In this episode, I traveled to Lanzhou, a city in northwest China. Lanzhou is the capital city of Gansu Province, with the famous Yellow River running through the entire urban area.
In the early morning, I joined the bustling crowd of Lanzhou residents and hurried to the largest market in Lanzhou-Wuquan Comprehensive Market. While wandering through the market, I fully experienced the lively atmosphere and unique scenes: vendors freely setting up their stalls, with bold personalities, and the constant hustle and bustle of sales pitches echoing through the air. People crowded around stalls selling various fruits, vegetables, and meats, making the narrow aisles barely passable. Surprisingly, even the less-than-a-meter-wide narrow passageways were filled with a variety of food stalls. People rubbed shoulders as they eagerly explored the fresh and delicious offerings. The market was adorned with fried melon seed stalls, drawing crowds who lined up to buy various roasted snacks. The lively scene of people clamoring for roasted melon seeds left a deep impression on me and filled me with surprise at the enthusiasm of Lanzhou residents for this snack.
With a large population of Hui Muslims in Lanzhou, Hui ethnic food dominates the market. Everywhere in the Lanzhou market, neatly arranged baked flatbreads can be seen. These flatbreads come in various shapes and sizes, with an impressive appearance, enticing color, and quite affordable prices.
Various street snacks made on the spot are also diverse, including spicy pancakes, baked flatbreads, potato pancakes, dumplings, and wheat sheet noodles, all deeply loved by locals, with a constant stream of customers.
00:00 Overview of the video
01:45 Arrival at the market
02:36 Making Sanzi (fried dough twists)
04:24 Making spicy pancakes on the spot
10:13 Making Lanzhou flatbreads on the spot
16:38 Multigrain rice flower sticks
18:43 Bustling vegetable area
21:42 Roasting melon seeds on the spot
23:51 Freshly pressed sesame oil, gun-roasted pig skin, thirteen spices
28:08 Crazy rush to buy roasted melon seeds
30:51 Lanzhou wheat sheet noodles
32:56 Groceries and snacks
39:07 Affordable baked flatbreads
40:02 Popular potato pancakes
42:42 Delicious potstickers (dumplings)