Rou jia mo (肉夹馍, literally meat sandwiched in bread — the grammar is reversed from English usage) is the Xi'an street food that has been called the Chinese hamburger — a crispy, slightly flaky flatbread (mo, 馍) split and stuffed with finely chopped braised pork (typically pork belly or pork cheek, called bao rou, 臊子) slow-cooked in a complex spiced master stock until it collapses and shreds. The contrast between the crackling, slightly charred flatbread and the moist, intensely spiced, gelatinous pork filling is one of the great Chinese street food experiences. Rou jia mo originates from the Shaanxi region and is associated with the Muslim Chinese (Hui) cooking tradition of Xi'an.
The braised pork: Blanch 1kg pork belly in boiling water 5 minutes. In a clay pot, fry a spice paste of doubanjiang, dried chillis, ginger, and scallion briefly. Add the pork belly. Add dark soy, light soy, Shaoxing wine, rock sugar, star anise, cinnamon, cloves, black cardamom, dried mandarin peel, and water to cover. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a very low simmer. Braise 2.5-3 hours until the pork is so tender it can be shredded with chopsticks. Drain and reserve the cooking liquid. Chop the braised pork finely — the traditional texture is very finely chopped, almost minced, with some pieces of skin for gelatin and some solid pieces for texture. Moisten with a small amount of the cooking liquid. The mo flatbread: A yeasted flatbread baked on a flat griddle (traditional method) or in an oven. The mo dough is laminated (folded and rolled repeatedly) to create flaky layers, then pressed into a round and baked until exterior is crispy and crackled.
Fuchsia Dunlop, Every Grain of Rice (2012); Fuchsia Dunlop, Invitation to a Banquet (2023)