From calabash chicken to hotpot handled with care, one Beijing eatery is specializing in serving up the authentic tastes of old Xi'an, Li Yingxue reports.

Youku's currently streaming hit thriller The Longest Day in Chang'an starring singer-actor Yi Yangqianxi and actor Lei Jiayin has generated more than 10 million comments on Sina Weibo.

Set in Chang'an, today's Xi'an and the capital of Shaanxi province, during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the series has piqued viewer interest, not only with its cliff-hanger plotlines, but also its delicious local gastronomy-from stewed mutton in a basin down to the local persimmons-eaten by character Zhang Xiaojing, played by Lei.

According to Kang Jian, a Shaanxi cuisine chef from Weinan, Shaanxi province, the authentic way to eat the stewed mutton is to pair it with two crispy pancakes-using chopsticks to open one and fill it with mutton and some chili oil and eat with soup; and then tearing up the other one into small cubes and put them in the soup, which should be eaten once the cubes soak up the flavor of the soup.

"In Shaanxi, we don't separate a bowl from a basin, as both vessels can be used to hold food," says Kang.

Kang, 40, started his culinary journey 20 years ago. After learning and practicing Cantonese cuisine, Sichuan cuisine and Beijing cuisine, two years ago he decided to focus on cooking up the flavors of his hometown for foodies in Beijing.

"Unlike other popular Chinese cuisines which have thousands of restaurants in Beijing, Shaanxi cuisine is still rare, so I wanted to introduce Shaanxi delicacies to more people," says Kang.

He is now the executive chef of restaurant chain Chang An'G in Beijing, which has just opened its fourth branch at Chaoyang Joy City.

According to Kang, Chang'an cuisine flourished during the Tang Dynasty, but these dishes are now difficult to find, even in Xi'an. But at Chang An'G, Kang specializes in replicating traditional main courses that originated in the Tang Dynasty-Chang'an calabash chicken.

The chicken is a special kind raised only in Xi'an, and Kang selects most that weigh about 1.3 kilograms and are around 1 year old. First, the chicken has to be thoroughly washed and quickly boiled to remove any traces of blood before it's steamed over chicken stock for three hours.

The chicken is then hung up to cool for an hour after steaming.

The final step is to coat the chicken with flour and deep fry it. The chicken is served whole to the table to allow diners to take photos. The waiters peel off the skin like a jacket, debone the chicken, and then re-cover the meat with the skin. A shredded chili dipping sauce is served alongside the chicken.

"Traditionally the chicken is tied up to form the shape of a calabash (bottle gourd), but these days we just make it look like a whole chicken," says Kang.

In Kang's mind, Shaanxi cuisine typically has a sour and spicy flavor-but not as spicy as Sichuan cuisine.

Stewed carp from the Yellow River is a Shaanxi specialty where Kang uses a special kind of local vinegar made with persimmon.

Noodles are another signature dish in Shaanxi cuisine, especially the hand-pulled noodles seared in chili oil. "It looks like a simple dish, but actually requires several steps," says Kang.

To make the perfect dough, the chef must ensure the mixture is not sticky to the touch by using the correct proportion of water to flour.

The seasoning is placed in the bottom of the bowl, and then the noodles, followed by a layer of mixed chili powder. Finally, the chef will pour on a measure of hot oil to finish off the dish.

"The timing for pouring the oil is the key. If it's too early, the chili powder will still have a raw flavor, or the oil will burn it to a black color, which gives it the wrong flavor," Kang explains.

People in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces and the Ningxia Hui autonomous region enjoy the same kind of opera-Qinqiang Opera, a typical folk performance art from Shaanxi province.

According to Kang, people in that region also eat the same hotpot, where several ingredients are boiled together in a black clay pot shaped like a traditional Beijing copper hotpot.

At Chang An'G, Kang adds different mushrooms to the pot to give more flavor to the soup base. Clay pots are not commonly used in Beijing, and they are also becoming rare in Xi'an because the skills needed to produce the handmade pots are dying out.

Kang says the clay pot makes the soup rich. As clay pots are easily broken, Kang asks his ch-1efs to handle the old clay pots with special care.

According to Kang, 70 percent of the ingredients he uses at his restaurant are from Shaanxi. Tofu from Liangjiahe village is just one example, as it's flown in from Yan'an to the capital each day.

"To assess the taste of tofu, you have to check the quality of the soybeans and the water-these are the only two things you need to make tofu," says Kang. "And the quality of both the soybeans and water are checked in Liangjiahe."

Roujiamo, or Chinese hamburger, is also a traditional dish of Shaanxi. The most common version uses a plain pancake, while Kang chooses the style of his hometown, Tongguan county in Weinan, which uses lard to create a crispy, multilayered version.

For the pancake filling, pork from black pigs raised in Shaanxi province is used. "When I was a kid, every family raised this kind of black pig, which is small and grows slowly, and the meat tastes delicious," says Kang.

"But, as I grew up, a new kind of pink pig which grows much faster and bigger suddenly replaced the black ones. However, they are not as tasty," he says.

Kang finally found a place that still raises the traditional black pigs, and he decided to use their meat to make the roujiamo, which reminds him of the taste of his childhood.

Roujiamo is always served with rice noodles. Unlike the usual chili oil sauce, at Chang An'G, Kang prepares rice noodles in tomato sauce which also comes from his childhood memories. Peeled tomatoes are fermented in a can with salt and ginger for days before they're chopped and fried with chilis.

"It's a traditional sauce in my hometown, which I want to pass on," says Kang, adding that Beijing diners prefer to eat rice noodles with sesame sauce, which is not common in Shaanxi.

Rice spirit is another Shaanxi specialty. Kang has selected several types of local varieties. One highlight is a spirit that uses black rice, black sesame, black beans, black dates and walnuts to create a dark and nutritious tipple.

"We know that people in old Chang'an would drink a lot without getting drunk, because the truth is the rice spirit has an alcohol by volume content of just 2 percent," says Kang.