Sweet sticky rice cake with the seasonal Chinese date syrup [Photo by Fan Zhen/chinadaily.com.cn]

When we were done with our paomo, the cubes were taken into the kitchen and were served later with a well-prepared mutton soup. Our guide told us this should be eaten with the local chili sauce and sweetened pickled garlic . The trick is to put the sauce on the top and not mix it with the soup, so that the soup can always be clear and thus keep its original taste.

Take some chili with each bite and finish it with garlic. The spiciness kicked in first and the freshness of the soup followed. The flavor of mutton oozed out over each chew of the spongy cubes. Then the sweetness of the garlic came in the end as a palate cleanser that prepared us for the next bite.

The chili sauce worked magic in that it brought out the fragrance of red peppers but didn't overpower the other flavors or dull the senses by going too strong.

At the end of meal, our whole bodies were warmed up by the hearty mutton soup and I even sweated a little bit.

The last dish was a sweet sticky rice cake with the seasonal Chinese date syrup and it wrapped up our satisfying meal with a touch of autumn. We walked out the restaurant into the hustle and bustle of Xi'an's night streets and started to wonder when we could come back to this city again.