Tianshui Roujiamo (Meat in Flatbread)

Tianshui roujiamo splits a locally baked flatbread—often a baiji mo or helmet-shaped guokui—and fills it with pork or beef braised in a long-kept master broth, chopped and sauced, the bread crisp outside and soft within, the filling melting and deeply flavoured.

Roujiamo is a street snack shared by the Hui and Han of the northwest; Tianshui stands on the Longshang uplands where the two food cultures meet, and its wedding of long-brothed meat with fresh-baked bread has taken on a character all its own.

The meat is chopped and the bread filled to order; bitten hot, the crisp shell holds melting meat and a rich braising juice, eaten as a breakfast or on the go, even better with a bowl of guagua or niangpi alongside.

The contrast of freshly baked crisp bread and melting long-brothed meat with its rich gravy gives Tianshui roujiamo its vivid layers.