Wulong Mutton by the Bowl 武隆碗碗羊肉
Wulong Mutton by the Bowl is featured among the local specialties of Chongqing.
Wulong Mutton by the Bowl (武隆碗碗羊肉) is a traditional snack from Yangjiao Town (羊角镇) in Wulong District, Chongqing: local goat meat portioned into single bowls, a way of selling it that gave the dish its name.
Ingredients
The Wulong district government specifies local goat meat from natural pastures in the high, cold mountain country of Mount Baima (白马山) and Mount Xiannü (仙女山), both in Wulong. It describes the meat as fresh and tender and counts it among the prized meats.
Where it comes from
Wulong Mutton by the Bowl first circulated in Yangjiao Town. According to the district, sellers there packed the meat into bowls one at a time and sold them to boat-trackers and boatmen, who earned little, and the dish is named after that bowl-by-bowl trade.
The making technique has been handed down for about a hundred years. The dish is now widely known in Chongqing and in Fuling (涪陵), Pengshui (彭水), Shizhu (石柱) and Qianjiang (黔江). In 2019 the traditional technique for making Wulong Mutton by the Bowl entered Chongqing's sixth list of municipal representative items of intangible cultural heritage, and the dish has also been named a China Famous Snack (中华名小吃) and a Chongqing Landmark Dish (重庆地标菜).
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Wanzhou Basket-Steamed Mutton 万州羊肉格格 →
Another Chongqing mutton speciality: Wanzhou's version is known by its small steamer baskets, while Wulong's is named for the single bowls it was sold in to river workers.
Questions before you order
Why is Wulong Mutton by the Bowl sold by the bowl?
Sellers in Yangjiao Town portioned the meat into single bowls for low-paid boat-trackers and boatmen, and the dish took its name from that way of selling it.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-23. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.