Breakfast in Xi'an is a serious meal. Shops open at six in the morning, the queues peak between seven and eight, and by ten most of the good ones have sold out and closed. This is the cheapest and most local way to eat in the city.
Hulatang
Hulatang is a thick, dark soup of beef broth thickened with starch, loaded with shredded beef, cabbage, carrot, wood ear fungus and glass noodles, and finished with a heavy hand of white pepper. The Shaanxi version is peppery rather than chili-hot. It is eaten with a flatbread torn into pieces and pushed into the bowl, or with a fried dough stick on the side. First-time visitors usually find the texture surprising and the flavour immediately addictive.
Roujiamo
Roujiamo is often translated as a Chinese hamburger: slow-braised pork, chopped fine and packed into a crisp flatbread baked in a clay oven. The bread should shatter slightly when you bite it and the meat should be glossy with its own braising liquid. Order it with a bowl of soup and you have breakfast. Some shops offer a beef version, and the same bread is used for other fillings across the city.
Jinggao and other morning items
Jinggao is steamed glutinous rice layered with red dates and beans, cut from a huge pot with a spatula and served warm, dense and only lightly sweet. It is the usual sweet option. Also worth trying are doufuna o silken tofu with savoury sauce, sesame flatbread, and youtiao fried dough sticks for dipping in soy milk.
Where and when
The Muslim Quarter and the lanes around it have the highest concentration of breakfast shops, and there are good counters in almost every residential neighbourhood. Look for the shop with the longest queue of people in work clothes - that is the reliable signal. Bring small notes and be ready to eat standing or at a packed shared table. Most breakfast shops close between 10 and 11 a.m. and reopen for lunch with a different menu.
