Paomo

Paomo is a popular specialty of Shaanxi cuisine common throughout Xi'an and other cities of Guanzhong. It is a hot stew of minced steamed leavened flatbread, known regionally as mo (饃; 馍; mó), cooked and served with lamb or beef.

Lamb paomo (羊肉泡饃; 羊肉泡馍; yángròu pàomó)^[1] is made of lamb soup and a great amount of unleavened flat bread. When making this dish, the cook breaks the bread into small pieces and adds them to the lamb soup. The beef version is beef paomo (牛肉泡饃; 牛肉泡馍; niúròu pàomó). Paomo is often eaten with pickled garlic and chili sauce.

The mo used in paomo is a type of shaobing, baked from unleavened flour. Lamb or beef is boiled with bones, Sichuan pepper, star anise, tsaoko, cinnamon, and other spices until the meat is tender and the broth is done. In traditional restaurants, customers must break up the bread themselves first into thumb-sized chunks before handing it back to the chef. The restaurant then boils the broth, thins it with hot water, and adds in the prepared meat along with cellophane noodles. After the soup is heated up, the broken-up bread is added in before being topped off with spices and a drizzle of lamb oil. Customers may then add chili oil, cilantro, or garlic to their liking. The garlic is sometimes pickled in a sour-sweet vinegar and sugar concoction.

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  Prepared lamb paomo
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  The mo before and after it is broken up
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  The broth used in paomo
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  A spoonful of meat and paomo
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  Beef paomo

One folktale about its origin is that in the late Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Zhao Kuangyin,^[2] the Song dynasty's first emperor, returned to his hometown after seeing his betrothed. He had finished up most of his supply on the way back. He had only two pieces of dried plain pancake. He went through a merchant selling lamb soup; Zhao tore the bread into little pieces and mixed it into the soup.

Después de que Zhao Kuangyin se convirtiera en emperador, regresó al pequeño puesto comercial y le pidió al jefe que preparara de nuevo la sopa. Tras probar ese sabor tradicional, la frescura y el recuerdo del pasado se entrelazaron en su corazón. La bautizó como "paomo de cordero".

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