Shanghai Muslim Market Report and Videos

In her travelogue On the Noodle Road about her adventure along the silk road Jen Lin Liu illustrates the food scene from Beijing to Kyrgyzstan. In Xinjiang she stays in a traditional Uighur village with a friend. Uighur is one of China’s largest ethnic minorities, concentrated in the northwest corner, a place that doesn’t sound very Chinese at all..”Uighurs spoke a dialect of Turkish, practiced Islam, and looked Middle-Eastern or sometimes downright European.”(66) We got to try lots of the Uighur food she describes like barbequed lamb where they alternate tail fat and lean meat, yogurt made from sheep’s milk, hami melons which are similar to but more floral than cantelopes, polo or more commonly rice pilaf, and nang bread topped with sesame seeds.

Spiced Lamb Kebabs

Rice Pilaf

Sheep Yogurt

blocks of rice starch being cut into noodles

Rice Pilaf

Lamb

pan-fried dumplings

con you bing (stuffed bread)