Meat and Wheat

It's getting to that time of year when I'm sick of Chinese food. Luckily, Xinjiang's Uighur cuisine adds some diversity to the palate. Xinjiang food is mostly wheat- and meat-based - mutton, nang (flatbread), and noodles.

There's no shortage of  bread substitutes here, as nang forms the basis of the Uighur diet.  There's nang of all kinds -- large flat ones that look like pizza crusts, hard round ones that look like bagels,  nang with meat inside, nang with onions...life is good with nang.  A hint of thickness around my waist has developed, but I've got left than two months left, so I'm going to enjoy all the nang I want -- who knows when I'll have it next?

Then we've got the mutton skewers, or chuanr. The Chinese character for meat skewer "串" perfectly captures it. It's an essential street food here. There's always one or two chunks of pure fat on the stick, which is actually quite succulent after it's become crispy over the coals.

Aside from chuanr and nang, life would be incomplete with banmian (拌面), or literally, "mixed noodles."  It's topped with a spicy, tomato-y stir-fry of onions, green peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, and mutton.

The freshly pulled noodles in banmian beat the best pasta I've ever had anywhere.

I'm going to miss this stuff when I go home!