Dongxiang Mutton 东乡羊肉
Dongxiang Mutton is featured among the local specialties of Jiangsu.
Dongxiang Mutton (东乡羊肉) is a traditional food of Zhenjiang (镇江) in Jiangsu, eaten as mutton and mutton soup in winter. The Zhenjiang city government ties it to Yaoqiao (姚桥镇), a town in the Zhenjiang Economic Development Zone, where whole-lamb banquets (全羊宴) spring up along the streets every winter.
How it is eaten
In Yaoqiao, eating mutton and drinking mutton soup is a winter custom. The Zhenjiang city government counts more than a hundred restaurants in the town that cook mutton. It describes one family soup shop, run for more than thirty years, where customers arrive in a steady stream once the Great Snow (大雪) solar term has passed in early December. It also quotes the saying "冬至到，羊肉俏" (when the winter solstice comes, mutton is in demand).
How it is made
The Zhenjiang city government puts it in two lines: whether the mutton is good depends on how the animals are raised, and whether the soup is good depends on the heat under the pot. It names the Ruli Hotel (儒里大酒店) in Yaoqiao as a well-known place for cooking mutton and simmering mutton soup.
The largest white goat (白山羊) breeder in the area, a Jiangsu provincial demonstration farm for ecological livestock raising, was started in September 2014 by the soup-shop owner's son, a Yaoqiao native, after he saw that the area lacked large-scale breeding and that the supply of meat was unsteady.
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Cangshu Mutton 藏书羊肉 →
Cangshu (藏书) mutton is another Jiangsu mutton tradition named after its town; Dongxiang Mutton belongs to Yaoqiao in Zhenjiang and its winter street banquets.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.