The Head Chef at the Wanmin Restaurant and also a waitress there, Xiangling is extremely passionate about cooking and excels at her signature hot and spicy dishes.
Though still young, Xiangling is a true master of the culinary arts with all the skills of a kitchen veteran. She enjoys a good reputation among the hearty eaters at Chihu Rock.
There's absolutely no need to be nervous if she wants you to sample her latest creation. It will not disappoint. Promise.—Description from the Official Website[1]
Personality
A renowned chef from Liyue. She's extremely passionate about cooking and excels at making her signature hot and spicy dishes.
—In-game character attributes and profile page text
Xiangling loves cooking, having learned the art from her father. She does not have a discerning eye towards a specific type of cuisine, seeing that food is a way to expand and experiment. She will use anything for her recipes, even unconventional ingredients that would gross out others. Even if some of the dishes are not to her liking, Xiangling will not give up and simply press on to modify or start over from scratch.
Her unconventional cooking is what led her to acclaim in both Mondstadt and Liyue. Unlike most cooks, Xiangling is not concerned about mora, stating that food is to nourish and that the smiles on her customers' faces is more than enough for her. She dislikes having to limit herself to a specific style of cooking, seeing it as bland and unsurprising.
Outside of cooking, Xiangling is easy to scare and is often pranked by Hu Tao.[2] Despite disliking her pranks, Xiangling does not have a grudge towards her because she occasionally brings her gifts in return for giving her a good laugh.[3]
Appearance
Xiangling has dark, indigo-black hair cut in a bob-like fashion at the front with bangs swept to one side by a golden hairclip with a paw motif, the rest braided in a looped updo at the back of her head resembling panda ears, fastened with a small red bow. She has golden eyes, a pale complexion, and a perpetual smile on her face.
Xiangling wears a brown and gold leotard with red ribbons in the front and back, the back being larger and holding a bell. She wears a gold belt, which she uses to hold her Vision and carry around her red panda companion, Guoba. Additionally she wears brown fingerless gloves and boots, as well as a braided red ribbon around her left thigh and right arm and adhesive bandages crossed in an X on her right knee. Her outfit, Red Pepper and Turmeric, is described as light and comfortable clothing brimming with fiery passion.
Official Introduction
Never cook Silk Flower and Sweet Flower together! Turns out it's so sweet it'll give you toothache for three days straight...
—A hard-earned pearl of wisdom from Xiangling's notebook
Liyue is home to two rival culinary traditions, conveniently named the "Li" and "Yue" styles. Foodies in Liyue are staunch supporters of one style or the other, and have long been embroiled in a bitter battle to prove the superiority of their style.
In this war waged by culinary snobs, ostentation is everything, flavor gets forgotten, and nothing is a simple matter of taste. Much to the consternation of Liyue's chefs, the Li vs. Yue debate eats up all of the region's rare cooking ingredients in the pursuit of ever-more-pretentious dishes.
Born into a restaurateur family, Xiangling inherited her fair share of this consternation. But she also chose to inherit the Wanmin Restaurant and become one of the few to push back against the status quo.
"Good food is good food, period!" Xiangling's mantra is an antidote to snobbery as she sets about creating her imaginative and unconventional dishes.
From a pinch of Mist Flower and a drop of Slime Condensate to a handful of unidentified flying insects and even hilichurls' wooden clubs, Xiangling is known to be somewhat adventurous with her choice of cooking ingredients.
Naturally, her unique approach leads to the occasional disastrous dish. But Xiangling never gives up, because of what her father has always said to her: "There are many secrets to cooking; the most important of which is passion."
Character Stories
Character Details
"Coming, coming! Here's your Stir-Fried Filet! And your Mora Meat. And Fried Radish Balls, as you ordered."
In Liyue, there's a place called Chihu Rock, and there stands a restaurant known as Wanmin Restaurant.
One must remain focused if they want to keep moving forward on the bustling streets of Liyue.
Unsuspecting newcomers to this place are often lured away by wonderful culinary aromas or lead to peek inside stores by curious sounds.
Xiangling, who is both chef and waitress at the restaurant, delivers steaming, delicious dishes to the tables.
"Sit anywhere you'd like. I can make whatever you want, even if it's not on the menu!"
The workers at Wanmin Restaurant can recognize a regular, if not by their face, then by the first sentence out of their mouths.
A customer that orders without needing a menu has been at least a few times before. However, if they ask "Is Xiangling the chef today?" then they're definitely a regular.
Character Story 1
(Unlocks at Friendship Lv. 2)
Xiangling has destroyed many a wok in her time. Either the insides would become irreversibly charred from the heat of a Pyro Slime, or cracks would appear due to flash-freezing from a Mist Flower — or, at some step in Xiangling's unconventional cooking process, a small-scale explosion would reduce it to scrap metal. After some heavy consideration on the part of Xiangling's father, he ultimately decided not to banish his daughter from the kitchen, despite the destruction she caused.
As reckless, imaginative, and uninhibited as she may be, it was exactly these traits that led her to create her most successful dishes. "Maybe this isn't so bad..." He tried to convince himself.
Suffice to say that payment for a new wok is a regular feature of the restaurant's monthly ledger.
Character Story 2
(Unlocks at Friendship Lv. 3)
"There are many secrets to cooking; the most important of which is passion."
When Xiangling decided to learn to be a chef, her father handed her his own handwritten cooking journal, his life's work. That line was written on the title page.
If she was any other person, she would likely have regarded it as some cheesy inspirational quote. However, Xiangling regarded it as a priceless treasure.
To her, her father only secured his footing in the forever-ongoing war between the Li and Yue cuisines by upholding that principle.
However, at that time, the conflict between the two styles was white-hot, with many restaurants feeling the pressure that arose from it. Wanmin Restaurant was no exception.
"Good food is good food, period!"
The monopoly on luxurious ingredients such as matsutake and crabs infuriated Xiangling, her angry response to which was to take over in the kitchen.
It was time for her to build upon the foundation her father gave her and make some changes.
"I'm gonna make super-delicious dishes out of any ingredient!"
Character Story 3
(Unlocks at Friendship Lv. 4)
Xiangling's liveliness is disastrous for the hilichurls of Jueyun Karst. They one day awoke to find their fighting clubs gone.
Of course, the flora in Dihua Marsh did not fare any better.
After all the work she put in, she finally created some new recipes, such as Hilichurl Club BBQ Fish and Horsetail Sticky Rice and Meat...
She'd never create anything new if she just stuck to the recipes of her predecessors.
One must break with common conception if they are to carve their own path.
When Xiangling finally created her crowning achievement, the Chef's Special Cold-Dressed Fowl, her father paid the price, needing to resort to simple white congee for two days following.
"Mint and Qingxin Flower seem to induce diarrhea..."
She learned a valuable experience to add to her journal.
Strange. She ate her own dishes, but nothing ever happened to her. Xiangling did feel guilty though.
Maybe it was because she was young and healthy, or had somehow built up a resistance to certain toxins... One may never know.
Character Story 4
(Unlocks at Friendship Lv. 5)
Whenever a customer asks what exactly was the perplexing creature that follows Xiangling around is, she tells them the story:
There was a sudden downpour one day when Xiangling was on her way to fetch some Violetgrass. Halfway there, she was already tired and hungry. She stumbled into a cave, and came across a strange shrine.
So she sat down by the shrine, and took out two pieces of spicy cornbread.
She gobbled down one, but left the other one on the shrine, intending to eat a little later, but then promptly fell asleep.
When she woke up, the other spicy cornbread was gone and a mysterious creature was sitting in front of her, staring.
"Was it good?"
It nodded.
"More?" She took out some jerky from her backpack.
The mysterious creature nodded once again.
This was how Xiangling made a new friend. It seemed to be drawn to Xiangling's cooking, as the creature started following Xiangling around wherever she went.
Xiangling named it "Guoba," after her favorite childhood snack.
Character Story 5
(Unlocks at Friendship Lv. 6)
After sampling every dish there was in Liyue, Xiangling's culinary skills drastically improved. Her specialty spicy dishes earned the praise of even her father, a veteran chef with over two decades of experience.
She created her unique and complex flavor profile through a generous helping of chili peppers mixed with fruits and herbs for increased aroma. She also created what became the signature dish of Wanmin Restaurant: Black-Back Perch Stew, which combines the richness, color and strong flavors of Li cuisine with the fresh aromas and nutritional content of Yue cuisine.
Some have tried to copy her recipes, but try as they might they can never quite reproduce the way her cooking tastes.
"Braise fresh Violetgrass overnight. Dry, then grind to a fine powder. Sprinkle into any dish for an aromatic boost."
This is one of Xiangling's secret recipes, arrived at through a painstaking process of trial and error.
In Xiangling's case, that means countless bouts of diarrhea, countless bruised knees bashed on rocky cliffs, and countless wasted potfuls of food that didn't quite turn out as expected.
Xiangling's Map
(Unlocks at Friendship Lv. 4)
This map of Teyvat is lined with dense notations in various colors, and if you read closely, you can find the places where Xiangling has been, and where she intends to go in future.
"The shellfish of the shallows around Guyun Stone Forest are unmatched in their freshness. They say that 'here be sea monsters'?"
"Sea monster meat tastes great. Should look for Beidou to go fight another one. Will steaming them with eggs make them taste better?"
"There's a dragon in Mondstadt? Great! I just need three days of provisions to get there."
"Valberries are sweet. Lots here. I'll bring a basket. Take some back. See if they'll grow."
"This Mondstadt restaurant's Sautéed Matsutake is way too luxurious! They should just sell the matsutake. Ooh, what if I fry some with Jueyun Chili? Sounds good already. Might as well borrow a kitchen tomorrow and give it a go."
"Haven't found the dragon yet. Am I in the right place?"
...
Vision
(Unlocks at Friendship Lv. 6)
"You can make something super delicious out of any kind of ingredient."
Xiangling earned the approval of a Vision by shouldering this ideal in a wholehearted and unreserved manner. Even when she would make dishes that could be called "horrifying," her desire to keep trying to match ingredients would never waver.
"Ugh... Qingxin Fried Lizard is actually kinda bad. I think lizards should just be stone-grilled in future."
"Slime fried rice is also rather ordinary. Maybe we'll try putting mushrooms in a slime jus next time."
Though her friends fell around her during the epic battles with the taste of her dishes and advised her to turn back, Xiangling never stopped thinking about how to turn these "special" ingredients into delicious food.
In Xiangling's innocent and persistent heart, as long as they were not poisonous, there were no good or bad ingredients.
Her Vision, after all, proves that even the gods approve of such thinking.
Namecard
| Xiangling: Fresh from the Pan | |
|---|---|
|
Obtain: Reward for reaching Friendship Level 10 with Xiangling Description: Try saying this three times fast: "Guoba sears sea snails by Liyue's sea shore." |
Constellation
Quests and Events
Story Quests
- Trulla Chapter (Xiangling's story)
- Act I: Mondstadt Gastronomy Trip
- (All parts)
- Act I: Mondstadt Gastronomy Trip
Commissions
Events
Web Events
Character Interactions
The following characters mention Xiangling in their character stories or voice lines.
| Character | Stories | Voices |
|---|---|---|
| Beidou | ✔ | ✔ |
| Chongyun | ✔ | ✔ |
| Diona | ✘ | ✔ |
| Ganyu | ✘ | ✔ |
| Hu Tao | ✘ | ✔ |
| Keqing | ✘ | ✔ |
| Ningguang | ✘ | ✔ |
| Xingqiu | ✘ | ✔ |
| Xinyan | ✔ | ✔ |
Template:Mention
Xiangling is also mentioned in the following Mail:
Trivia
- The "master" that Xiangling refers to in her voice-overs is Madame Ping, whom Xiangling reveals is her master during the Moonlight Merriment event quest One for the Foodies, Two for the Show.
- Between Xiangling's fifth character story and Zhongli's dialogue in the Stone Harbor Treasure Journal event, the addition of Violetgrass to Black-Back Perch Stew is Xiangling's secret touch that not even her father knows about, judging by his expression in the corresponding illustration during the event.
- Based on Xiangling's appearance in Zhongli's Character Tale, set shortly before Of the Land Amidst Monoliths (Archon Quest Chapter 1), she returned to Liyue sometime after Mondstadt Gastronomy Trip (her Story Quest), but likely left some time before the Traveler arrives. Her "as yet-unnamed Springvale Boar dish" is likely the dish she used to beat Brook during the cooking competition in Springvale.
- Xiangling's side portrait (seen on the Character menu and Inventory) used to differ in design from her official art and in-game model: she had a headband, the bow under her braids was located higher up on her head, and the collar of her outfit was primarily yellow instead of black. It was then fixed in 1.4.
- Xiangling is the only character with a Story Quest that takes place outside of her associated region, taking place in Mondstadt while she hails from Liyue. As part of the quest, however, the Traveler travels to the border between Mondstadt and Liyue to collect some Jueyun Chili.
- Xiangling is the first playable character to appear in a Commission (The Gourmet Supremos: Breakthrough Thinking).
Etymology
- Xiangling's Chinese name, 香菱 Xiānglíng, means "Fragrant Water Caltrop."
- She shares her name with a literary character from the Dream of the Red Chamber (红楼梦/紅樓夢), one of China's "Four Great Classical Novels" which was written in the 18th century. However, there is currently no known relation between the literary character and the Genshin Impact character.
- Her constellation, Trulla, is the Latin word for "little ladle."
- Her constellation name was previously "Ladle" (written in English), but was corrected in a later version.
- Guoba (Chinese: 锅巴/鍋巴 Guōba) means "scorched rice," which is the crust of rice formed in the cooking pot.
- She is one of the few people from Liyue whose Japanese name is directly transcribed from Chinese instead of being read as the on'yomi or kun'yomi reading.
References
- ↑ Description from the Official Website
- ↑ Hu Tao's voice-overs - "About Xiangling"
- ↑ Xiangling's voice-overs - "About Hu Tao"