Muslim Quarter, Xi'an

Let me note right off the bat that while all of my pictures from the Muslim quarter involve food, edibles do not represent the majority of the merchandise available in this narrow winding part of Xi'an, located very near the mosque. I am not overly claustrophobic, but the crush of the crowd on these narrow streets left me feeling less like spending all my disposable income and more like wanting to sit in a quiet shop and regroup.



I found this to be the most visually appealing food available in the market--it is a giant cake that looks to be soaked with a honey syrup that is being cut in a beautiful geometric fashion for eary serving on a stick.  Food on a stick was a popular serving suggestion in the Muslim Quarter, probably because finding a place where you could sit down and leisurely nibble away at something in a bowl as just not an option.

I always love an array of the wealth of variety for any sort of food (olives and spices would be my first choice, but these dates did look quite delicious), and there are a fair amount of these on display.  In addition to food, there is every variety of souvenir that you can buy in China available.  One rule of thumb is to assume that anything that is valuable, like jade, that appears to be too good a deal is in fact fake.  Even if it is not a good deal it may well be fake.  So buyer beware.  I bought a scarf that was rayon (even though the tag said '100% Silk')--but a very good price for a rayon scarf.  It is a sensory overload experience that whether you love it or hate it.

Here is a great example of the manual labor that is prevalent in street food preparation throughout China.  I love watching people pounding out food, literally.  It was very tempting to want to take something like this home, but we resisted because we did not want to get delayed by customs on the way home.  This is a great neighborhood--so don't miss it, but keep your money close at hand and your backpack in front of you.