Lao Wan is deeply loved by local diners, and it is a restaurant with greater strength than fame. The owner's skills are not limited to opening Shaanxi restaurants, but also operating Cantonese cuisine and Beijing shabu restaurants. However, these factors do not affect the authenticity of the old bowl flavor, and the restaurant has been standing in Xi'an for more than 8 years and is regarded as an excellent place to entertain.
Gourd chicken is an unavoidable topic in Shaanxi cuisine, and before adding oil, the old bowl wraps the chicken in egg liquid, making the skin crispier than ordinary stores. However, this also brings the disadvantage of too much oil, which is a shortcoming of the dish, and most restaurants choose to lay shrimp chips in the basin in order to absorb the oil, and the old bowl continues to use this scheme. The muscles meet the requirements of soft and tender taste, and the store provides dried chili powder, even if it is dipped in, the taste is still decent, and there is no need to choose the old bowl for the gourd chicken. Unfortunately, there are few hard dishes in the store, so you can only balance the dishes with home-cooked side dishes.
There is no shortage of fat sausage dishes in Xi'an, among which gourd head is the most famous. There is a rumor that the gourd head specifically refers to the anal canal of the pig, which is a misinformation, this resource is too scarce, and the pig rectum will be regarded as authentic by the locals. From the perspective of taste and texture, the gourd head is often thicker than the pig's small intestine and full of oil. Lao Wan's gourd head dishes include stir-frying, iron pot stewing, smoking and other cooking schemes. Among them, the smoked scheme is more distinctive, and in Shaanxi cuisine, this dish is called Bangbang pork. In addition to the smoky flavor, the pork also has a salty aroma and can be eaten with garlic. The restaurant sometimes adjusts the menu, and some fat sausage dishes are occasionally removed from the shelves.
Small crispy meat has the habit of eating crispy meat all over China, and Sichuan and Chongqing eat dry fried crispy meat, which is the most special. In the Central Plains and North China, it is customary to dip the fried crispy meat into the soup, and the small crispy meat in Xi'an looks as usual, but the production details are special. The soup is mixed with Sichuan peppercorns, spices, bay leaves, soy sauce and water, and then steamed and simmered with crispy meat. Compared with other crispy pork with soup, the high-quality Shaanxi crispy meat soup is more flavorful, and the meat strips are not too soft. No matter what taste preference you have, don't forget the small crispy pork when you come to the old bowl.
Shaanxi "old bowl" actually refers to a large bowl, and the diameter of the porcelain bowl in the store is about 30cm. This allows diners to mix the ingredients in a calm state, and it should be appropriate to order biangbiang noodles and oily noodles, but the noodles often hang too much water, which not only dilutes the flavor of the ingredients, but also affects the elasticity of the noodles after a long time, and the old bowl of oily noodles is not stable enough. This is a minor flaw, and the rest of the dishes have no obvious shortcomings. You may wish to taste vinegar powder, which is a distinct Shaanxi food.
Vinegar powder is made from grain residues produced when pickling black vinegar, which resembles noodles and has a meaning closer to that of a staple food. The slight sourness of the dish does not come from the powder, but from the seasoning. There are many dishes like staple foods, and they also portray the modern life of Xi'an. Green vegetables such as dragon mustard and gray cabbage are Shaanxi style wild vegetables, and there are also vegetarian dishes of foreign cuisines in the store, which can be paired with meals.
The old bowl is authentic, the environment is also very down-to-earth, its indoor layout is not thoughtful, the area is also a little narrow, even if the table and stools are added in the corridor, the seats are still in demand. The quality of service is mediocre, the attitude of the staff is sometimes stiff, and the noisy atmosphere creates a strong sense of philistine during peak dining periods. The hygienic conditions are really poor, and there is even a chance to encounter insects during meals.
