Ethnic diversity, in sandwich form

All over western China, you can find stalls selling 肉夹饼, pronounced roujiabing. At it’s most basic, a roujiabing is a seasoned chopped meat filling, stuffed inside a round pocket of bread. But not all roujiabing are created equal — and I’m not talking about quality. As we traveled around Gansu and Qinghai, every bite into a roujiabing brought a new burst of flavors.

The cumin-scented, lamb-filled roujiabing at Lanzhou's night market

I bought my first roujiabing in Jiayuguan‘s Fuqiang Market. After I ordered, the vendor pulled a hunk of pork out from a mysterious soaking liquid and asked if I wanted it fatty or lean. There was plenty of fat, even in the lean meat, which was then chopped to a fine dice along with a handful of bright green chilis. The meat’s juices soaked into the bread, creating a delightfully moist and spicy sandwich.

A few days later, at Lanzhou’s night market, a Hui Muslim vendor started making the sandwich by throwing a few lamb skewers on the charcoal grill and coating them in spice mix. When the meat was done, he slid it into a round of bread that had been warming alongside the grill. The meat was delicious and reminiscent of Xinjiang cuisine I’d eaten elsewhere in China.

The final roujiabing of the trip was different again. In the main food market in Xining, the chopped pork sandwich was superficially similar to that in Jiayuguan, minus the chilis. But, thousands of kilometers from Hong Kong, the bite tasted just like a steamed roast pork bun at City Hall Maxim’s Palace. The meat was sweet, almost not savory at all — and utterly surprising.

As I thought more about the many faces of the roujiabing, I realized that this flexibly-defined food was, in some ways, a metaphor for western China. One of the most striking differences between Gansu and Qinghai and most of eastern China is the amount of visible ethnic and cultural diversity. In the streets and markets of Lanzhou and Xining, Hui Muslims and Tibetans mingle with Han Chinese. As they coexist, concepts — like the roujiabing — transcend cultural boundaries. Yet each group seems to hold on to its own identity, and its own sandwich.

This post is part of WanderFood Wednesday. Head there for more great posts about food and travel.

Related posts:

1. Top 5 Foods of Western China
2. Heading west
3. Mountains and Monasteries: 2 Weeks in W. China
4. How I Got Kicked Out of the Dalai Lama’s House
5. Budgeting a Western China Adventure

Tagged as: food, Gansu Province, Jiayuguan, Lanzhou, Qinghai, Western China (Aug. '09), Xining