Yangrou paomo

Yangrou paomo is a Xi’an lamb-and-bread dish in which small pieces of flatbread are cooked with seasoned meat broth. China’s national intangible-heritage register documents the method of Lao Sun Jia, a longstanding Xi’an restaurant. Its preparation includes selecting and handling meat and bones, enclosing spices in a bag, cooking the meat and griddle-baking the bread.^[1]

The register describes that restaurant’s broth as particularly fragrant with Sichuan pepper, within a larger spice mixture whose full formula is not supplied. Diners break the tuotuo mo flatbread into small pieces before the cook prepares their bowl; the size of those pieces is part of the documented technique. Lao Sun Jia’s method entered the national heritage list in 2021 and is passed on through apprenticeships. This recognition concerns the restaurant’s named tradition, rather than a claim that all paomo follows one recipe.^[1]