‘None of this is food for the timid or for those who like their chicken sanitised into a nice breaded goujon. The chicken looks like roadkill, little bones in every bite, the meat and skin to be slurped off’
I have never been to Xi’an, despite a bucket list wish to see the terracotta warriors. But a few years back, I schlepped out to Flushing, Queens, in search of a grungy stall in the basement of an unknowable Chinatown mall. This was Xi’an Famous Foods. I was after alien thrills, its cult cumin lamb “burger” and peculiar liang pi noodles. Ramming the spiced meat into my face – Shaanxi province’s reliance on wheat rather than rice leads to these gloriously squidgy stuffed flatbreads – I felt smugly intrepid.
Xi’an Famous Foods is now a bona fide success story, with eight outlets around New York. I’ve tried to find its counterpart over here with little success: either Xi’an in the name is a misnomer, or the food tends towards “mystery meat” gnarliness. So when I hear whispers about Xi’an Impression– the latest from the Sichuan Folk crew – I’m there like a rat up a drain.
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