Playing with your food

Yang Rou Pao Mo is a local Xian Muslim dish that's really FUN to eat because they encourage you to play with your food! Even my mother, the super-strict school teacher, was highly amused when we had it for lunch on our last day in Xian.

1) Assemble an empty bowl, a couple of mo (or unleavened wheat buns) and cloves of sweet pickled garlic.

2) Shred the mo into tiny pieces - the smaller the better. Believe me, it's not as easy as it looks because the buns are incredibly dense and compact. It took us almost 15 minutes to shred just one bun. Our wrists were sore from all the repetitive peeling action. Lisa, our native guide, was of course the quickest bun shredder!

3) Once you've got a bowl full of shredded bits, the waiter will label your bowl with a personal tag and your choice of soup: mutton or beef. I chose mutton, since that's the original version. I was also glad to see the personal tag as I didn't want to lose my bowl of shredded mo after all that hard work!

4) The tagged bowls are then taken away to the kitchen for further processing.

4) The waiter returned with my completed Yang Rou Pao Mo and here's what it looks like. Soup had been added and there were also bits of mutton, tang hoon (glass noodles), black fungus and spring onions. You're welcome to add other condiments such as chilli and sweet pickled garlic. I'm not a fan of garlic chunks in any form so I just added the chilli and tucked in.

Verdict?...errr...it's probably an acquired taste. The simple mutton soup was a little too overpowering and the soppy bits of wheat dough reminded me of the contents of an air-sickness bag. Still, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and we'd definitely recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in Xian.