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Hand-Grasped Lamb
手把肉 · Shǒubǎ Ròu
Boiled mutton eaten with the hands. The social centrepiece of an Inner Mongolian steppe meal.
Hand-grasped lamb (shoubarou) is the canonical Inner Mongolian dish. Whole lamb (or a large bone-in cut) is boiled in salted water with little or no other seasoning. Brought to the table in pieces; diners hold the bone in one hand and use a knife to cut meat directly with the other. Served with a small dipping bowl of garlic, salt and chilli. The simplicity is the point — the freshness of the lamb is what's being judged.
Where to try
Inner Mongolia: any grassland restaurant or yurt-stay. Outside Inner Mongolia: Mongolian restaurants in Beijing.
Dietary notes
Lamb.
Cities to try Hand-Grasped Lamb
Other north dishes
- Beijing Lamb Hot Pot涮羊肉
Beijing-Mongolian style hot pot — clear broth, thinly-sliced lamb, sesame-paste dipping sauce.
- Boiled Dumplings (Shuijiao)水饺
Wheat-wrapper dumplings filled with pork-and-cabbage, lamb-and-leek, or vegetable, boiled and served with vinegar.
- Cat's Ear Noodles猫耳朵
Small thumbnail-pinched Shanxi pasta, shaped like cat's ears. Stir-fried with vegetables or in soup.
- Goubuli Baozi狗不理包子
Tianjin's signature steamed pork buns. The original house, founded 1858, is still operating.