Alright guys check it out
It’s Trevor James
I am in the Chengdu railway station
Take a look at this
And we are beginning a 4000 km journey into the west of China
In Xinjiang province
Coming up on this episode of the food ranger
A hand pulled noodle lesson
And some of the friendliest locals that I’ve ever chatted with
But first, a train ride on one of China’s oldest legacy trains
Today we are taking a 24 hour train ride into Qinghai province
The capital city of Xining
It’s going to be so good
We are going to get into this crazy line up
Look at this
On the way to the Silk Road
There is a lot of people here lined up
This is going to be a trip of a lifetime
Here we are
Isn’t that beautiful
Awesome!
Trains are one of the true joys of traveling
They need your passport
Oh
Here we go guys
This is what trains in China are all about
You have top middle and bottom x2
So six people
Six people per row
I think this is ours
Is this ours Ting?
These two middles right here
Perfect
You can just chill out
Look out the window
And enjoy the scenery
There is nothing like it
Since I was a child
I have had a constant dream to travel from Xi’an, China’s ancient capital
All the way along the Silk Road to Istanbul overland by train, bus, and no airplanes
Today, at 28, I begin the first leg
From Chengdu to Kashgar overland
Our first destination is Xining
The capital of Qinghai
With a large population of muslim Hui Chinese and Tibetans
You’ll fall in love with these long train rides
You can just chill out and watch the world go by
OK
Alright
This looks pretty bad actually
Let’s get into it
Let’s see what we have here
It looks like we have some rice with some fake ham
And a few dishes
This looks like fried pork with smoked tofu and some celery
This looks like a baigua
So a sweet and sour baigua
And here is some fried pork with cabbage
It’s acceptable
Just to look at this and all the beautiful scenery out the window
There is nothing like it
Coming to Sichuan, you will be happy taking the train
I really don’t want to try that
That looks so bad
I’m just going to put that aside
OK, I will try it
That is bad
It’s really
It tastes really fake
So we just got to Lanzhou
What a great ride
We have been riding the train about 21-22 hours
Lanzhou is the land of the hand pulled noodles, if you remember from my last video
Oh yeah!
Those were the best hand pulled noodles I’ve ever had
Now we are coming out for a little stretch
And we are going to make the last 3 hours to Qinghai
As you make your way into Qinghai province
The landscape becomes drier, more gray and brown
And you will begin seeing mosques all along the way
Alright guys, it’s been 24 hours, it’s been a great ride
And now we are arriving to Xining
Are you pumped for a nice meal Ting?
Yeah
Yeah, its going to be great
Let’s go see what we can find
Look at this
Everyone is lining up to get out
We are finally here in Xining
And we are going to go find some food
It feels good to move around
After walking around Xining
It felt like a whole new world
The insane amount of noodle shops will blow you away
With so much selection
We just walked into a random one to try them out
So we found a noodle joint
Take a look at these beautiful hand pulled noodles going right in
Oh you gotta put a little oil on your hands
So we are learning to make hand pulled noodles here
Clearly I don’t know what I’m doing
But clearly
That is part of the fun
I have no idea what I’m doing
Look, one side here is thin and one is thick
It’s quite a skill
Yeah this is pro
I ordered the cumin beef and hand pulled noodles
A personal favorite that you will fall in love with on your first bite
A deliciously spicy and cumin packed beef or lamb stir fry
Is placed over top of steaming hand pulled noodles and served
You’ll fall in love for sure
Look at that
Hand pulled noodles with cumin beef with bell peppers
It’s full of cumin and chili
And that is, wow look at those noodles
You just know that these are going to pack a real strong cumin spicy flavor
My mouth is literally watering after that huge train ride I am starving
Wow
That strong cumin spice
And the beef is tender and the onions give it a nice nice slight touch of fragrant sweetness
There is nothing like hole in the wall hand pulled noodles
And this is just the start of our journey to Xinjiang
I think what I’m going to do here is add a little chili oil
This looks a little different from Sichuan chili oil
It has a lot more chilies and less oil
Which is probably going to be even better
And mix that into the noodles
Yes this is totally worth that 24 hour train ride
So we are just rolling in the taxi here
And just looking out the window it’s just like non stop qingzhen halal food
This is just getting me so excited
There is going to be so much good food to try
After that delicious street lunch
We took a taxi around
And found another random hole in the wall for dinner
To have an early dinner and allow extra hunger room for the next day of feasting in Xining
So we just took a taxi
And stopped here at this beautiful mosque
Let’s cross the street
And we’ve found this neighborhood
It looks like there is tons and tons of Qingzhen halal food places all over
This is so exciting
This is super local
We are going to find some good food back here
Let’s go deep
Look at all these halal restaurants back here
This guy is getting a straight shave
Deep neighborhood here
Awesome!
Wow look at this!
This is really cool to come in here
I feel like I am in a totally different world
And people are friendly
So friendly!
Wow, I’m really excited!
Oh, the liangpi!
Sliced mung bean jelly
I ordered a classic liangfen jelly noodle covered in sesame paste
Garlic, vinegar, salt, green onions, mustard, and chili sauce
It was to die for!
Wow that looks beautiful!
Oh, look at that with all those chilies on top
And then one zongzi, which is sticky rice
And then I think this is a sugar
A liquid sugar, with sesame
Look at this liangpi
Mung bean jelly noodles
Green onions and peanuts, vinegar, I think there is some garlic water in there
My mouth is really watering
Oh yeah!
The green onion flavor and the garlic flavor is really strong
And all the fresh chili oil
Oh yeah
With the doufu
That is really nice
Liangpi jelly noodles!
Sticky rice, with liquid sugar and black sesame on top
That looks really good, lets try that
Oh yeah
That is ultra sweet
Very wet
Almost a little sloppy
But so satisfying
A new world here
And this is just the start of our journey
That was just amazing
That liangpi, sour mustard flavor
Spicy and heavenly and this is the area we are going to be exploring tomorrow
So stay tuned for the next episode
We had a wonderful trip on the train
Please let me know down below if you enjoyed this style of video
We are going to do more of these blogs
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Thanks a lot guys
This is such a cool area we are going to explore