Picture this: hand-ripped noodles doused in spicy chili oil and cumin-spiced lamb sandwiched between two buns. These dishes come from the successful Chinese-owned chain Xi\u2019an Famous Foods, a Chinese restaurant in Flushing, Queens, created by father-son duo David and Jason Wang. This chain separates itself from the traditional Chinese American restaurants by boldly serving Northwestern Chinese cuisine from the owners\u2019 hometown of Xi\u2019an, China. By exploring the restaurant\u2019s official cookbook, Xi\u2019an Famous Foods: The Cuisine of Western China, from New York\u2019s Favorite Noodle Shop, we can trace the origins of Xi\u2019an Famous Foods and better understand why it was able to succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The success of Xi’an Famous Foods did not happen overnight, it was the result of hard work and word-of-mouth. In the spring of 2006, David Wang opened up a stall in Flushing\u2019s Golden Mall\u2019s food court. As soon as he opened,\u201cword spread fast; people started coming in from out of state to try [their] liang pi,\u201d a dish native to Xi\u2019an.1<\/a><\/sup> The decision to exclusively focus on Xi\u2019an cuisine proved crucial. Their restaurant\u2019s dishes became a unique selling point to attract customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2007, chef Anthony Bourdain featured them on his TV show, No Reservations, where he tried various dishes from different countries. Thanks to Bourdain, the restaurant\u2019s \u201clines get longer and more diverse.\u201d2<\/a><\/sup> No longer are they serving just Chinese customers; now, more Americans from various backgrounds want to try their food. Today, the restaurant has sixteen different locations and continues to grow its business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To conclude, Xi\u2019an Famous Foods illustrates the success of an immigrant-owned business that thrived because of their authentic Chinese flavors that they mixed with American styles to create new dishes that attracted a wide array of customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Picture this: hand-ripped noodles doused in spicy chili oil and cumin-spiced lamb sandwiched between two buns. These dishes come from the successful Chinese-owned chain Xi\u2019an Famous Foods, a Chinese restaurant in Flushing, Queens, created by father-son duo David and Jason Wang. This chain separates itself from the traditional Chinese American restaurants by boldly serving Northwestern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1248,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","api_coordinates_pp":"40.7578618,-73.8295982","footnotes":"[{\"id\":\"d9b2ab03-5e59-4d5c-80d6-877737b5865f\",\"content\":\"Wang, Jason. Xi'an Famous Foods: The Cuisine of Western China, from New York's Favorite Noodle Shop. New York (Abrams, 2020), 171.\"},{\"id\":\"a1ec071d-c302-49ce-b7e6-27fdef7fa48c\",\"content\":\"Wang, Jason. Xi'an Famous Foods: The Cuisine of Western China, from New York's Favorite Noodle Shop. New York (Abrams, 2020), 172.\"}]"},"tags":[13],"location_types":[17],"class_list":["post-1247","locations","type-locations","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-queens","location_types-location"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/nyfoodatlas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/locations\/1247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/nyfoodatlas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/locations"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/nyfoodatlas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/locations"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/nyfoodatlas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/nyfoodatlas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/nyfoodatlas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/locations\/1247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1485,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/nyfoodatlas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/locations\/1247\/revisions\/1485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/nyfoodatlas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/nyfoodatlas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/nyfoodatlas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1247"},{"taxonomy":"location_types","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/nyfoodatlas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location_types?post=1247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Take a bite into Xi\u2019an Famous Foods and their success story from a small basement food stall to a restaurant chain with 16 locations. Whether it\u2019s their Chinese hand-ripped noodles and beef doused in spicy chili oil or their cumin-spiced lamb sandwiched between two buns, it\u2019ll leave you wanting more.
Campus: Queens College
Professor: Archie Porter
Location: 41-10 Main St, Flushing, NY 11355
References: Wang, Jason. Xi’an Famous Foods: The Cuisine of Western China, from New York’s Favorite Noodle Shop. New York: Abrams, 2020.<\/div>\n\n\n