Xin-Jiang cumin beef rolls, Peaceful Restaurant, Vancouver

While a roll is a sandwich in the UK, I've never had a sandwich in China, though I've had many tasty meaty morsels tucked between freshly made dough-based pockets.

The issue once again of what makes a sandwich reared its ugly head as I ate this western-style (or alternately, "Beijing-influenced") Xin-Jiang cumin beef roll. The sesame covered pan-breads are the best thing about this dish, and they themselves are often ordered to eat, as they are flaky on the inside and crispy on the outside, and go with anything that you put into it. Sounds like a sandwich, but is it?

One of the best dining experiences I repeat whenever I visit Hong Kong is at a Beijing restaurant with hands-down the BEST lamb dish ever. They come as separate dishes, but they go together always as you stuff the lamb into these little sesame rolls that comes with a sharp spicy sauce to ladle over the whole mess. I want to buy a plane ticket right now just to have one.

Are they sandwiches? No, because they must be assembled and eaten all at once. But they have the same spirit of a fine sandwich, and deserves an honorable mention. These on the other hand, are more sandwich-like in form, and definitely more westernized than Beijing-influenced.

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