🍽️ Xiaoshi Mutton Soup

Mountain-town mutton offal soup with pepper.

Xiaoshi Mutton Soup is the signature mutton soup of Xiaoshi town in Benxi, Liaoning, a mountain flavor of eastern Liaoning. Whole lamb bones and offal — tripe, intestines, blood and meat — are slow-simmered into a milky, rich broth with tender, well-seasoned ingredients. Diners sprinkle in white pepper and cilantro and eat it with scallion pancake or corn cake, the pepper's heat warming against the cold. Eastern Liaoning's long winters make a scalding bowl a daily local defense against the chill. Xiaoshi soup depends on a white, generously stocked, non-gamey broth that warms you through. With Benxi Water Cave drawing many visitors, a bowl after touring the cave is routine. As eastern Liaoning's representative mutton soup, it is a must-try for visitors experiencing Benxi's mountain food and winter-warming flavors.