Dong'e Donkey Meat 东阿驴肉
Dong'e Donkey Meat is featured among the local specialties of Shandong.
Dong'e Donkey Meat (东阿驴肉) is the donkey meat of Dong'e County (东阿县) in Liaocheng (聊城), Shandong, a county best known for ejiao (阿胶), a gelatin made from donkey hide. In Dong'e the meat reaches the table in several forms: cooked from raw in hotpot, braised in sauce, and as a braised knee-joint dish.
Ingredients
Dong'e has its own breed, the Dong'e black donkey (东阿黑毛驴), developed for both meat and medicinal use; an improved line of it holds national agricultural geographical-indication certification. Xinhua's Economic Information Daily describes Shandong donkey meat as tender and low in fat, fragrant without being greasy.
How it is eaten
In recent years, Xinhua's Economic Information Daily reports, donkey hotpot restaurants built around raw meat cooked at the table (生涮驴肉) have opened in Dong'e, Liaocheng, Jinan and Qingdao. A Liaocheng food guide on iqilu, the Shandong broadcaster's news site, notes that belly, back, rib, neck and leg cuts each have a different texture in the pot, and that the broth is drunk as well. Sauce-braised donkey meat (酱香驴肉) is another Dong'e form and one of the donkey products the county has put on the market.
A less common Dong'e dish is 'Huangjin Wanliang' (黄金万两, roughly 'ten thousand taels of gold'): the knee joints of the Dong'e black donkey's front legs, braised in sauce and full of gelatin. Each donkey yields only two, and the dish is eaten in big pieces with gloved hands, as a Dong'e reader explained in a 2024 Dazhong News food relay.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.