Qiao Mian Hele (Buckwheat Pressed Noodles)

Before wheat took over the Guanzhong plain, the staple grain here was buckwheat — and qiáo miàn héle (荞面饸饹, "buckwheat pressed noodles") is its survivor. Hele are long, round, faintly chewy strands of buckwheat dough forced through a heavy wooden lever press called a 饸饹床子 (héle chuángzi) straight into a pot of boiling water — a method older than the drawn noodle. The flour is buckwheat (荞麦, qiáomài), a coarse grain the locals prize for being light on the stomach, low-GI, and — in traditional medicine — "cooling," which is why bowls of it appear on hot afternoons.

It is a Guanzhong heartland specialty, and the two famous schools both sit near Xi'an: Lantian (蓝田, the county just southeast, whose buckwheat hele is a Xi'an municipal intangible-heritage item) and Chunhua (淳化, further north, known for a "one-black-two-red" mutton-broth version). Hele is counted among the "three great northern noodles" alongside Lanzhou beef noodles and Shanxi knife-cut noodles.

You'll meet it two ways: hot, in a clear mutton broth with chili oil and cilantro; or cold, dressed with black vinegar, garlic and chili — the summer bowl. The buckwheat lends a faintly earthy, nutty note wheat noodles don't have. It is the dish to order when you want something that feels lighter, and older, than the wheat-and-oil canon Xi'an is famous for.