Shanxi cuisine

Shanxi cuisine (山西菜 or ) is derived from the native cooking styles of the Shanxi region in China, and it is famed for noodles, its fried flatbread (da bing), and its sour taste. The cuisine is also famed for utilizing its locally produced vinegar, just like the Huaiyang cuisine, but the flavor is totally different.

Generally speaking, Cuisine of Shanxi is quite little known for people outside this region. One of the causes is because Shanxi province is not very populated, compare to other province of China. And being a very traditional region where the lifestyle of locals have not been modernized, many outsiders find cuisine of Shanxi province sometimes is too authentic and traditional.

Despite of the use of pork and chicken, one of the most popular meat supplies in Shanxi is lamb, as well as some other parts of the body of a goat or sheep. For example, locally popular lamb soup is usually cooked with livers, stomach, and some other organs from a lamb. However, as a traditional area with strong cultural connections with early Northwest Asian nomadic nations and minorities, the use of lamb in Shanxi has been presenting a unique and blended way of cooking of both North Chinese minorities and Han Chinese. For example, using ground lamb and carrots as a common kind of dumpling filling, is something that has not yet been found in any other Chinese cooking styles outside Shanxi province. Also, blending ground pork with chopped dill is another kind of popular dumpling filling...
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