Update: Wan Jia Xiao Guan Zi has permanently closed.
Roùjiāmó (肉夹馍) is a meat sandwich that has been around for the last 2,000 years.
From my understanding, it is a specialty of Shaanxi, Xi'An - one of the oldest city in China.
The name, roùjiāmó literally means "meat giap bun" but if you had not already noticed, the reality is quite the opposite whereby its "bun giap meat" (mójiāroù/馍夹肉) instead.
So, how did that come about? One explanation is, its original name was actually 肉夹于馍, which means "meat giap within bun" however for some reason, the "于" was omitted hence, it became 肉夹馍.
Another reasoning was 馍夹肉 sounds a lot like 么夹肉, meaning there is "no meat". Nobody would want to buy a bun with no meat so they rearranged the sequence of the words by putting the roù (肉) in front to emphasize on the presence of meat.
It is my first time trying this and I am going to visit a stall named Xiao Guan Zi (小馆子) located inside Food Loft coffee shop at Blk 443 Clementi Ave 3. It is the coffee shop behind the bus interchange where Sheng Yi Fa Lor Mee and Ann Chin Popiah are.
This stall does not have any media presence but that is exactly the aim of this blog which is to seek out the lesser known stalls and give them some exposure. Even though I do not have a big following or the influence to do so, I just do what I can to the best of my ability.
The guy taking my order seems like a Malaysian but the lady who prepared my order is a bona fide Chinese National. All it took her was just about a minute or so to assemble my roùjiāmó ($4), put it into a paper sleeve and handed over the counter to me in a basket.
Upon closer inspection, I realized the mó (aka bun) is not the usual airy, fluffy burger type. It is more like a flat bread with a crispy and flaky texture.
I have watched some tutorial videos from YouTube on the making of the mó that the dough were stretched till paper thin to about two metres long then rolled along the length to the halfway point where the remainder length is cut into thin, parallel strips and continued to roll till the end.
The dough is then portioned, flattened and rolled with a pin in such a way that the sides curled up like a bowl. It is then pan fried on a flat pan to brown both sides to achieve the「铁圈虎背菊花心」before transferred to be toasted in a oven.
It sounds like a lot of work to me although I am not exactly sure if that is how the stall do it here locally.
After I placed my order, the female staff picked a few pieces of pork belly from a simmering pot to chop them coarsely into a sloppy mess with not one but two cleavers.
The mó is then split in the middle to form a pocket where the diced meat mixture is unceremoniously stuffed into with a splash of gravy.
Interestingly, in the tutorial videos, they called the meat「腊汁肉」which I thought is just another name for 卤肉 (braised meat). As to why they called it 腊汁肉, this guy has the answer.
Comprising of skin, fats and lean meat, the meat mixture is delectably tender and juicy. The crunchy green pepper (capsicum) bits provided some texture and also helps to cut through any jelak-ness.
It was love at first bite.
Probably due to the cold weather in China, I had always associated food from that region as being incredibly oily, salty, spicy and sour (think: suānlàfěn (酸辣粉), luósīfěn (螺蛳粉), málàxiāngguō (麻辣香锅), etc). I usually try to avoid such food that will cause unnecessary sprints to the toilet.
The roùjiámó, however, changed my perspective. I believe as long as the food does not fall within the examples above, I am open to trying such milder tasting "normal" food.
Update: I first visited the stall in March this year. When I visited it for the second time in October, they had changed the signboard to a more striking one (photo below) and the PRC lady was no longer there.
Blk 443 Clementi Ave 3
Singapore 120443
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