Mongolian Stuffed Pancake 蒙族馅饼

Mongolian Stuffed Pancake (蒙族馅饼) is a thin, meat-filled pancake made by the Mongols of Fuxin (阜新), Liaoning. The Fuxin Culture, Tourism, Radio and Television Bureau lists it among the city's ten best foods under the name Mengguzhen pancake (蒙古贞馅饼) and dates it back more than 300 years.

Where it comes from

People's Daily Online says the pancake was created in the late Ming dynasty, after the Menggulejin (蒙郭勒津) tribe of Mongols settled in the Fuxin area. Both the bureau and People's Daily describe the first version as a wrapper of local buckwheat flour around beef, mutton and pork, cooked by searing it dry and then cooking it with water. In the late Ming and early Qing the pancake passed from ordinary homes into the princes' mansions, where it was fried in soybean oil and butter and the wrapper was made of white wheat flour instead.

Flavour and texture

Both sources give its marks as a soft, slack dough, a thin skin and a finely chopped filling. Once griddled it is shaped like a gong, crisp outside and tender inside, with beads of oil glinting on the surface. The filling shows through the skin, the meat said to look like agate and the vegetables like jade in a pattern of red and green; when the skin is broken open with chopsticks, steam and aroma rise out.

How it is eaten

People's Daily Online calls it one of the main foods Mongol families serve to honoured guests, offered to visitors as the best meal of the house. Where a Han saying holds that nothing tastes better than dumplings, the Mongol version holds that nothing tastes better than xianbing.