Travel in Chinese Lesson 66 Food in Xi'an

同事女：我的稿子终于赶出来了。

雪梅：那你应该好好放松放松。咱们出去吃点儿西安的小吃吧。别总在饭店吃了。

同事女：我也是这么想的。对了，小张昨天不是一直在说羊肉泡馍吗？我们不如今天就去尝尝。

同事女：好主意。我不知道哪里的羊肉泡馍比较正宗，等我去找那个“西安通”来问问。

雪梅：（笑）我和你一起去。

（去同事男的房间，敲门）

同事女：呦，是你，我们正准备去叫你去吃饭呢。

同事男：我来就是找你们去吃饭的。想吃点什么？

同事女：我们想吃羊肉泡馍，可是又不知道哪里比较好吃。

同事男：那你可找对人了，我带你们去吃，走吧。（三人笑着离开）

（来到同盛祥门口）

同事男：看，到了。

同事女：同盛祥？这里的好吃吗？

同事男：看，外行了吧，这可是真正的百年老店，再说了，跟着我这个西安通，还会有错的时候？

雪梅：哈哈，别争了，快点儿进去吧。

同事女：走。

（进入店内）

服务员：里面请，欢迎光临，这是菜单。

同事男：不必看了，给我们来三碗羊肉泡馍。

服务员：好的，请稍等。（端进三个空碗，每人面前放一个。另外每人还有一个放着馍的碗）

同事女：咦，这个空碗是干嘛的？还有这号码牌是什么意思？

雪梅：（对同事男）这馍还真的挺硬的。可是，没有汤怎么泡呢？（二人一起看同事男）

同事男：（拿起一块馍，清清嗓子）这空碗是一会儿来放汤的，既然先给咱们上了馍，咱们就先尝尝吧。（拿起馍要咬）

服务员；（走过来）先生，这馍现在是半熟的，还不能吃。你得先把馍掰到这个空碗里，然后我们按号码牌去给您煮，这才是羊肉泡馍。

同事男：（不好意思）哦，是这样的啊。

雪梅、同事女（偷笑）：还说自己是西安通呢，幸亏我们没跟着做。

服务员：掰的时候尽量掰小一点儿，到时候煮出来口感会比较好。

（三人开始掰）同事女：这馍掰起来还挺费劲的。

雪梅：你看，我掰得比你小。（三人比试）

（服务员收走了三人的碗）

同事男：（看店内）也不知道要煮多久，怎么还不出来。

同事女：（对雪梅）你看，有些人等不及了。（两人笑）

（服务员端出了煮好的泡馍）服务员：三位请慢用。

同事女：好香啊。
 

Translation:

Female colleague: Oh, finally I finish my report.

Xuemei: Then surely you should go and relax yourself. Let’s not eat at the hotel. How about we go out for some Xi’an snacks?

Xuemei: My thoughts exactly. Wasn’ t Xiao Zhang going on about Yangrou Paomo yesterday？Why don’t we go and try it today?

Female colleague: Good idea. But I don’t know wher to go for the best Yangrou Paomo. Let me ask that “Xi’an expert ”.

Xuemei: I’ll go with you.

Female colleague: Oh, it’s you. We were just about to go get you for dinner.

Male colleague: I’m here to get you for dinner. What would you like to have?

Female colleague: we want to go and eat Yangrou Paomo. But we don’t know which place is good.

Male colleague: You’ve got the right person. Let’s go, I’ll take you.

Male colleague: Look, we’re here.

Female colleague: Tong Sheng Xiang？Is this a good restaurant？

Male colleague: Ha, now you’re showing what an amateur you are. This is a restaurant that’s been around for over a hundred years. Besides，how can you go wrong with a Xi’an expert like me？

Xuemei: Haha，stop arguing. Let’s get inside.

OK.

Waiter: Welcome to our restaurant. Here’s the menu.

Male colleague: We don’t need it. Three bowls of Yangrou Paomo for us, please.

Waiter: Sure, please wait.

Female colleague: Eh, what’s the empty bowl for？And what do the numbered tags mean？

Male colleague: Can you guess?

Female colleague: I think it must have something to do with Paomo.

Xuemei: I agree.

Xuemei: This Mo is really hard. But how do we dip it without soup？

Male colleague: This empty bowl is for the soup. Since they gave us the Mo first，let’s have a taste.

Waiter: Sir，this Mo is only half-cooked, you can’t eat it now.

Xuemei: But how shall we eat?

Waiter: You have to break it into pieces into this empty bowl，then we cook it for you according to the numbered tags.

Male colleague: Oh，is that right.

Xuemei: Now who’s the Xi’an expert?

Female colleague: Just as well we didn’t follow suit.

Waiter: Try to break it into smaller pieces，so it tastes better once it’s cooked.

Xuemei: It looks it takes real skill to eat Yangyou Paomo.

Xuemei: I finally finish breaking the Mo. I am ready for it.

Male colleague: I wonder how long it takes. It’s still not ready.

Female colleague: Look，someone’s getting impatient.

Xuemei: They are coming!

Waiter: These are the dressings for Yangrou Paomo. Enjoy your meal.
 

Bookmarks

1）不必 not necessary

例）时间还来得及，你不必着急。

There is no need to be anxious. We'll get there in time.

例）你不必去得太早，游泳馆上午十点才开门。

You don't have to get there too early. The swimming pool doesn't open until 10 am.

2）幸亏 fortunately

例）幸亏我带了雨衣，不然早就淋湿了。

It's a good thing that I brought a raincoat, otherwise I would have been soaked.

例）幸亏我带了地图，要不肯定迷路了。

It's a good thing that I brought a map, otherwise I would have been lost for sure.

Sign Posts

Food in Xi'an

Some say there are two things that you absolutely must do in visiting Xi’an: visit the terra cotta warriors and taste Yang Rou Pao Mo, a type of mutton stew.

When you order this dish, you will first be served one or two pieces of a hard flat bread. Don’t try to eat this directly – you might not be able even if you try to bite in. You are supposed to break the bread into tiny chunks, the smaller the better, in the bowl provided. The waiter or the waitress will then return your bowl to the cook who mixes the bread and mutton soup together. This steaming hot meal is then returned to you with condiments like pickled garlic, coriander, and chili sauce. You can mix these into the stew as you like.

Food in Xi’an is quite different from the rest of China, especially compared with more easterly regions. Here, at what many people consider the start of the Silk Road, you see a delicious combination of Chinese cooking with Muslim and other traditions. Lamb, for example, is a commonly consumed meat in this part of China.

Xi’an is also famous for its snack foods, like 灌汤包子, literally, buns 包子 that have soup or a sauce poured inside them. In other words, very juicy buns. Be careful not to burn yourself; the sauce inside can be quite hot.

Speaking of dumplings, you can have a whole meal of 饺子 in Xi’an at what they call the 饺子宴, a whole banquet of 饺子 in different styles and with different fillings. Not all these 饺子 are steamed or boiled either, as some are even pan-fried, deep fried or roasted. Usually, the banquet will consist of just one or two samples of each type of 饺子, as the variety is so tremendous.

Another popular dish in Xi’an is the 肉夹馍。馍 is a type of bun, so this is literally meat sandwiched inside a bun, sort of like a Xi’an style hamburger, to put it simply.#

One great place to explore some of the local snacks is the Hui Min Jie, literally, the street for the Hui nationality, a largely Muslim ethnic group. This is located near the 大清真寺 Grand Mosque, which is one of the largest mosques in all of China. The area around the mosque has retained much of its original character.

These are just a few small examples of the rich food experience waiting for you in Xi’an.

Substitution and Extension

1）不如……better to

例）既然大家都没空，（不如）我们不如换个时间再聚吧。

Since nobody has time, we’d better meet at another time.

例）这儿人太多了，不如我们换个餐馆吧。

There’re too many people here. We’d better go to a different restaurant.

2）再说了besides, moreover

例）这件衣服太贵了，再说了，颜色也不适合你。

This article of clothing is too expensive. Besides, the color doesn’t suit you.

例）今天天气不好，我们别出去了，再说了，我的工作也没做完。

The weather is not very good today. Let’s not go out. Besides, I haven’t finished my work.