What
Yangrou paomo is lamb broth (beef is also used) poured over bread that each diner tears by hand, served with meat and vermicelli and eaten with chili paste, cilantro and pickled garlic.1,2,6,8
When
No early dated text was found. One account traces its direct ancestor to a dish at Tianxilou in Xi’an during the Chongzhen years of the Ming, without a specific year or source. Lao Sun Jia’s paomo dates to 1898 and Tongshengxiang’s to the early 1920s; these dates come from the 2 houses’ own accounts.1,3,4,5
Where
Xi’an and the Guanzhong plain, Shaanxi.1,2,7
How
The broth is made from lamb bones and meat with spices such as Sichuan pepper, star anise, tsaoko and cassia, and simmers for about 2 hours. Lao Sun Jia uses 10 major house spices led by Sichuan pepper and 6 minor secret ones, in 5 steps: choosing the meat, treating the bones and meat, bagging the seasonings, boiling the meat and griddle-baking the bread. The bread is an unleavened griddle-baked flatbread that the diner tears to the size of a soybean (the Xi’an standard of 2016); the torn bread is simmered for 1 to 2 minutes with the meat and vermicelli in the broth. There are several ways of ordering it, named danzou, ganba, koutang and shuiweicheng.1,2,3,4,5,6,8
Why
There are 2 folk accounts: one says a hungry future emperor soaked dry bread in soup, the other that Central Asian troops garrisoned in Tang-dynasty Chang’an ate hard bread soaked in mutton soup. Its origin is undocumented, and neither account has documentary confirmation.1,2,6,8
Impact and influence
Yangrou paomo is a Xi’an specialty; a December 2025 article describes the dish and the ritual of tearing the bread. The Tongshengxiang craft was added to the 2nd batch of the national intangible cultural heritage list in 2008 (item no. 948, VIII-165) and the Lao Sun Jia craft to the 5th batch in 2021 (item no. 943, VIII-160); Xi’an’s first municipal list, announced in June 2008, also includes the Tongshengxiang craft. Tongshengxiang is a China Time-honored Brand under the Xi’an catering group.3,4,5,7,9,10
Zhao Kuangyin and the Dry Bread
Legend has it that before he became emperor, Zhao Kuangyin was hungry in Chang’an and a shop owner had him crumble dry bread into a bowl and poured hot broth over it. Years later as emperor he found the shop again and rewarded its owner, and the dish became known. Another telling has him crumbling two dry flatbreads into a merchant’s lamb soup.
Told in: A folk legend of Xi’an, found in a 2012 Shaanxi tourism note and in English Wikipedia; English Wikipedia says the dish has no documented origin.
The Tang Garrison and the Mutton Soup
One telling is that during the An Lushan and Shi Siming rebellion (755 to 763), Central Asian soldiers in Chang’an ate hard flatbread soaked in mutton soup, and local Muslims took up the habit.
Told in: A telling from Xi’an found in a 2021 article in The World of Chinese; the article presents it as history but gives no source.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
Restaurants make yangrou paomo with specially baked flatbread, and the house descriptions I read give no amounts for the spices in the broth. This is my simplified home way: store-bought, fairly hard unleavened flatbread stands in for the bread, and the broth is lamb bones and a piece of lamb simmered for about two hours, with the meat, vermicelli and bread pieces cooked briefly in it. The amounts and timings are my own choices at home, drawing on one home recipe with amounts and two descriptions of the traditional method.
Ingredients
- Lamb bones 1 kg, cut into medium pieces
- Lamb leg or shoulder, with a little fat 400 g, in one piece
- Ginger 4 slices
- Scallions 2 stalks, tied in a knot, plus 1 stalk, chopped, for serving
- Sichuan peppercorns 1 teaspoon
- Star anise 2 pods
- Cassia bark 1 small piece, about 5 g
- Tsaoko 1, cracked
- Fennel seeds 1/2 teaspoon
- Salt about 2 teaspoons, to taste
- Water about 2.5 liters
- Dried vermicelli 60 g, soaked soft in warm water
- Fairly hard unleavened baked flatbread 2, about 200 g
- Cilantro a small handful, cut into short lengths
- Pickled sweet garlic 8 cloves, store-bought
Steps
- Put the bones and lamb in a pot of cold water, bring to a boil and cook for 5 more minutes. Skim off the scum, lift out the bones and meat and rinse them.
- Return the bones and lamb to a clean pot with about 2.5 liters of water, the ginger and the knotted scallions. Tie the Sichuan pepper, star anise, cassia, tsaoko and fennel in a cloth bag and add it.
- Bring to a boil, then turn the heat low, cover and simmer for about 2 hours, until a chopstick goes easily through the lamb.
- Lift out the lamb, let it cool and slice it thin. Strain the broth, season it with salt and keep it at a gentle simmer.
- Tear the flatbread into pieces the size of a soybean. Add the pieces, the soaked vermicelli and the sliced lamb to the broth and simmer over low heat for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Ladle into bowls, scatter cilantro and chopped scallion over each and serve hot with the pickled garlic.
Tips
- The Xi’an standard of 2016 says to tear the bread to the size of a soybean, and I tear mine to that size.
- The bread pieces soak up broth, so I season the broth before I add the bread.
Allergens: wheat
