Roujiamo: The Original Chinese Burger

Roujiamo (肉夹馍, ròujiāmó) is the food you'll eat most often in Xi'an, and the one you'll miss afterwards. The name literally means "meat sandwiched in bread," and Shaanxi people will tell you — accurately — that the dish predates the hamburger by around two thousand years, with roots in the Qin dynasty.

The construction is simple and hard to do well. A round wheat bun called a mo is baked or griddled until the outside is crisp and flaky while the inside stays soft. Meat that has been simmering for hours in a spiced master stock — Chinese cinnamon, star anise, cloves, stock that some shops claim has been going for decades — is lifted out, chopped on a wooden block with a cleaver until it's a mix of shreds and fatty nuggets, and packed in with a spoonful of braising liquid. The bread absorbs the juice. That's it.

The Muslim Quarter (回民街) version uses cumin-heavy lamb and is the one most travelers try first, often with a fistful of green chilli. The Han version, làzhī ròujiāmó, uses pork belly and is sweeter and more unctuous — arguably the better sandwich, and sold all over the city outside the halal district.

At ¥8-15 ($1.10-2) it's the best value meal in Shaanxi. Two of them plus a cold liangpi makes a full lunch for under ¥30 ($4).

Where to eat it: Stalls at the mouth of Dapiyuan lane (大皮院) for lamb; Zi Wu Lu Zhang Ji (子午路张记肉夹馍) branches around the city for the pork version, ¥12-15 ($1.70-2).