The Official Xi’an Famous Foods Story

In China, friends greet each other with “Chi fan le ma?” Have you eaten? Or, quite literally, Have you eaten rice? My dad, though, says, “Yao bu yao chi mian?” Do you want to eat some noodles?

My dad’s dream was always to open up a restaurant of his own to serve mian, noodles of all kinds in all forms, soupy or saucy, hot or cold. It’s his comfort food. I’d come home from school and find him with chopsticks in one hand, a pot in the other, stirring vigorously as droplets of soy sauce stained his shirt. “Yao bu yao mian?” he’d ask, before putting a stainless steel mixing bowl of the day’s experiment in front of me.