Tianshui Zahui (Mixed Stew)

Tianshui zahui is a traditional steamed-and-brothed dish gathering many ingredients at once; its heart is the "sandwich meat" of thin egg sheet wrapped around minced pork belly, cut into pieces and set in a bowl with meatballs and pork rind, then steamed with chicken broth and seasonings under a generous pour of soup.

Zahui grows out of the festive "bowl dishes" that Tianshui families prepare for the New Year, weddings and funerals, gathering assorted prepared foods in a single bowl to mean abundance and reunion, and was handed down into the city's most representative banquet dish.

Usually served as the crowning dish of a banquet, brought out in a large bowl of broth and filling, the egg-sheet meat soft and tender, the meatballs savoury, the pork rind smooth, the broth mellow; diners ladle the soup and pick at the pieces, often with a flatbread on the side.

The egg-sheet "sandwich meat" together with meatballs and pork rind in a single bowl, and the chicken-broth that bathes them, are what set Tianshui zahui apart from mixed stews elsewhere.