Rou Jia Mo
A Shaanxi flatbread sandwich often marketed as 'the world's oldest sandwich,' a claim worth treating with real skepticism: while the bread technique traces to the Qin Dynasty and the braised-pork technique to the Zhou Dynasty over two thousand years ago, the combination as a continuously eaten sandwich is only documented from the Tang Dynasty, around 1,400 years ago, not the full span separately claimed for its components. It does hold a real, if more modest, heritage status: officially recognized as Shaanxi provincial intangible cultural heritage in 2016, not a UNESCO designation. Real rou jia mo relies on bai ji mo, a leavened flatbread baked dry until crisp outside and soft inside, genuinely distinct from naan or pita, stuffed with pork belly hand-chopped after hours of braising in a master stock of soy, Shaoxing wine, rock sugar, and whole spices.
⚠ Contains: Gluten, Soy. Always check your own ingredients — this isn't a guarantee for severe allergies.
Ingredients
- 500g pork belly, cubed
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
- 1 tbsp rock sugar
- 2 star anise, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 tsp fennel seed, 2 bay leaves
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tsp yeast
- 1 cup warm water
- 1/2 tsp salt
Steps
- Braise the pork belly with soy sauce, wine, rock sugar, and whole spices in water, covered, for 2-3 hours until very tender.
- Meanwhile, make the dough by mixing flour, yeast, water, and salt, and knead until smooth. Rest 1 hour.
- Divide the dough, roll into rounds, and dry-pan cook on a griddle until crisp outside and cooked through, then finish briefly in a hot oven if needed.
- Hand-chop the braised pork, fatty and lean together, moistening with a little braising liquid.
- Split each bread round and stuff generously with the chopped pork.