The Loess Plateau and its dry-farmed grains

The Loess Plateau lies in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River, a high country of windblown yellow silt that covers much of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Gansu and reaches into neighbouring regions. The silt is deep, fine and easily worked, and it was among the earliest farmed soils of northern China; millet, the grain of the early north, was grown on it long before wheat became the staple. Rain is scarce and uncertain, so farming on the plateau has always meant dry farming: crops that tolerate drought, fields on terraces and slopes, and a cuisine built on what the dry land could be made to yield.

The cooking of the plateau begins with its grains. Foxtail millet Setaria italica and broomcorn millet Panicum miliaceum are the old crops of the north, and they remain at the table as porridges and as steamed or fried cakes. Wheat, which tolerates a dry climate, became the dominant staple of the northern provinces, and in Shanxi and Shaanxi it is turned into an extraordinary range of noodles and breads: knife-cut noodles shaved from a block of dough into boiling water, hand-pulled ribbons, noodles pinched or rolled by hand, and flatbreads baked or griddled. Oats, buckwheat, sorghum and a variety of pulses fill out the grain store, and the cook treats these as the foundation of a meal rather than an accompaniment to it. Flavour on the plateau is built from a short list of seasonings used with confidence. Shanxi is known for its dark, aged vinegar made from grain, and the sour note it gives is the defining character of the region's noodles and cold dishes. Chilli, garlic, scallion and fermented bean pastes are the other voices, while meat, above all mutton and pork, appears in modest quantity as a topping or a broth rather than as the centre of the meal. The cooking is hearty and plain in structure, and its skill lies in texture: the chew of a noodle, the crust of a flatbread, the body of a long-cooked broth. The land shapes the house as well as the table. In parts of the plateau people have long lived in cave dwellings cut into the loess, and the cooking there is done on the brick bed-stove and in the courtyard, with grains stored through the winter and vegetables preserved by drying and pickling. This is a cooking of storage and patience, designed for a climate of hard winters and short growing seasons. Fuchsia Dunlop, in Invitation to a Banquet, writes of Chinese cooking as a matter of balance between staple and accompanying dishes, and the plateau shows that principle in its plainest form, with the grain carrying the meal and every other dish placed in its service.

A meal on the plateau is built on a bowl of noodles or a plate of steamed bread, seasoned at the table with dark vinegar, chilli oil and garlic according to the diner's taste. The sourness of the vinegar is the signature of Shanxi in particular, and it cuts through the richness of mutton and the weight of the wheat. Millet porridge, served warm, is the traditional morning and evening dish, and the tradition counts it a gentle, nourishing food, especially for the sick and for women after childbirth.