Dessert in Xinjiang is a serious business, and the centrepiece is an ice cream unlike any other in China. It is made from milk, cream and sugar, sometimes with egg, churned slowly until it becomes dense, elastic and slightly chewy rather than light and airy, and the best is still made in small quantities and served from a wooden tub with a flat scoop or paddle. In Urumqi and the other cities it is sold from dedicated shops and from carts at the bazaar, in cups or cones, often topped with crushed nuts or a spoonful of jam.
What else is on the stall
The dessert trade around the ice cream is built on the region's fruit and nuts. There are honey cakes and layered pastries brushed with syrup, halva made from sesame or sunflower seeds, blocks of nut brittle, sweets made by boiling fruit juice with sugar into a firm paste and cutting it into slabs, and the whole shop window of dried and candied fruit - apricots, figs, jujubes, raisins in several colours, mulberries, melon strips. Fresh fruit appears in season, particularly the melons and grapes for which the oases are known, and pomegranate juice is pressed to order. A single stall can supply an entire afternoon's eating.
Where to eat it
The bazaars are the obvious place, and Urumqi's main bazaar has a whole aisle of dessert and nut stalls along with ice cream shops on the surrounding streets. The smaller town markets are often better value and less frantic. In the summer, ice cream is sold everywhere and eaten outdoors in the evening; in winter, the same shops sell hot milk tea and fried pastries instead, and the sweet trade shifts indoors. The desert towns of the south, where the fruit is grown, tend to have the best dried fruit and the most elaborate pastry.
Practical notes
Portions are large and prices low, and most stalls take mobile payment though cash is still accepted. The ice cream is rich and heavy, which is worth bearing in mind before a long drive; the same goes for the nut brittle, which is very hard. Dried fruit and nuts travel well and make good gifts, but check the customs rules of your destination country before buying large quantities, and buy from shops that seal and label rather than from open sacks if you intend to carry it home.
