The Chinese northern style food.

People from the North of China have a reputation for being hardened and being larger in stature. This is because the climate in the north is volatile and very harsh during the winters. Certainly, if you have ever spent any time in places like Beijing, Hebei, or even Shaanxi, you'll be subject to the blisteringly warm summers and frost bitingly cold winters.

To survive this kind of big climate change, people have come up with certain kinds of foods which not only help pass the harsh weather, but also provide them with a viable food source throughout the season.

One example of a dish made for the harsh climate is this "Pao mo" noodle soup dish. It consists of noodles, lamb meat, and bread crumbs.

You start off with the soup base which is usually garnished with spring onions, and some chives. This is the same soup base which was used to stew the meat. Because of this, the soup already has a distinctive taste and encompasses the taste of lamb before any thing else is added.

A lot of the time, the Pao Mo is eaten alone but can easily be a part of a larger meal with other dishes too. Here you can see we've decided to make ourselves some northern style dumplings too.

The alternative to the soup based noodles are the kind of mince meat sauce style noodles. These are a kind of fusion between beef noodles and zha jiang mian. Without the egg and tomato it would taste quite bland and so this is usually accompanying it.

Strange as may be, the north style of food tends to be the complete opposite of plain or bland. For a lot of people it can be overwhelming in taste but remember, it is all down to the climate!