Lamb – Dalian, China

There is a ramshackle lamb shack off the side of the highway on my aunt’s way to work. I’ve only been there once, but I’ve waited two years to go back.

The Lamb Soup is still a must, and you can customize your pot with any combination of ingredients. The “lamb scraps” have the most flavor, but even my adventurous man can’t be asked to stomach bits of stomach, intestine, liver, and brain. We opt for the one with cubes of floating muscle-meat instead, chunks so stewed and tender that they melt in your mouth.

We pass on the lamb guts, but we do enjoy a plate of sautéed Lamb Cheek. I expected it to be fatty and full of soft meat like pork, but the meat is rubbery and firm instead, savory with the gamey lamb-flavor amplified.

Again, the balance between hot and cold. Cucumber and Lily Flower provides a cool-down in a place that doesn’t have AC. Coated lightly with a thin layer of vinegar-laced liquid, it’s so easy but you can’t stop eating. Something about the tart tones of vinegar adds spunk to a neutral cucumber, and the flowers cast an earthy aura, like a mushroom in the woods.

The server instructs us to order the Cabbage with a veracity that forces us to comply. It’s just cabbage, right? Maybe their cabbage is about to go bad and they want to get rid of it? No. No, he’s just trying to help. Their cabbage is the best cabbage I have ever tasted in my entire life, and it may be the best-tasting dish on the table. The cabbage itself is flawlessly-cooked, on the cusp of crispy and soft. It still holds a satisfying smack, under a thick layer of soy-based sauce that’s clearly been laced with luscious fat of lamb. Say what you want, and judge as you will, but cooking with animal fat is genius.

Toothpick Lamb, ending with a dish we recognize. Stupid-simple but stupid-good. Each piece of lamb is crispy on the outside and soft inside, each bite releasing a runny, fatty juice.

I call it the lamb shack because that’s what it is on the outside, but the inside is so much more. The lot is unpaved. There’s nothing next to it, nothing around it, and definitely nothing behind it. But never judge a book by its cover because it’s lunchtime on a weekday and the place is packed. They may look like a shack to skip, but this “shack” makes the best lamb I’ve ever had.