Food in Dunhuang has many, you know! Things like stinky rice cakes, donkey meat pancakes, lamb soup, hand-pulled sheep skewers, and stir-fried jujube fruits are all highly recommended. There’s also some great local specialties hidden away in small alleys that are well worth trying.
Outside of food, Dunhuang has plenty of unique local products too - things like apricots, dates, seedless grapes, Dumohua grapes, melon seeds from Qing Shan mountain, and fragrant plums.
If you’re looking for something even more special to eat, we have a desert outdoor camping activity that’s just perfect! We’ll prepare specially-made red mulberry grilled meat and various fruits for your enjoyment - I guarantee you won’t be satisfied unless you try it! Come on down, welcome us and let’s play together in the “Gobi” wilds!
I’m a self-drive tourist to Dunhuang. The main destinations were Demon City, Yolong Pass, Yangguan, and Echoing Sand Mountain. Honestly, before arriving at these places, we passed through the Qinghai Lake desert area; but since Echoing Sand Mountain was closer to town, I only had time for some casual sightseeing and didn’t specifically seek out delicious food.
Dunhuang, not only has a mysterious and far-reaching history but also dishes that are full of wonder. The food here, with its Gansu cuisine’s boldness and northwest cuisine’s purity, has an essence unique to Dunhuang! Besides well-known delicacies like donkey meat yellow noodles and mulberry flatbread, I’d like to recommend a few “hidden” culinary delights from this ancient city.
One of which is the Hu sheep mutton pie. If I had to recommend just one dish in all of Dunhuang’s cuisine, it would be this. The origins of the Hu people’s gastronomical tradition gave rise to this delicacy, with its harmonious fusion of warm goat meat and crunchy flat noodles.
After being served on a plate, each bite is like an explosion of flavors, soft and chewy enough to make your mouth water. It absorbs all the rich gravy so well that it’s hard to stop eating once you start! By now, this dish has become one of Dunhuang’s top 10 local culinary delights; I’ve eaten it many times but still can’t get tired of it.
The steamed buns are similar; they may look plain and simple at first glance, but each bite is like a party in your mouth - the fermentation process gives them an acidic flavor that pairs surprisingly well with a hint of bitterness… Actually, what sets these steamed buns apart from others is their broth: made with ingredients such as coriander leaves, white radish greens, and yeast extract, which are fermented together for three days to create this unique delicacy.
Fermented mung bean has many health benefits - it can help clear heat in the body, improve appetite, regulate blood pressure, and even provide some therapeutic effects on digestive diseases. So no wonder every household in Dunhuang prepares a batch of these buns during summer! If you happen to visit around that time, make sure not to miss this classic local specialty!
Coming down from city center, it only takes three or four hundred meters before I’ll run into one of the iconic donkey meat yellow noodles shops. Donkey meat yellow noodles is indeed a signature dish from Dunhuang - it starts with a main course made from crispy donkey meat, paired with hand-rolled yellow noodles as its staple food.
This authentic version has very flavorful, almost silky noodles that are like strands of golden silk or dragon whiskers; they’re surprisingly soft yet able to be pulled apart by chopsticks. With the aroma filling your mouth, this is easily one of China’s most popular online recipe sites’ highest-rated dishes!