When China Called: Dining Part 1

Final pit at the Terracotta Museum is almost completely buried. Photo Credit: Mohamed Hakim

My next stop is a restaurant located within the museum grounds 

      On the way back, out from the exhibits, my guide took me through the local markets and restaurants situated within the museum grounds. There, we stopped for lunch and Chinese tea tasting ceremony at a restaurant called Old Xi'an Restaurant. This was the only preplanned stop for tea by my travel agency throughout the entirety of my trip. Be warned as to not follow in my footsteps and miss the opportunity to stock on some local tea! Interestingly, here was the only time I had noodles during my trip too.

Tea makes for a great gift to bring home with you

      Feel free to ask questions of the girls doing the tea ceremony. They understand English fairly well and are there to, more or less, convince you to buy the merchandise they have. They showed me for example a group of what appeared to be jade carved into animals, tea pets. Turns out they are actually pieces of stone that change color when hot tea is poured onto them, and only, when the tea is hot enough to be served. I now

      In addition to Jade, Xi’an is famous for its local black tea which is light and elegantly sweet. Both jade and tea make for great gifts to take home with you.

      If you do not like a tea, do not comment on it. That may upset the serving girls, as I quickly found out, oops. Instead, simply choose a different tea to try after you are done with the one you’re trying. There are a few options you can taste free of charge and some that are more glamorous.

      I started by trying local black tea, which is compellingly aromatic and unexpectedly sweet, due to its almost indistinguishable fruity content. The longer the tea is steeped, the less sweet it became, which is more to my taste. Interestingly, I’m told that black tea is usually a woman’s choice in China and that "men" prefer other varieties, like green tea.

            To be continued...

Got comments? Leave them below or contact me privately.

You can find the previous post in the series at: When China Called: Xi'an Day Yi Part 2