What kind of snack is Beijing "Lo Mein"?

Lojiao is a famous local traditional snack in Beijing, which is made by putting fire-roasted, stewed pork intestines and lungs together to cook, buy a bowl of the main dish, side dishes and hot soup. Lo Mein originated in Nan Heng Street in the south of Beijing. It is said that in the Guangxu period, because the sozao meat cooked with pancetta was expensive, people used pork head and pork jowl instead. Through the spread of folk cooking masters, over time, it created the brine-boiled fire-roasted pork. There aren't many authentic Beijingers who don't know about braised pork.

There is a dish called Su Zao meat in the Qing court. According to the book "Food in the Palace" written by Mr. Aisin Gioro Pu Jie's wife Hao, in 1780, the emperor toured the south and stayed at the home of Chen Yuanlong in Yangzhou's Anlan Park. Chen's home cook Zhang Dongguan cooking dishes were very popular with Qianlong, after Zhang Dongguan with Qianlong to the Palace, well aware of Qianlong love of thick things, with pork with cloves, Guan Gui, licorice, sand nut, cinnamon, cardamom nut, cinnamon and other nine flavors of the spices to cook a meat dish for the meal. These nine spices are prepared in different quantities according to the seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter.

The meat soup made from this spice mixture was called Suzhao soup because Zhang Dongguan was from Suzhou, and the meat was called Suzhao meat. Later, it was introduced to the public and became a popular snack when it was boiled with a flour-cooked hotchpotch. Vendors selling Suzhao meat set up stalls outside Donghuamen early in the morning, specializing in making breakfast for officials entering the Shengping Office. After the Republic of China, the restaurants around Shichahai and Jingquanju in Dong'an Market were the most famous for selling the meat.

"Yandu small food miscellaneous chorus" has a poem of Suzao meat: "Suzao fat and fresh to satiate the craving, fire soup stained meat to embed. Even though the gourmets say that they are tired of it, a piece of oil has already filled the shirt." And note: "Su made meat, long strips of fat meat, sauce stewed very rotten, its flavor is very thick, and will be cooked with the pot of fire, buyers more meat embedded in the fire inside the food."

Brined and boiled

So how did suzaku meat evolve into brined and boiled hot-roasted meat? Chen Zhaoyen, the founder of "Small Intestine Chen," was a seller of suzhao meat at the time. In the old days, the price of meat cooked with pork was too high for the general public to afford, so he used inexpensive pork instead of pork, and added cheaper pork jowl to cook it. I didn't expect to hit the right spot, and created a heirloom delicacy out of the blue.