Shaanxi restaurant in Box Hill specialises in dishes from Shaanxi Province China
You know Cantonese and Sichuan food, but have you tried Shaanxi? It’s the lesser known style of Chinese — including the Chinese version of a hamburger — and this Box Hill restaurant is a great introduction, writes Dan Stock.
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They stand proud and strong, resolute. Their focus unflinching, the mission clear, their goal: protection for eternity.
One of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century, the terracotta warriors of Xi’an — a staggering life-size army crafted and buried more than 2300 years ago to guard China’s first emperor in the afterlife — has become, since their discovery in 1974, one of China’s biggest tourist attractions with upwards of 20,000 people a day visiting.
While the scale of the army displayed in situ in the mausoleum is indeed staggering so, too, is the sheer number of tourists ticking off a bucket list item. It’s … hectic. Shoulders and elbows and selfie sticks alike are used as weapons, feet are collateral damage and as final resting places go it’s far from reverential.
Displayed in conjunction — or in art world terms “in dialogue” — with one of China’s great contemporary artists, Cai Guo-Qiang, the terracotta warriors currently at the NGV offer a more meditative, contemplative environment and if you are yet to visit this year’s Melbourne Winter Masterpieces, I highly recommend it.
Just as an army marches on its stomach, so, too, do gallerygoers and should you want to make it a truly immersive one-two double act, team a visit to the exhibition with a trip to Box Hill for a meal at Shaanxi restaurant.
One of just a handful of eateries in Melbourne that specialise in the cuisine of Shaanxi province, it’s an expeditiously low-fi affair with colour mainly provided by the steady stream of EASI delivery riders in their safety first yellow outfits picking up orders to go.
Tables are set with bowls, pots of chilli and vinegar and a box of tissues — which you’ll need for the food is bold, robust and spicy.
Once the starting point of the Silk Road, Shaanxi cuisine has a strong Islamic influence — the Muslim quarter is one of the most popular eat streets in the capital Xi’an — so you’ll find lamb and beef in many dishes as well as the more commonly used pork.
Here at Box Hill’s Shaanxi, that lamb is served in one of the region’s most popular street foods — roujiamo.
Meaning “meat in bread”, it’s like a Chinese version of a hamburger, with the dense toasted bread filled with cumin-spiced, shredded braised beef mixed with mild green chillies that add a little welcome heat. For $6, it’s a terrific opening snack or quick lunch on go.
Also good to begin are the fried chive dumplings; large, oil-blistered crescents filled with minced pork and chives, finely chopped potato jelly noodles and crumbled egg yolks. They’re oily, crunchy and very delicious ($7.80 for 3).
Yangrou paomo is arguably the most famous specialty of the cuisine and the version served here is reason alone to visit Box Hill.
An aromatic bowl of shredded flatbread soaked in a mutton broth, it’s served scoldingly hot, the unleavened bread squares plumped by the meaty soup that has a satisfying roast lamb fattiness. Generously topped with mutton slices and further bolstered with thin rice noodles, black fungus and a bit of chopped coriander, honestly, for a cold Melbourne winter’s day or night you can’t go wrong ($11.90).
Noodles, unsurprisingly, are a key feature across Shaanxi menus, with the thick, wide “biangbiang noodles” the most popular. This flour-based noodle — which takes its name from the sound the dough makes when hitting the kitchen bench as it’s being hand-pulled — comes traditionally dressed with garlic, chilli and vinegar ($12.90) but there’s 20-odd variations of noodle dishes to explore.
From the knife cut “dao xiao” with beef flank through “qishan” that comes with pork, these sub $13 bowls make for a mighty meal, especially when teamed with a bottle of lurid orange Ice Peak — Shaanxi’s answer to Fanta — out of the help yourself fridge filled with Chinese soft drinks of various shades of artificial colour.
A terrific sweet plain yoghurt drink is good for quelling the chilli burn ($3.50), while a random lucky dip delivered a can described to me as “sweet herbal tea” that tasted a bit like prunes ($2.50).
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Dumplings, of course, make an appearance and the suantang shuijiao, or hot and sour soup dumplings, are another must-try specialty.
With fiery chilli oil floating atop the black vinegar-sour chicken soup like a tanker spill, the fumes are cough-tinglingly, eye-burningly powerful. Underneath the lava-red slick more than a dozen fat velvety soft, handmade pastry parcels are generously filled with a pork chive mix that’s tender and fragrant. It’s a sweaty, deeply addictive bowl that makes a mess of that tissue box ($12.90).
No frills, no fuss, Shaanxi-Style Restaurant is the perfect introduction to a regional cuisine less famous than Cantonese or Sichuan but with as much interest and appeal. It’s good enough for eternity, after all.
SHAANXI-STYLE RESTAURANT
945 Whitehorse Rd, Box Hill
Ph: 9899 8385
Open: Tues-Sun, 11am-9.30pm
Go-to dish: Yangrou paomo (mutton soup)
Score 13/20
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