Roujiamo Delivers!
Some of the best news I got all last week was that my favorite food in the Zhongshan Park area now delivers. It’s just this tiny stand, but they now bring this deliciousness right to your doorstep. I think it’s something like a 10 RMB minimum order. Sounds like a good excuse for a 肉夹馍 party to me.
If you don’t have the fortune of knowing what roujiamo is, check out these photos. If you detest the vile weed as much as I do, you’ll also want to make sure you know how to tell them to hold the cilantro.
OK, I have to admit: the main reason I took this photo was for the phone number. Now John B and Micah have it too. Anyone else in the Zhongshan Park area? You’re welcome.
mmmm….pork burgers. Do you ask for extra chunks of fat?
How do I phonetically pronounce this word?
The food looks great!
no cilantro? Guess Mexican food is out.
肉夹馍 party
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馍 fans? and 羊肉泡馍?
I’m bad with Chinese, and I’m ashamed to say I’m Chinese. (I’m from Singapore by the way)
I don’t understand what ‘mo’ is. What is it made of? Understand that there’s no such thing in my country. I’ve never been to China.
In any case, the food looks great! I love pork.
All these years and no 肉夹馍 delivery? Dude, how do you live in that backwater? One of the key features of choosing my apartment in Quanzhou was the roujiamo place across the street. And they’re good – Xinjiang had tons of roujiamo restaurants (most Hui places), so I consider myself an informed judge of China’s greatest (and perhaps only?) sandwich.
The first time I ever had cilantro I thought it tasted like soap and I hated it. Now I love it, and I can’t imagine Indian food without it. I can’t say as I’ve ever had it in Chinese food here in the states. 我很爱！好吃！
Hello, well the word “mo” doesn’t exist in my mother tongue (Chinese Wu) neither, but actually I have eaten a Roujiamo ( Niô-ka-mu in Wu chinese), so I know that it’s flouer pancake, so the whole Roujiamo is a meat pancake lol the same as the pancake in australia but more delicious.
It always reminds of me of Roger Moore, the old James Bond.
‘Lets go get a Roger Moore and a beer’ Best 5rmb snack ever.
Ah, thanks a lot for the explanation Dan. I’ve never heard of the word ‘mo’ back in high school (and funny thing is my Chinese teacher is from China) Glad to know it’s flour pancake… I assume it’s just regular flour, the kind we can easily get from supermarkets?
Now I wish we had roujiamo at the Chinatown.
Finally something I know. The best 肉夹馍 from 西安 is the 樊记腊汁肉夹馍. See this website for more info about how the meat is cooked: http://www.foodmate.net/tech/jiagong/jiagong11/3100.html. The original restaurant is some where near the Muslim quarter inside the city walls of 西安, and as far as I can remember, this particular restaurant has been doing a roaring trade for at least 15 years — they have a relatively small eating-in area, and most of their sales are for take away, the queue used to be rather long 12-15 years ago. You can buy just the meat, or just the 馍 which is baked with rather high quality flour. It’s normally a good idea to eat the meat when it’s hot, especially in winter as the fat around the meat can freeze rather quickly, but the meat is generally very lean. If I remember correctly, 12 years ago, you could get 500 grams of the meat for around 12 kuai.
From a linguistic perspective, the word 肉夹馍 is considered as sort of an anomaly. The verb 夹 is transitive, and normally when it’s in active voice, its arguments should follow the agent-verb-patient pattern, so if you were to interpret the word 肉夹馍 in the normal way, you would expect the 馍(the round shaped baked pastry) to be sandwiched (夹) between the 肉 (meat), but the reality is the exact opposite. My teacher in primary school explained this as a special use of 夹 where it has to be interepreted in its passive voice. I don’t remember if there are other similar cases.
Anyway, just a fun fact.
Damn. I always pronounced that roujianmo. 不好意思
肉夹馍 was my second favorite street food. Jian bing guo zi is the best.
HOLLLllllly Cow that is good. I must’ve gone in and out of Zhongshan Park Station 200 times by now… but I never noticed the place! Then I recognized a little stand out of the picture on my daily Sinosplice visit, and well — I ate dinner there the last two nights — and you know, each time the girl asked me if I want the cilantro or not!!! What the heck!! I think it’s all John’s fault. Damn good, damn good. Perhaps next time I should ask if I can get all of the cilantro that that the other white guys refused packed onto mine. I really think the particular stand has higher quality meat, etc., than one might expect at a completely random stand, so GOOD CALL JOHN!!! When’s the party!!!?
I prefer 土家烧饼（tu jia shao bing） to 肉夹馍（rou jia mo）. Why? You can guess, John.
Stopped by there today, was very good. Nice not to have a dish like this not covered in sugary sweetness. Just nice smooth sauce. The prices have gone up a little, 3.5rmb for the meat and 3.0rmb for the other one, not sure what it is. She also asked if I wanted cilantro or not, seems by default they don’t give foreigners cilantro now. Has a nice green pepper mixture though.
Little update: last time I visited the stand, they were no longer using cilantro at all! They switched to green pepper slivers. Pretty tasty!
Public service announcement: the phone number is now 2655-0068, and prices have gone up to 3 RMB for pork and 3.5 RMB for beef. Still delicious, though.