Xi'an Famous Foods: The Cuisine of Western China, from New York's Favorite Noodle Shop Hardcover – October 13, 2020

I mainly picked up this book because I have been a huge fan of the restaurant ever since a friend of mine who lived in Flushing told me about the opening of one of her favorite restaurants in the St Marks area of NYC that I used to frequent often back then. When Xian Famous Foods opened in the LES (Lower East Side for the unfamiliar), I had recently returned from my first trip to the Eastern Hemisphere to visit a friend who worked for the US Embassy in China. I spent a few months traveling to various places there and loved it (including Xi'an, but just briefly to see the Terra Cotta Soldiers). I was initially attracted to XFF in NYC by the very cheap prices for a filling, unique, and delicious meal (I think the lamb burger was only $2? Try finding prices like those in NYC!) but after a while I found myself having cravings and making the trek over to the LES for some good noodles in soup or a quick bite of the burgers.Due to events of 2020 XFF has been (mostly) closed in NYC at the moment and when I heard about this book I wanted to try to see if I can get my XFF cravings satisfied at home. I was pleasantly surprised by this book! Originally I was expecting more of a cookbook for some of the dishes at one of my more favorite "fast casual" restaurants in NYC (which it is!), but this book is so much more, for me it was also a coming-of-age slash rags-to-riches story, a nice nostalgia trip (I have a lot of Asian friends in NYC, so I have also had some Circle/KTown nights that Jason describes at one point), and an appreciative retrospection for Jason, all while making my mouth water the whole entire time.One thing I love about this book as a cookbook is the simplified list of ingredients -- most cookbooks require a large array of ingredients to craft the recipes at home on your own, which becomes even more of a problem when the recipes require ingredients that are quickly perishable. I feel like there are a small subset of ingredients required that are constantly used throughout the recipes in this book, if you are fortunate enough to live near an Asian market you can get started on many of the recipes right away in a short amount of time. It also really shows you the versatility of the ingredients, with some creativity you can use some of the sauces and spices to make a "XFF-style" dish of your own.Do yourself a favor and grab a copy of this book for your shelf and try out some of the recipes! If you are intimidated by some of the steps, like noodle-pulling to be specific, take a look around the internet for some videos to help supplement the book, once you see the process it becomes a lot less intimidating

I bought the Kindle version back in 2020, and tried to make the recipes in this book.Most of the recipes are divided from their large batch of housemade sauces, condiments. Their stories come from a cultural standpoint of Xi'an cuisine of the North. Their immigrant story is very unique, and how their business was built on their food and his father's beginnings and how it grew within the family. Jason expanded their business within NY, and wanted to spread the culture through its cuisine.The recipes are more approachable to all people in America, and those who visit their branches of the restaurants.I have tried 5 recipes from.this book. I divided the recipes as I am the only one will eat it - it's mild spicy, warm spices, and very flavorful. The flavors and textures really sticks to you in a very good way! It's quite addictive because of the Sichuan peppercorns. Then the taste us amazing.I made the XFF noodles sauce, chili oil, spicy and tingling beef and spicy and cumin beef skewers and the bean curd sheets, and the hot oil seared biang biang noodles.The biang biang noodles is quite an experience making your own hand pulled noodles from scratch and with a stand mixer. When it's cooked, it's chewy in texture but still a fun eating experience.I substituted few ingredients because I didn't have any. I used low sodium soy sauce, Kashmir red chilies.These recipes are excellent, a fun cooking and eating experience at home.There are a few reviews that recipes are difficult like the chili oil, spicy and tingling sauce. Methods using a hand whisk, use an immersion blender or hand mixer,if you don't want to mix and stand for a long time.,Recipes are well thought,, redeveloped from the original and are addictively delicious.I highly recommend pouring the oil outside your patio.

I received my cookbook today and spent a couple hours reading it. The cookbook exceeded my expectations, which includes family history as well as recipes that go beyond the Xi’an Famous Foods restaurants. I discovered Xi’an Famous Foods during my daughter’s Junior year at NYU. I was so upset it took her so long to discover it, it’s that good! I plan on starting with, and perfecting, a basic dish with Biang-Biang noodles. Next I’ll move on to XFF spicy and sour dumplings, a personal fav. Did you know it’s normal to freeze dumplings for future use?! Who knew, now I won’t feel like a shortcut cheat! There’s a recipe for “West Fu “Pretzels” “ They look so pretty and I can’t wait for an opportunity to surprise my young adult children with them! This cookbook will keep me busy for years!UPDATE 10/28/2020: According to my daughter, the Biang-Biang noodles and Mt. Qi Vegetables tasted just like the restaurant (my first attempt she said I cut the vegetables too small, but my second attempt was just right). Tonight I made dumplings, dumpling skin dough and spinach dumpling filling, without the Sichuan peppercorns, because she doesn’t like spice. She said it was the best dumplings she’s ever had. For myself I made spinach dumpling skin dough with the pork and chives dumpling filling. I used the XFF dumpling sauce XFF chili oil for the dish I remembered at the restaurant.

I love cookbooks where the writer's voice comes through, and this is one of the best I've read since the Nom Wah cookbook. I also like the recipes. However, the way it's organized into groupings that only make sense to the author makes it really hard to use. It's good enough for a five star but on ease of finding recipes you want to use it's a two. I mean, what does "remix" mean? Or "throwback"? It doesn't say noodles or chicken, or even main dishes. I wish it was more intuitive or just had a table of contents at the beginning of each section, or more descriptive section headings.