One of my absolute favorite meals on my trip back to China this year was at what is called a “Nong Jia Le”. This translates to having fun at a farmer’s home, which my experience very accurately resembled.
The Nong Jia Le we went to was located in a smaller suburb in the Shaanxi province called Mian Xian. We started our journey in Shanghai, where we then flew to Xian, took a high speed train to Han Zhong (~1 hour), then drove about 45 minutes to Mian Xian. We wouldn’t have ventured out to the area on our own, but Shiping’s mom’s side of the family lives in both Han Zhong and Mian Xian. This was the perfect reason to visit and get to taste foods in these neighboring areas of Xian.
Nong Jia Le’s are actually quite common in China.
They were popularized in the last couple decades to encourage rural tourism. This specific operation was run by just 2 of Shiping’s extended family – the chef and his wife. The chef spent many years cooking at a restaurant before deciding to start this Nong Jia Le.


When we arrived, there were already many young cousins running around. The chef brought out sunflower seeds and tea for us to munch on while we waited for the rest of our family to arrive.
Most of the time, this specific Nong Jia Le is run by just the husband and wife duo. However, since they already had some other reservations in addition to us, their other family members came over to help out as well.
This was really a great excuse to have a big family reunion, with all the aunites, uncles, and baby cousins all hanging out while also putting together a big feast for us.
After all of our family members arrived, we moved into 1 of their 3 dining rooms with round tables and big lazy Susans. This is a bit more commercialized than other Nong Jia Le’s. Shiping shared with me the other times he’s been to similar experiences, it’s typical to eat in host’s living room. Nevertheless, these individual dining rooms still felt homey and fun.
The specialty of this chef is fish 3 ways. He had a tank of live fish outside his kitchen with fish being recently caught in a nearby river. When it comes time for the meal, he kills and guts the fish fresh for the 3 courses. The vegetables used in our meal were also all planted from farm land and planters nearby. Seeing this was truly inspirational and what I’d envision as close as you’ll get to a farm to table dining experience.
The first dish was the star of the show – ma la yu, also known as spicy poached fish.


I was lucky enough to get a quick sneak peak of the kitchen. The base of the ma la yu started by frying chilis, peppercorns, and aromatics in a wok over super high heat. This is what gave the whole dish the iconic spicy and numbing flavor. The fish was cut into very thin slices and poached at the end for just a few moments to maintain a tender and flakey texture.
In addition to the fish, there were flat vermicelli noodles and a variety of different vegetables and tofus. The best types of vegetables to include in this are ones that absorb the flavor of the broth. The different types of mushrooms, potatoes, and tofu products are my favorite!


The second fish course was a thin and crispy fried fish filet, or za yu pian. The fish was cut into super thin pieces, lightly dredged, and fried until golden brown. I loved the texture of this dish – it was crisp, light, and airy from the panko breading, and just the slightest bit chewy from the fish skin. The seasoning on this was simple, where the prominent flavors were from the fish, oil, and red chili flakes.

The third and last fish course was the fish head and tomato soup. As odd as it might sound, this was the perfect compliment to the other 2 dishes. If you’re familiar with more western foods, you could also think of this as tomato soup made with fumet.
The slightly sweet tomaotes and simple but flavorful fish stock was exactly what I needed to balance out the spicy and slightly numbing ma la yu.
After our table was about half way through devouring our 3 courses of fish, the next dish arrived. The lamb soup with wintermelon had a strong gamey lamb flavor, so it wasn’t really my cup of tea. However, the wintermelon and carrots were a nice touch.


The last dish – jiang shui mian, or pickled vegetable noodles – was made by request from one of our cousins. I’ve had this flavor before with spicy fish at Chinese restaurants in the Bay Area, but this version was made with just noodles. Since this was a last minute request, the chef wasn’t able to make this with the traditional homemade noodles. That being said we still devoured the entire bowl and ate every last piece of noodle.


Throughout the night, the atmosphere was light, fun, and very celebratory. Not only were we celebrating our marriage and this next chapter of our lives, but this was also the first time in 10+ years that all of Shiping’s moms siblings were reunited. The night included of many family photos, stories from childhood, belly laughs, and bai jiu toasts (wine for me).
It was truly a special dinner with an incredibly memorable last night in Shaanxi. As we departed, all the family members were smiling, hugging, and telling us to come back to visit soon with a “bao bao”. As much as I had my hesitations leading up to our trip back to China, we were welcomed with so much love, excitement, and truly delicious foods. It’s quite a trek to make it to Mian Xian, but I’m very much looking forward to our next trip back.
If you liked this post, stay tuned for more Travel Food Diary entries! I plan to share my guide to Xian’s Street Foods, 8 Popular Shanghainese breakfast items, and a review of everything we ate in the Maldives.
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