Beixiang Lamb Hubo 北相羊肉胡卜
Beixiang Lamb Hubo is featured among the local specialties of Shanxi.
Beixiang Lamb Hubo (北相羊肉胡卜) is a dish of shredded flatbread simmered in fresh mutton broth from Beixiang Town (北相镇) in Yanhu District (盐湖区), Yuncheng (运城), Shanxi. The Yuncheng city government points out that hubo here does not mean carrot (胡萝卜) but an unleavened flatbread (死面饼子). The dish is said to have been made for more than a hundred years, and it carries Beixiang's name because the town's cooks are held to make it best.
How it is made
The Shanxi provincial government describes the method: thin white-flour flatbreads are cooked on a griddle, cut into strips and cooked in fresh mutton broth, then seasoned with sesame oil, chopped spring onion and ground red chilli. Its account calls the result clean-tasting, rich without being greasy and nourishing, a popular local food.
Where it comes from
Chinese Wikipedia treats hubo, also called lamb hubo, as a Shanxi food made mainly from mutton and unleavened flatbread, prepared differently from one part of the province to another. It records two competing origin stories: one credits Hu (胡) peoples of the Wei, Jin and Northern and Southern dynasties, more than 1,700 years ago; the other credits the Northern Song statesman Sima Guang (司马光).
Yanhu District lists Beixiang hubo among the local foods it is helping to build into brands and run at larger scale, according to the Shanxi Department of Culture and Tourism. The Yuncheng government's food guide names two Beixiang shops, Xiejia (解家) and Jianlong (建龙), both on the middle section of the town's Central Street (中心街).
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.