Xian Dumpling Banquet - An Edible Ertwork

Jiaozi, Chinese dumplings with meat and vegetable fillings, is a traditional Chinese food with around 2,000-year history. The dumpling can be anything from a quick snack to a delicacy, and eaten at any time of the day – breakfast, lunch or dinner. It is quite popular in China, and also loved by most of foreign tourists. And, the most famous dumpling serving is in Xian - dumpling banquet.

First created by Xi'an Dumpling Banquet Restaurant (formerly Xi'an Jiefang Road Dumpling Restaurant), Xi'an Dumpling Banquet is known as one of the "Three Wonders of Xi'an Food" along with Tang Dynasty-style dishes and paomo (beef and mutton soup with steamed buns).

History and Development

Xian dumpling banquet is a newly created feast style. It emerged on the basis of the traditional dumpling recipe in Xian Dumpling Restaurant and De Fa Chang Dumpling Restaurant. 

Located on the northern section of Jiefang Road in Xi'an, Xi'an Dumpling Restaurant boasts a history of nearly 50 years. Their dumplings are renowned for their exquisite, ingot-shaped, tender, and delicious flavor, often leaving diners with a lasting impression and maintaining a booming business. To adapt to the growth of tourism and meet public demand, the restaurant began developing a dumpling banquet in 1984.

They dispatched renowned chefs to major cities across northern and southern China—Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenyang, Qingdao, and others—to meticulously study regional dumpling styles, characteristics, production techniques, and local palates. They also delved into folk dumpling recipes within Shaanxi Province's cities and counties. For instance, they visited Guo Town three times solely to master the art of making clove-flavored dumplings.

They also researched ancient Tang and Song dynasty imperial dumpling techniques. Legend has it that one day, Tang Xuanzong's concubine, Yang Yuhuan, craved a stuffed dish, and she wanted it steamed. A clever chef, knowing she loved chicken wings, made steamed dumplings with them. Lady Yang was delighted, and the "Guifei Steamed Dumplings" became a royal delicacy and has been passed down through the ages. During the Qing Dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi, fleeing to Xi'an, craved boiled dumplings, which she wanted cooked right in front of her. The chefs wrapped chicken breasts into delicate pearl dumplings, placed them in a hot pot filled with chicken broth, and served them to the Empress Dowager, who cooked them as she ate. These dumplings later became known as "Empress Dowager Hot Pot."

>> Related reading: Chinese Dumpling Recipe - How to Make Dumplings

After repeated experimentation and hundreds of trial runs, a dumpling banquet was finally developed that offered a refreshingly novel experience in color, aroma, flavor, and presentation, with a uniquely distinctive taste.

In Xi'an, following the precedent set by the Xi'an Dumpling Banquet Restaurant, establishments like Defa Chang Restaurant, Longhai Dumpling House on Jiefang Road, and the Shaanxi Song and Dance Grand Theatre also began serving dumpling banquets, each boasting its own unique blend of color, flavor, and presentation. 

Defachang, situated northwest of the Xian Bell Tower and founded in 1936, historically specialized in Beijing-style dumplings. The Longhai Dumpling Restaurant on Jiefang Road, located at the northwest corner of the Five-Way Intersection, boasts decades of history. The Shaanxi Song and Dance Grand Theatre, positioned on the northern section of Wenyi Road, primarily features Tang Dynasty Music and Dance Show alongside dumpling banquets.

Xi'an Dumpling Banquet Restaurant has opened branches in more than ten cities including Beijing, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Zhengzhou, Taiyuan, Shenyang, Urumqi, and has also traveled across the ocean to countries such as Japan and Thailand, and is deeply welcomed and loved by Chinese and foreign people.

Distinctive Features of Xi'an Dumpling Banquet

Creative

The banquet centers around traditional dumplings. Yet, the dumpling is brought forth new ideas in its color, fragrance, taste and style; meanwhile, is added ancient culture. Cooking methods of the dumpling banquet include steaming, boiling, pan-frying, deep-frying, and roasting. The fillings for dumpling include various meats, vegetables, and seasonings. Many flavors, including salty, sweet, hot, and sour are offered. 

Concerning the style, they make out various pretty and lovely styles such as flower, bird, grass, and fish, ect.

The serving method is also unique. The dishes are served in batches and finished with fruits, which symbolizes good luck and perfection.

Rich Ingredients

Another feature of the Xi'an Dumpling Banquet is its seasonally adapted fillings, creating a flavor that appeals to foodies home and abroad. The Xi'an Dumpling Banquet boasts a vast array of ingredients, including monkey head meat, bird's nest, sea cucumber, shark's fin, pork, beef, lamb, chicken, duck, goose, fish, and seasonal and wild vegetables.

To ensure the freshness of the fillings, seasonal ingredients are chosen accordingly, allowing people to enjoy distinctive seasonal dumplings year-round. In spring, awaken your taste buds with "Dumplings with Chicken, Rice, and Bamboo Shoot" and "Wild Shepherd's Purse Steamed Dumplings." In summer, enjoy the "Five Flavor Steamed Dumplings" and "Cloud Steamed Dumplings," In autumn, feast on "Child Chicken and Chestnut Steamed Dumplings," and in winter, don't miss "Winter Bamboo Shoot and Fish Steamed Dumplings."

A Range of Flavors

The dumplings have all kinds of flavors, including sour, spicy, sweet, seafood, fresh, and strange flavors, a total of seven flavors.

Elegant Names

With these new ideas, the dumpling banquet initially offered108 different kinds of Chinese Dumplings, now you can taste up to 238 varieties of dumplings. And elegant names are given to different themes of the banquet, such as "Dragon and Phoenix Feast", "Peony Feast", "Floral Feast", "Palatial Feast"  and " Eight Treasures Feast", etc. Each themed feast might consist of 15 to 20 different types of dumpling resembling different shapes and fillings. They are served according to the number of guests at the table. Even if you eat fast, you won’t be able to get a second dumpling of the same style.

Elegant and Interesting Way of Serving dishes

Following nutritional principles and dietary customs of Chinese cuisine, fried dumplings are served first on a Xian Dumpling Banquet, pan-fried dumplings second, and boiled dumplings last. This sequence of flavors also suits most palates: sweet first, salty second, numbing third, spicy fourth, unusual fifth, and sour sixth.

The sequence of fillings is equally meticulous: seafood first, followed by meat, chicken, and finally vegetarian options. After ten courses of dumplings, a silver ear fungus soup is served to cleanse the palate and soothe the throat. The banquet then transitions into another “phase.” A climactic finale arrives with the presentation of an antique-style, crown-like red-purple copper hotpot. Its milky broth is simmered from chicken and duck. Accompanying it is a plate of dumplings the size of pearls—the Empress Dowager Hot Pot.

At the end of the Xian Dumpling Banquet the waiter brought a plate of pears or other fruits, which subtly and politely hinted to the guests that it was time to leave after eating the pears, and also meant that the dumpling banquet had come to a successful end.

Plan a Xian Tour with Us and Taste Authentic Xian Dumpling Banquet

Xian dumpling banquet is indeed a mixed combination of good-looking, good smelling and good taste. It is said that to visit Xian without seeing the fantastic Terracotta Army as well as enjoying a dumpling banquet means that you have not really been to Xian at all! Get inspired by our best-selling Xian tours, or contact an expert at Easy Tour China to create your trip for Xian famous food.