Zhangye local cuisine prefers wheat over rice in terms of its staple foods and it is more likely to be added with mutton, chicken and beef. When it comes to noodles, Gansu flavours are more complex and strong.
Saozi Noodles
Saozi Noodles are the most common and the most popular breakfast in Zhangye. The making of noodles stresses "thin, bright. and refined, "indicating that the noodles must be thin. the colour must be bright and the noodles must taste great. The chicken soup is for the best taste.
Small Rice
Small Rice has its name because of the small wheat dough. small tofu, and small pieces of vegetables. It Is cooked by small condiments, using the local products such as red bean, sheet jelly and beef.
Pickled Pork
The pickled port has been cooked in soup for a long time, tasting delicious with a great scent, the fat and thin parts of pork mixing together. When the pork is out of the pan, both ends of the pork will be a little curly The pork could both be the appetizer and go with the wine. It is one of the indispensable snaps in the getting together parties in the spare time of the local people.
Fragrant Rice
Fragrant Rice is also named Northwest Big Dish When making this rice, the heart. liver and lung of the pig will be minced and be added with flour and condiments such as salt, onion and garlic. Then thin pieces of fat meat will also be put into a suitable amount of soup. This dish is colourful. delicious, being one of the "musts' the dinners in Zhangye.
Oil Cake
The surface of the oil cake is crisp and bright with a golden colour. When it is put into the mouth, it tastes soft and sweet. The colour, flavour and taste of the cake are all great, and every clement of making the cake from the selection of resources the arrangement of ingredients, the control of fire, to the production is very special.
Fish-shaped Powder
This snap is made by exquisite horsebean starch and looks like a small fish.
The colour is white or red. Eating together with the condiment. you will feel cool and smooth, fulfilling both your hunger and thirst. It is a very native local snap
Sheet Jelly and Gluten
The two snaps are both very common and very special in Zhangye. They are easy to store for a long time and easy to eat. They can be cooked with vegetables and also can be made into soups, they can oven been found in the chaffy dish. They are not only the main resources for famous snaps in Zhangye but also the common ingredients in daily life.
Entwisting Noodles
This snap gets its name because it is hand-made and resembles the shape of small fish. However just because of the handmaking procedure. its taste is smooth and clear. It can be eaten with soup or with nothing else. The original resource can be buckwheat, barley, or wheat. The eaters decide.
Plucking Noodles
The plucking noodles are also named soup noodles. They have a long history and are easy to make. The noodles can be large or fine, thin or thick, and round or flat. The noodles are soft and smooth clean and clear fine and unceasing. The taste is delicious. and the noodles can satisfy one's hunger or thirst. This snap is special for its local characters.
Where to taste?
Zhangye cuisine is simple and hearty, you won't leave the hungry. Although the noodles and dumplings are predominant, however, it is still very hard to find good restaurants.
In the Ganzhou Gourmet Street, which is located in the East Minzhu Street of Zhangye, tourists can taste all kinds of local food. The Snacks Street usually opens at six in the morning and closes at three or four o'clock in the morning of the next day. On both sides stand the snack stalls, which serve various snacks at a low price. At the two ends of the Snacks Street, people have erected archaized archway, which is both of primitive simplicity and unconventional, in a hope of restoring the scenery of ancient Zhaneye.
