Alright so check it out
It’s Trevor James
I’m in Lanzhou, China
The land of hand pulled noodles
And we’re going for a full on Chinese street food experience
I’m so pumped
When you think of China
You probably don’t think of Islam and halal food
But that’s exactly what you’ll find here in the northwest
I made my way for a food trip to the dusty and bustling classic Silk Road city of Lanzhou
Specifically to try the unique Halal food of the Hui people
This is the side of China not many people see
And I came here specifically to have an authentic travel experience through food
I found a lot of food reminiscent of countries further west
With insane amounts of lamb and beef
Leaving me absolutely speechless
I am dying to try the hand pulled noodles here
This is why I bought the flight
What I walked into brought me into a dream world
It was like a noodle sanctuary
And what you’re about to see
Is the most incredible display of noodle mastery
Words can’t describe this
Just watch
This is noodle heaven
I was speechless when I saw them making the dough
And hand pulling the noodles
The incredible skills of each person in the long production chain blew me away
You can see the whole process in one line
From kneading the dough
To pulling it
Boiling the noodles
And filling the bowl with a specialty radish beef broth
Some homemade chili oil
Fatty beef chunks
And green onions and cilantro
From when you’re lined up and you see it all happening
To when you take your first bite
You’re going to question every other bowl of noodles you’ve ever eaten
That has this incredibly aromatic essence to it
With all of these hand pulled noodles
It’s just like clockwork in the kitchen there
Look at these
Oh yeah!
That is smooth
That is worth the flight right here
Incredibly flavor packed beef noodle soup
Huge slices of beef
So fragrant
I’ve never tasted that type of fragrance before
This is the slurping hot spot here!
And after those life changing noodles
I made my way into the back alleys of Lanzhou’s most vibrant Hui community
And found an amazing selection of street food surprises
But the one thing that stuck out the most
Was the local street popcorn explosion
This is so cool back here
This old school Hui Chinese neighborhood
And we’re going to see what we can find back here
Wow that smells smoky!
We’re going to have to get some here
Oh that’s the corn!
Homemade popcorn!
Wow look at that!
Homemade popcorn!
Roasted over coals!
This is so cool!
Wow!
He’s going to open it!
Here we go!
That is so loud!
Fresh street popcorn
Wow!
Street popcorn!
Super sweet, crunchy and smoky
It doesn’t get any better than that
Give some to the camera girl
How is it?
Is it good?
Good
That was so cool
And now we’re getting to the good stuff
For lunch I made my way to a must visit Hui restaurant
That specialized in Shouzhua Yangrou
A super delicious hand grasped mutton
That falls off the bone
And when I asked if I could film in the kitchen
Everyone was super friendly and invited me in
Chefs were churning out dish after dish at the wok station
For a large Hui wedding upstairs
While homemade lamb and carrot baozi
Were being meticulously pinched and steamed
This is what traveling is all about
Tasting delicious local food
And building connections with the locals
Let’s eat
This is an insane Chinese muslim feast
This is shouzhua yangrou
Look at this nice shouzhua yangrou
I came here just to try this in Lanzhou
This is going to be worth the flight
Wow!
That is so tender and fatty!
Oh and that spice mix is like a nice seasoning salt
You gotta take a bite of raw garlic after
That is unbelievably juicy
Flavor packed
And fatty
With that spice mix
That is some of the best lamb I’ve ever had
And over here
These are specialty Chinese hui muslim baozi
Stuffed with lamb and carrots
Look at the color!
MM!
MMM!
Look at that!
You can see there is little pieces of lamb
And carrot, and onion
And it’s full of pepper
So it’s quite peppery
And the fat
And the orange of the carrot is just soaking into the bun
That is really nice
And after lunch, to get hungry again
And to prepare myself for a lamb head that I heard was on offer at the night market
I explored more of Lanzhou’s street scenes
One of the joys of traveling is exploring the local scenes after you’re full on delicious food
And here in Lanzhou
There was a lot to see and take in
After walking around
I made my way to the largest night market in Lanzhou
To try the local specialties
And lamb head
So now we’re at a special night market here in Lanzhou
We’re going to have a lot of Hui Chinese specialties
Let’s go take a look
One of the things I came to try was a special version of Laozao
A fermented glutinous rice
But here, it’s served hot with milk, egg, and peanuts
And it’s super sweet
Watching it cooked on the street over flame and smelling the sweetness will get you really excited
There it is!
The egg with the milk laozao
Look at that!
That looks frothy
This looks so unique
Peanuts on there!
Peanuts and raisins and sesame
This looks so good!
Look at this
This is the jidan niunai laozao
I have no idea what this is going to taste like
I’m baffled
Let’s try it out
Let’s get one with everything in there
Super unique and delicious
It tastes like the laozao fermented rice so it’s sweet
And has a slight alcohol taste to it
Except it’s creamy and there is an egg in there too
With peanuts and sesame
It’s quite sweet
A little sour
That is magical
Here it is
The moment of the lamb head
If you’re fully committed to Food Rangin’
You’ll try almost any local specialty
And here in Lanzhou
I tested my core Food Rangin’ principles to the max
When I found lamb head being offered alongside fried lamb organs
Here we go guys
Let’s do this
This is crazy
I can’t believe I’m going to have a lamb head right now
Oh boil the head
I have never seen anything like this
Am I going to eat this?
Look at the brain!
This is the limit right here
I will eat this but
Oh look at the brain!
Am I really going to eat this right now?
The answer is yes
Oh that is really creamy
That is creamy to the max
That is actually very flavorful
Honestly
That lamb brain is so stinky
It’s like creamy but stinky
There’s a creaminess which is actually kind of nice
But the stink is just all in there
It’s so strong
It’s amazing
Locals haven’t eaten this
The first bite was kind of like oh I see
And then the flavor goes in
And it has this strong stink
I just gotta be honest here
That completely took away my appetite
It’s gone
So I’m just going to go for a little walk now
So thank you so much for watching my food and travel videos
I had a great time here in Lanzhou
Amazing food
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Thanks alot guys