Datong people like to cook wheaten food. Datong cuisine is relatively salty and oily. The most famous dishes and local snacks include Cat Ear Noodles, Pea Noodles, Dried Bean Curd, Yellow Cake, and Yanggao Dried Apricot.
Cat Ear Noodle
This kind of noodle looks like the ear of cat, thus named Cat Ear Noodle. It can be made of wheat flour or bean flour. Cat Ear Noodle is eaten with meat egg sauce, thin sheets of dried bean curd, dried day-lily flowers, and agarics.
Guangling Dried Bean Curd
The bean curd, brined with five spices, is a kind of snacks very favored by Datong locals. Datong has two kinds of dried bean curd, the salty dried bean curd and the smoked dried bean curd. You can buy it in almost every super market or shop by the roadside. Guangling dried bean curd is a most reputed brand.
Pea Noodle
There are hundred kinds of noodles in Shanxi province. Each one has a special cooking method and unique flavor. Pea Noodle in Datong is one of the most favored noodles. Pea Noodle is made of wheat flour and oat flour, and chef will use the paste to make different shapes of noodles including Boyuer noodles, Min noodles and so on. Locals usually add minced meat sauce with tomato and egg sauce to pea noodle. You could also add some dried bean curd, Lily flower and agarics. Pea noodles could only be found in Shanxi Province, never miss it when you travel in Datong.
Yellow Cake
Yellow Cake is a kind of local food which is popular in Datong, and even the whole Shanxi province. Some local people are used to taking one or two pieces of yellow cake as lunch or dinner. Yellow cake is made of millet flour, and you could find two kinds of yellow cakes, fried yellow cake and steamed yellow cake. Steamed yellow cake looks light yellow, and tastes soft and sticky, while fried yellow cake looks dark yellow and tastes crispy.