The bread used is a hard, unleaved flat bread. You are given the whole bread at the table, and you have to break it up yourself into small pieces. You put the broken bread into a bowl, which is returned to the kitchen. The chef simmers the bread in mutton soup, and returns to you the bowl of soup with bread in it in about 10 minutes.
At the table, you garnish it with chopped fresh coriander, sweet pickled salted garlic cloves and a chile sauce, which are presented in separate bowls. Caraway seed may also be served.
The soup’s popularity centres in Xi’an City in Shaanxi Province.
Two restaurants particularly noted for it are Lao Sun Jia and Tong Sheng Xiang.
Language Notes
Yang Rou Pao Mo means literally, “soaked bread with mutton.”
