibly complex. It's good. It tastes different. I've never had that before. The thing that I would compare it to is a soupy chow chow, man. Definitely got some shrimp, some dried shrimp flavor. What advice do you have for the other kids out there growing up in restaurant families? There's pros and cons. Good thing you get to stay home and do whatever you want. Bad thing, when you miss your mom, you have to call her over. You can't talk to her. Are you interested in running your own restaurant when you get older? My plan is not like that. It's more of to open, you know Amazon? Yes. Yes, to open an online company kind of like that. How can Chinese people who come from such an ancient culture fully fit in and find their place in America? My parents came here to basically like a lot of other Chinese immigrants look for wealth, like to find it, live a better life. When my mom first came here, I think she was around 35 or something. She came here and then after a few years, she met my dad, which was a truck driver who originally in China worked as a chef. So I guess are your parents living the best immigrant life? Not the best right now, but hopefully I can provide them a better one when I grow up. Because what my mom already thought about it when she comes to America, she already knows it's going to be really hard. She had a child. That child could grow up, get more education, and make some money when she's old and retired. I'm not trying to be sexist about this, but because in America, every one dollar a man earns, a woman earns 65 cents. And that's not right, but statistically speaking, that's how it is right now. It should change. Yes. I can't say that I was thinking about the same things when I was 11, Charles. You're a smart man. Charles, what I was going to say, what I like about your restaurant is that it's a Chinese restaurant. And you know, I do love Chinese decorations and all the old paintings, but I also like being in a place that just is kind of clear of it. You know, just kind of chill. In the deep end, you're kind of a little disconnected from having the paintings and the imagery in your face. Because sometimes that's a little intimidating, but I get it. I like both. But here, I like being here. It's chill. Well, one thing I noticed is they don't have the CCTV on. My dad has like a taste in like Chinese culture, like TV shows, but my mom has a taste in like modern shows, like singing, has like a better taste than my dad. Fair enough. Yeah. Well, you know, Shanghai, Xi'an, one is more ancient and one is a lot more Western. Today's episode was particularly crazy because we don't eat Xi'an food very often. None of our family's from a place like Xi'an or even nearby. And then also like growing up, Xi'an food was not as popular. It got more popular nowadays. I don't want to say it's more Western, but it's almost more, a little bit tastes like Middle Eastern. Yeah. For me, my biggest takeaway was just, wow, I got to go to China. First of all, you guys, by the way, I've had Fujianese food. I just haven't had the opportunity to film it. There's so many other styles of Chinese food that we haven't really even delved into. I think a lot of other people out there need to try and Xi'an is one of them. You know, it's spelled kind of I would say you got to try it. I want to see groups of kids with modern clothes at the ancient spot. My goal in life is to basically earn enough money to travel around the world to eat good food with my family. That's basically it. In China, it has like 5,000 years of culture. And basically in that 5,000 years, there's 5,000 years worth of food. Well said Charles, a man of many gems. Don't have to dig too far. All right, you guys, thank you so much for watching that very special Xi'an episode of Fun Bro's Food. Shout out to the Hot Pot Boys. Nell's gone right now, but we got honorary Hot Pot Boy Charles here. Go ahead and let us know what you thought about the video. And if you guys have ever tried Xi'an food and let us know other Chinese diasporic cuisines that we should try too. Thank you guys. Give this video a thumbs up. Hope you guys learned a lot. It was really fun. Shout out to Bistro Shah. We'll leave all the links down below. And until next time, everybody, we out. Peace.