Noodles are central to Uyghur cooking in Xinjiang, and the most common restaurant meal in the region is laghman: a bowl of hand-pulled wheat noodles topped with a stir-fry of lamb or beef, tomato, pepper, onion, celery and cabbage. The noodles are pulled to order, so they arrive springy rather than soft, and the sauce is thin enough to coat them without drowning the plate.
How laghman works
The cooking is straightforward. Lamb is browned in oil, then onion, tomato and peppers go in, followed by whatever vegetables the kitchen has, and the whole thing is seasoned with cumin, salt and sometimes a little vinegar. The sauce is cooked wet, and the noodles are added at the end or served alongside so you can mix them yourself. In Xinjiang, laghman is often served with raw garlic cloves on the side, eaten between bites, and with a bowl of the noodle cooking water to drink afterwards. Ordering is easy: point at the noodles being pulled in the front of the shop and you will get the house version.
Big Plate Chicken
Dapanji - Big Plate Chicken - originated in Shawan, a town on the road between Urumqi and Karamay, in the 1990s, and it has since spread across China. A whole chicken is braised with potatoes, green and red peppers, onion, garlic, dried chili, cumin and star anise, and when you have eaten most of the chicken, wide belt noodles are dropped into the remaining sauce. It is ordered by the plate, which is genuinely enormous - a medium plate serves three or four people. Ask for the noodles to be added at the end; that is the point of the dish.
Also worth ordering
Samsa are the baked pastries sold from tandoor ovens on street corners, filled with minced lamb and onion, and best eaten within a minute of coming out of the oven. Lamb skewers, naan and pilaf are covered elsewhere in this section, but the other dish worth knowing is galmiri, a bowl of lamb, chickpeas and noodles in a light broth, often eaten for breakfast.
Practical notes
Restaurants in Urumqi, Kashgar and Turpan generally serve these dishes all day from late morning until late evening. Portions are large and prices low; a bowl of laghman usually costs the equivalent of a few dollars. Vegetarians can order the noodles with vegetables only, but confirm that the pan is not being used for meat.
