Wenquan Hand-Held Boiled Mutton 温泉手把肉

Wenquan Hand-Held Boiled Mutton (温泉手把肉) is mutton on the bone, boiled and then eaten by hand, and Chinese Wikipedia lists it as a traditional dish of Wenquan County (温泉县). The county lies in the Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture (博尔塔拉蒙古自治州) of Xinjiang, on the northern side of the western Tianshan (天山) at the western edge of the Junggar Basin (准噶尔盆地), on the upper Bortala River (博尔塔拉河).

How it is made

Hand-held meat (手把肉, also called 手抓肉) is a way of cooking among the herding peoples of the Mongolian grasslands and the Junggar Basin, and it appears in Mongol and Kazakh cooking among others. Fatty cuts on the bone, such as leg or ribs of mutton, are boiled in plain water with onion until just done, with little seasoning beyond a small amount of salt; ginger and spring onion are sometimes added to take away the gamey smell.

How it is eaten

The name comes from the way it is eaten. In Wenquan the diner holds the meat in one hand and cuts pieces off with a knife. More generally the boiled meat is lifted out, cut into small pieces and eaten with the fingers, with a dip of garlic and vinegar or of pepper and salt, and often with milk tea or naan.