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If you stand at the southwest corner of 40th and Chestnut in Philadelphia, this is what you'll see:

Inside, it looks like this:

(As usual, all photos are embiggenable)

This is probably the most gaily, yet tastefully, painted Chinese restaurant I've ever beheld.  But the decoration is not due to the current owners, who have been at this location for about five years and acquired the premises when it already looked like this.  Somehow, I feel like the decor of West Philly's Xi'an Sizzling Woks (the Chinese name is Xī'ān měishí 西安美食 ["Xi'an fine cuisine"]) echoes Muslim restaurants I've seen in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan), home to Dungans, who actually hail from the Xi'an area a century and more ago (see "Selected readings").

There's also a branch of Xi'an Sizzling Woks in Chinatown at 902 Arch St., but it is smaller and more nondescript than the one in University City that I'm describing in this post, and I get the impression that most of its business is takeout and delivery.

Xi'an ("Western Peace"), the capital of Shaanxi Province, is one of China's great cities.  In terms of medieval and early history, including the prehistoric period, overall it is probably the most important city.  Located at the confluence of the Yellow and Wei rivers, the traditional name of the city was Chang'an 長安 / 长安 (Cháng'ān ["Lasting Peace"]):

The site had been settled since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao culture was established in Banpo, in the city's suburbs. Furthermore, in the northern vicinity of modern Xi'an, Qin Shi Huang of the Qin dynasty, China's first emperor, held his imperial court, and constructed his massive mausoleum guarded by the Terracotta Army.

(source)

It has always been my view that the location of Chang'an / Xi'an made it of extraordinary geostrategic and cultural significance because it lay at the eastern end of the Gansu / Hexi Corridor, thus it was the terminus of the Jade / Silk / Glass / Spice / Fur / etc. Road stretching across the middle of Eurasia, and at the bottom of the Ordos, the omphalos of eastern Central Asia and East Asia, hence the Bronze, Wheat, Horse, and Chariot Road extending across the vast steppe to the north.

A little tutorial on the spelling of Xi'an, Chang'an, and Shaanxi

The apostrophe in Xi'an and Chang'an signals where to separate the syllables.  Without them, the former would be pronounced as a single syllable (Xian [ɕian]) and the latter as "Chan-gan", not "Chang-an").  The double "a" in Shaanxi indicates the third tone in the first syllable, a relic of tonal spelling (Gwoyeu Romatzyh / GR / National Romanization).  This distinguishes it from the neighboring province of Shanxi (Shǎnxī 陕西 vs. Shānxī 山西).

The menu

We've often mentioned "biangbiang" noodles on Language Log (see "Selected readings").  There are many variations for how to write the character for biang.  Suffice it to say that it is one of the most complex Sinographs, with between 42 (simplified) and 70 (traditional) strokes, depending upon how you choose to write it.  If you want to see what it looks like, go here or here.  Although the traditional and simplified forms of the character for biang have been entered in Unicode, few conventional fonts have them.  Hence they are essentially untypable.

Listed under the "Noodle Soups" (tāngmiàn 湯麵) section of the menu, #3 is niú/yángròu huì miàn 牛／羊肉燴麵 ("beef / lamb braised noodles"), but the English is given as "Biang Biang Noodles in Lamb & Beef Soup".  Thus we see that, for lack of a vast enough font, they had to forego that famous Sinograph for biang. The same thing happens for a couple of other entries on the menu, where the full monty Sinograph for biang is missing and replaced by a circumlocution or variant name, e.g., yóupō chěmiàn 油泼扯面 ("oil splashed pulled noodles").  In a sense, this ironically makes the English more accurate than the written Chinese in conveying the quintessence of this inimitable dish.

To tell the truth, I didn't know quite what to expect when the biangbiang noodles were served up to me, so I approached them with a combination of excitement and trepidation.  On the one hand, they looked rather plain, without any touch of panache.  On the other hand, I was astonished by how broad and long the biangbiang noodles were, like a belt, as the Xi'an locals say.  Summoning up the courage to clasp one with my chopsticks, I slurped it up and… and… fell madly in love with it at once.  Slippery and al dente at the same time, the biangbiang noodle slid across my tongue and down my gullet, exuding glutinous glory all the way.

What an evocative flavor!  I was mystified by how such a wide, subtly spiced strip of drawn dough could be so utterly, hauntingly palatable.

Another dish demonstrating the mastery of farinacious culinary skills may be found under "Appetizers" (tóutái 頭臺), #3 is ròu jiā mó (lǔròu / ròu sàozi 肉夾饃（滷肉／肉臊子) ("small bits / pieces / chunks of meat pressed [inside the two halves of a bun]"), the parenthetical part of which they translate accurately as (Choice of Braised Pork or Spicy Minced Pork"), but they also provide the fanciful translation as "Chinese hamburgers".  A restaurant in London calls them "murgers" (see the second item under "Selected readings").

The bread is ineffably delicious — I savored it as though it were manna from heaven.  This "Chinese hamburger" bun is the closest thing I've ever found to the unleavened bread I had as a little boy at the Church of the Brethren (cf. Central Asian Islamic bread described in Paul D. Buell, E. N. Anderson, Montserrat de Pablo Moya, and Moldir Oskenbay, Crossroads of Cuisine:  The Eurasian Heartland, the Silk Roads and Food [Leiden: Brill, 2020]).

Notes by Zihan Guo

The folk mnemonics of the word biang, listed on Wikipedia (Chinese version; also in the English version are very impressive. Both the Chinese and the English versions of the Wikipedia Biangbiang noodles article have animated GIFs showing the stroke order of the traditional character for biáng. The GIF in the English version specifies that it is according to the folk mnemonics, not according to the canonical principles of stroke order

The menu turns out to be very interesting too. They seem to have increased the price of many dishes by $1. On the noodles page, the numbers on the pictures do not match the actual dishes. The third picture is supposed to be biangbiangmian, but its number says 11 not 14. There are actually three dishes labeled biangbiangmian (noodles 3, 7, 14), but it is not self-evident from their Chinese names. Maybe only local Xi'anese would be able to discern them. I wonder how guests with no knowledge of Chinese would think of the dish without the right picture. Maybe the curious name itself is enough for them to venture into. I was also surprised that they simply left liángpí 涼皮 (appetizer 1 & 2), a most classic Xi'an dish, as liang pi, which gives no hint of what it is. I am not sure if its name has become so intelligible, as lo mein (noodles 24), to not merit a translation (that is not difficult either – cold rice noodles). Also, "special" seems to be a panacea for translating exotic culinary terms. The restaurant probably only has Chinese customers anyway.

Despite all the quirks, the layout of the menu seems carefully designed. Appetizers are followed by desserts, which are usually placed at the end. It is also reasonable, since zhǔshí 主食* (noodle soup, noodles, rice) can then be put together on one page. Each part fits neatly and perfectly on two pages. I was reminded of how the waitress served the dessert first without being conscious of the order. Chinese do not seem to have the concept of dessert to clear the table. Those listed as desserts are more like side dishes. In a typical Chinese restaurant in China, you would be served fruits at the end of a meal. Maybe Chinese consume too much carbohydrates to still thirst for sweets.

[*VHM:  "staple, principal / main food"]

I wonder why Xī'ān měishí 西安美食 ("Xi'an fine cuisine") uses the English name Xi'an Sizzling Woks, which brings to mind málà xiāng guō 麻辣香鍋** instead, though "woks" is indeed evocative of traditional Chinese cuisine.

[**VHM:  "peppery and spicy hot pot"]

Bottom line

I want to try everything — all entries look so tempting and mouth-watering.  Can't wait to go back again.

Severely selected readings

Biang

• "A Chinese character that is harder to write than 'biang'" (7/30/20)
• "Murgers and biangbiang in London" (8/17/19)
• "Stroke order" (10/30/18)
• "Writing Chinese characters as a form of punishment" (11/1/15)
• "The Awful Chinese Writing System" (Lingua Franca, 1/20/16)
• Wikipedia article
• "Peace and Harmony" (10/16/10)

Dungan

• "Dungan, a Sinitic language of Central Asia written in the Cyrillic Alphabet" (6/14/21)
• "Dungan: a Sinitic language written with the Cyrillic alphabet" (4/20/13)
• "The look, feel, and sound of Dungan language" (10/15/20)
• "'Jesus' in Dungan" (7/16/14)
• "Dungan-English dictionary" (10/26/18) — online here
• Victor H. Mair, "Implications of the Soviet Dungan Script for Chinese Language Reform", Sino-Platonic Papers, 18 (May, 1990) (free pdf).
• Omniglot
• Wikipedia:  "Dungan people", "Dungan language"

Chang'an / Xi'an, plus Ordos and Gansu / Hexi Corridor

• "Sogdians and Xiongnu / Huns" (2/21/22)
• "An early fourth century AD historical puzzle involving a Caucasian people in North China" (1/25/19)
• "Genetic evidence for the peopling of Eastern Central Asia during the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age" (4/9/21)
• "Acquiring literacy in medieval Dunhuang" (2/20/21)
• "China and Rome" (2/24/19)
• Victor H. Mair, "The North(west)ern Peoples and the Recurrent Origins of the 'Chinese' State", in Joshua A. Fogel, The Teleology of the Modern Nation-State:  Japan and China (Philadelphia:  University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005), pp. 46-84.
• "slip(per)" (7/22/14) — especially this comment on the name "Dunhuang".
• Victor Mair, "Reflections on the Origins of the Modern Standard Mandarin Place-Name 'Dunhuang' — With an Added Note on the Identity of the Modern Uighur Place-Name 'Turpan'", in Li Zheng, et al., eds., Ji Xianlin Jiaoshou bashi huadan jinian lunwenji (Papers in Honour of Prof. Dr. Ji Xianlin on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday) (Nanchang: Jiangxi People's Press, 1991), vol. 2, pp. 901-954 (very long and detailed study).
• Victor H. Mair, "Lay Students and the Making of Written Vernacular Narrative: An Inventory of Tun-huang Manuscripts", Chinoperl Papers 10 (1981), 5–96.

Noodles and bread

• "Pulled noodles: Uyghur läghmän and Mandarin lāmiàn" (8/8/14)
• "Progress in the war on Chinglish" (12/3/17)
• "FOOD & BGVERAGGS, with a focus on naan / nang" (2/12/16)

Pots and woks

• "Pork in a pot" (2/23/21)
• "Shifting valences of 'throwing the pot' in Chinese" (5/14/20)
• "Don't Kettle" (11/4/10)
• "Me Old China" (1/18/13) — and don't miss the comments
• "What's the History of the Wok? A Continuing Investigation", by Rachel Laudan (1/20/13)
• "Hong Kong’s fascination with ghosts and woks shows Cantonese can be a lot more subtle than we think", by Luisa Tam, SCMP (2/29/20)
  "The words can be used in a dazzling array of combinations that allow humour to take the sting out of rudeness, and ‘gwei’, or ghost, is not always negative. It would not be an exaggeration to say that a wok is as essential a cookware in Chinese culture as it is in daily local conversations."

June 9, 2022 @ 10:49 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Language and food, Writing systems

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