Niangpi is a traditional snack with strong local flavor in Qinghai. Vendors selling stuffed skins can be seen everywhere in Xining and towns in agricultural areas. To make skin is to mix a certain amount of plaster and dressing into wheat flour, mix it with warm water to make a hard dough, knead it for a few times, and then put it into cold water for constant rubbing to wash out the starch. When the dough becomes honeycomb, it is steamed in a steamer, which is called "gluten"

Then the precipitated starch paste is scooped into a steaming pan and steamed, which is called "steaming skin". Steamed stuffed skin is peeled off from the plate, cut into long strips, served with gluten, and poured with seasonings such as vinegar, spicy oil, mustard, leek and mashed garlic. It tastes spicy and refreshing, flexible and delicate, and has a long aftertaste.

2. Free steamed stuffed bun

In the early years, due to the lack of materials, some poor families in old Xining spontaneously developed a kind of pasta, which was stuffed with fried white flour and chopped pig fat, and made into steamed bread with rolled raw flour. The most technical test is the process of making steamed bread. If you put too much white flour, the steamed stuffed bun will dry up, and if you put too much lard, the stuffing will get tired and it will not form. Steamed for a long time, the skin will easily break, only white flour and lard are properly matched.

Steamed buns made with Zizyou will be silky, oily but not greasy, and have a long aftertaste. According to the older generation of Xining people, in the early years, due to the lack of materials, every holiday, many poor families would go to the meat stall to buy some lard, go home, fry the white flour (or mixed noodles), chop the lard, add chopped green onion, take the fried white flour and lard powder as the trap, take the rolled raw flour as the skin, and knead it into buns instead of meat buns.

3. Pan steamed buns

People who first came to Qinghai unanimously praised "Qinghai people have many steamed buns". People in Qinghai are not called steamed buns, they are called steamed buns. "Steamed bread" is just a general term.

People of all ethnic groups in agricultural and semi-agricultural areas in Qinghai often eat steamed buns in various forms, such as flower rolls, oil bags, oil cakes, qu Lian, oil incense, steamed buns on the stove, steamed buns (big steamed buns for ancestor worship) and pot steamed buns. They are traditional gifts that relatives and friends often carry in festivals, and they are also the staple food that every meal can't be separated from.

4. "Naked naked hemp food", referred to as hemp food for short, means kneading dough by hand, which is a common pasta for ancient Turks. First mix the noodles, knead them repeatedly, then cut them into small squares, and then knead them into small rolls with your thumb, which are shaped like ears, so they are commonly called "cat ears"; Finally, the cooked hemp food is cooked in boiling water. After taking out, add various seasonings, stir-fry, cool or stew. There are many ways to eat.

Generally, sheep meat is put, soup is poured, and seasoning is made with minced onion and garlic and minced coriander. The practice of hemp food is more labor-intensive than noodles, and the key is to mix, knead and rub noodles. Because of its exquisite eating method and rich varieties, it has become an essential staple food for Qinghai people to respect guests, welcome guests and get together. Huang Zhengyi, a gourmet in the Ming Dynasty, said in the book "Beads of Things": "Bare sesame food feeds on flour and is cooked into fried gravy."

5. Fried cake

Traditional cakes in Xining. Fried cakes are exquisite and have three characteristics: small size, thin skin and many patterns. Its patterns are divided into bean stuffing and sugar stuffing. There are four kinds of bean stuffing: adzuki bean, cowpea, lentil and kidney bean. There are two kinds of sugar fillings: brown sugar and white sugar, plus moss, rose, walnut kernel and preserved fruit. No matter what kind of oil cake stuffing, it tastes crisp outside and tender inside, with endless aftertaste.

When it comes to fried cake, many old people still remember it. The best fried cake is "Han's pimple". Song, a 76-year-old man, recalled that the operator of fried cakes was surnamed Han and lived in Dongguan. He has a big pimple on the back of his neck and is often wrapped in a blue towel, hence the name of his fried cake.