Cake Particles in Mutton Soup

Soaking cake particles in mutton or beef soup first appeared in the pastureland in northwest China. Today it has become a special snack of Xi'an. Chunks of mutton or beef are washed and sliced into pieces and boiled with scallion, ginger, wild pepper, star aniseseen,cumin and cinnamon. Baked wheaten cakes are then torn with hand into particles the size of soybeans and placed in a bowl. Mutton slices are then added to the torn cake before mutton soup is ladled into the bowl.

The serving is thus ready with the addition of minced scallion, sliced cabbage, rice wine, bean noodles and salt. Diners may drink the soup while eating the cake particles,or allow the soup to be completely absorbed by the cale so that when the cake has been eaten the bowlbecomes empty. A third method is to place the cake and meat in the centre of a bowl and inundate the mixture with soup. Some customers like to have this snack together with chilli paste and sweetened garlic.