Here’s where I had dinner, in a well-known restaurant featuring another local specialty. It was packed and I was the absolutely only person who looked anything like me…
First you get this bowl with two very thick very very dense disks of bread and it is your job to pick away at these disks until your bowl is full of little itty bitty bits. The staff had their eye on me and if my bits got too big they would glance at my bowl and warmly raise an eyebrow at me. It was funny.
This guy was my neighbor and apparently he got tired of the picking because at one point he started eating his bread whereupon the woman he was with slapped his hand and helped him finish the picking.
When you are done with the bread they take away your bowl and bring it back full of the most aromatic mutton soup you can imagine to soak into the bread, with huge chunks of very tender mutton, some noodles added, and pickled garlic and chilies on the side so you can season it to your own taste.
It was deeee-lish and so much I couldn’t begin to finish. It cost 20 yuan, about $2.50.