Sandwich · Braised & baked

Lu Rou Huoshao (Braised Donkey Meat in Flatbread)

Photo: 夢蝶葬花 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

Hebei has two rival styles: Baoding's round bread stuffed with hot meat, and Hejian's rectangular one, often filled with cold meat and a slice of the braising jelly.

Donkey meat is slow-braised for hours in a broth of nearly 20 spices until tender, then chopped and packed into a crisp, flaky flatbread baked in a clay oven, sometimes with a spoonful of the braising jelly.

Why it's made this way: Donkeys were common draft animals on the North China Plain, and turning the meat into a portable baked-bread sandwich made filling, inexpensive food for travelers.