My second favorite food in Xi'an area is the Paomo, which literally means "soaked bread". Its most common English name is "Pita Bread Soaked in Beef/Lamb Soup" or "Flat Bread Soaked in Beef/Lamb Soup".
During cold winter, nothing beats a bowl of hot Paomo. In Paomo, you typically find cubed pita bread, thin starch noodles, wood ears, pieces of beef or lamb. For the cubed pita bread, it's up to you whether you want it done by machine, or by your own hands.
Some people say, Paomo always tastes better if you break down the pita bread by your own hands. Whe I was little, my dad sometimes waited for my sister and me for lunch in a Paomo restaurant. He usually asked for a few pieces of pita bread, broke them down into cubes and sent them to the kitchen, then when my sister and me got out of school, we can have hot Paomo ready for us.
Pickled garlics are perfect companions for Paomo. When I eat Paomo, I always ask for a small plate of pickled garlics. Eating Paomo without them feels incomplete.
According to Wikipedia, Paomo came from a legend:
"One legend about its origin is that in the late five dynasties in China, Zhao Kuangyin[2] who became the emperor of the Song Dynasty nation returned to his hometown after seeing his fiancée off. He had consumed most of his food and money on the journey. He had only two pieces of inedible big hard bread. His party went through a shop selling lamb soup and broke the bread in pieces and added it to the soup. When he became emperor he returned to the small shop and asked the cook to make it again. After the meal, the emperor could not hide his happiness and named it Flat Bread Soaked in Lamb Soup."
