Uyghur cuisine ( ug, ئۇيغۇر تائاملىرى, , ; zh, s=維吾爾菜, p=Wéiwú'ěr Cài, links=no) is a cuisine of the

Uyghur people The Uyghurs; ; ; ; zh, s=, t=, p=Wéiwú'ěr, IPA: ( ), alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia. The Uyghu ...

, which is also consumed outside of

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwes ...

. Signature ingredients include roasted

mutton Lamb, hogget, and mutton, generically sheep meat, are the meat of domestic sheep, ''Ovis aries''. A sheep in its first year is a lamb and its meat is also lamb. The meat from sheep in their second year is hogget. Older sheep meat is mutton. Gen ...

kebab Kebab (, ; ar, كباب, link=no, Latn, ar, kabāb, ; tr, kebap, link=no, ) or kabob (North American) is a type of cooked meat dish that originates from cuisines of the Middle East. Many variants of the category are popular around the wor ...

s, and

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

. Because of the Muslim population, the food is predominantly

halal ''Halal'' (; ar, حلال, ) is an Arabic word that translates to "permissible" in English. In the Quran, the word ''halal'' is contrasted with '' haram'' (forbidden). This binary opposition was elaborated into a more complex classification k ...

. Xinjiang cuisine is found throughout much of China, as migrants from the region often open Xinjiang restaurants or food stands in other regions. The Herembagh ( ug, ھەرەمباغ, ; zh, c=海爾巴格, p=Hǎi'ěr bā gé), Yershari, Loulan, Tarhar, Ali Jiang, and many other franchises serve Uyghur cuisine.

Ethnic composition

Ethnic groups in Xinjiang meaning new territory originally Uyghuristan (East Turkistan) generally have traditionally cooking methods rooted by thousand of years from the Karahan empire. The Uyghurs form a large part of the population of (Xinjiang) Uyhguristan (East Turkistan), and so naturally their food dominates the region. Uyghur food is characterized by mutton,

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantit ...

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adu ...

goose A goose ( : geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera '' Anser'' (the grey geese and white geese) and ''Branta'' (the black geese). Some other birds, mostly related to the ...

carrot The carrot ('' Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in color, though purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild carrot, ''Daucus carota'', na ...

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

es,

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the on ...

s, peppers,

eggplant Eggplant ( US, Canada), aubergine ( UK, Ireland) or brinjal (Indian subcontinent, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa) is a plant species in the nightshade family Solanaceae. ''Solanum melongena'' is grown worldwide for its edible fruit. Mo ...

celery Celery (''Apium graveolens'') is a marshland plant in the family Apiaceae that has been cultivated as a vegetable since antiquity. Celery has a long fibrous stalk tapering into leaves. Depending on location and cultivar, either its stalks, ...

, various dairy foods and fruits. A Uyghur-style breakfast is tea with home-baked bread, '' smetana'',

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ' ...

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

raisin A raisin is a dried grape. Raisins are produced in many regions of the world and may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking, and brewing. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, the word ''raisin'' is reserved for the ...

s and

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genu ...

s. Uyghurs like to treat guests with tea, nan and fruit before the main dishes are ready.

Primary dishes

Many Uyghur dishes are also found among other ethnic groups in Central Asia, and their food also shows

Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive v ...

influence. In particular, the Han introduced many vegetables to the Xinjiang diet, with , "cucumber") and ''chäyza'' (, ''qiézi'', "eggplant").Cesaro, M. Cristina. "Consuming identities: food and resistance among the Uyghur in contemporary Xinjiang." ''Inner Asia'' 2.2 (2000): 225-238. Prestigious meals at urban Uyghur life events, such as wedding banquets, typically feature food cooked using Han techniques like ''so säy'' (from , ''chǎocài'', "

stir-fry Stir frying () is a cooking technique in which ingredients are fried in a small amount of very hot oil while being stirred or tossed in a wok. The technique originated in China and in recent centuries has spread into other parts of Asia and ...

"). Chinese dining etiquette is also followed in

Ürümqi Ürümqi ( ; also spelled Ürümchi or without umlauts), formerly known as Dihua (also spelled Tihwa), is the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the far northwest of the People's Republic of China. Ürümqi developed its ...

: a meal will start with ''liang säy'' (, ''liángcài'', "cold dishes") and ''issiq säy'' (, ''rècài'', "hot dishes") served family style.

Noodle

A common Uyghur dish is ''laghman'' or '' leghmen'' (, ; '' Shou La Mian'', , ''shǒu lāmiàn'', شِوْ لامِيًا), a noodle dish thought to have originated from the Chinese '' lamian'' – it has been noted that words that begin with L are not native to Turkic, therefore "läghmän" is possibly a

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because ...

from Chinese. However, the flavor of ''leghmen'' is distinctively Uyghur. It is a special type of handmade noodle, made from flour, water and salt. The dough is divided into small balls and then stretched by hand. The noodles are boiled until very soft and then served topped with stir-fried

meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...

and

vegetable Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the edible flower, flowers, ...

s (

bell pepper The bell pepper (also known as paprika, sweet pepper, pepper, or capsicum ) is the fruit of plants in the Grossum Group of the species ''Capsicum annuum''. Cultivars of the plant produce fruits in different colors, including red, yellow, orange ...

chili pepper Chili peppers (also chile, chile pepper, chilli pepper, or chilli), from Nahuatl '' chīlli'' (), are varieties of the berry-fruit of plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for ...

cabbage Cabbage, comprising several cultivars of ''Brassica oleracea'', is a leafy green, red (purple), or white (pale green) biennial plant grown as an annual vegetable crop for its dense-leaved heads. It is descended from the wild cabbage ( ''B.&n ...

s and

es) in meat stock.

Rice

Another typical Uyghur dish is '' polu'' (, ; , ''zhuāfàn'', جُوَ فًا), a Xinjiang take on Pilaf, a dish found throughout Central Asia. In a common version of the Uyghur ''polu'', carrots and mutton (or chicken) are first fried in oil with onion, then rice and water are added, and the whole dish is steamed. Raisins and dried apricots may also be added.

Breads

The

bread Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...

commonly found in the

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the fo ...

is a baked flatbread known as '' nan'' (, ; , ''náng'', نْا), using sesame seeds,

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condim ...

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modulat ...

vegetable oil Vegetable oils, or vegetable fats, are oils extracted from seeds or from other parts of fruits. Like animal fats, vegetable fats are ''mixtures'' of triglycerides. Soybean oil, grape seed oil, and cocoa butter are examples of seed oils, or f ...

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

and

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or do ...

. Girde (Гирде) is also popular; it is a bagel-like bread with a hard and crispy crust. '' Sangza'' (, ; , ''Sǎnzi'', صًا ذِ) are crispy fried wheat flour dough twists, a holiday specialty. '' Samsa'' ( ug, سامسا, Самса; , كَوْ بَوْ ذِ, literally: ''baked buns'') are lamb pies baked using a special brick oven. '' Yutaza'' (, ; , ''yóutiáozi'', يِوْتِيَوْ ذِ) is steamed multi-layer bread. '' Göshnan'' (, ; , ''náng bāo ròu'', نْا بَوْ ژِوْ) are pan-grilled lamb pies. ''Pamirdin'' are baked pies with lamb, carrots, and onions stuffed inside. '' Shorpa'' is lamb soup (, ; , ''yáng tāng'', يْا تْا). Other dishes include '' Toghach'' (a type of tandoor bread) and '' Tunurkawab'' (, ''náng kēng ròu'', نْا كعْ ژِوْ).

Meat

Other dishes include

soups Soup is a primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot (but may be cool or cold), that is made by combining ingredients of meat or vegetables with stock, milk, or water. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingr ...

made from lamb or chicken and '' Kawaplar'' ( ug, كاۋاپلار, ) (

s) made from lamb or beef. Kawaplar is seasoned with

chili powder Chili powder (also spelled chile, chilli, or, alternatively, powdered chili) is the dried, pulverized fruit of one or more varieties of chili pepper, sometimes with the addition of other spices (in which case it is also sometimes known as chili ...

, salt, black pepper and

cumin Cumin ( or , or Article title
) (''Cuminum cyminum'') is a

skewer A skewer is a thin metal or wood stick used to hold pieces of food together. The word may sometimes be used as a metonym, to refer to the entire food item served on a skewer, as in "chicken skewers". Skewers are used while grilling or roasting ...

parallel Parallel is a geometric term of location which may refer to: Computing * Parallel algorithm * Parallel computing * Parallel metaheuristic * Parallel (software), a UNIX utility for running programs in parallel * Parallel Sysplex, a cluster o ...

to the mouth, gripping the kebab closest to the end with one's teeth and sliding it off the pointed edge into one's mouth. A popular dish in Xinjiang but one not of Uyghur origin is '' dapanji'' (, ''dàpánjī'', دَاپًا کِ, ''chong texse toxu qorumis'', чоң тәхсә тоху қорумиси), which is literally translated as "big plate chicken." It is a spicy hot chicken stew served on a big plate and after the chicken has been eaten, wide flat hand-pulled noodles are added to the gravy. The dish gained popularity in the mid-to-late 1990s, and is said to have been invented in Shawan, northern Xinjiang, by a migrant from

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of t ...

, who mixed hot chili peppers with chicken and potatoes in an attempt to reproduce a Sichuan taste.

Spices

Spices include

cumin Cumin ( or , or Article title
) (''Cuminum cyminum'') is a

red pepper flakes, salt, and black pepper. Sultanas (raisins) and meat fat are also used for flavoring dishes.

Beverages

Beverage A drink or beverage is a liquid intended for human consumption. In addition to their basic function of satisfying thirst, drinks play important roles in human culture. Common types of drinks include plain drinking water, milk, juice, smoo ...

s include Uyhgur black tea, Milk tea. Another common beverage is the locally produced Xinjiang ( new territory ) Uyghuristan black beer, known to be stronger in flavor than other local Chinese beers. It is shipped throughout China.

Grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus '' Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years a ...

s are grown in the Xinjiang region, which are used for

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented grapes. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different ...

production and other grape products. In

Turfan Turpan (also known as Turfan or Tulufan, , ug, تۇرپان) is a prefecture-level city located in the east of the autonomous region of Xinjiang, China. It has an area of and a population of 632,000 (2015). Geonyms The original name of the cit ...

, wine is an important part of the local economy and was known in the Tang dynasty. The wine, called ''

museles Museles is a wine produced in Xinjiang, China. It is commonly made for local consumption, but is now also produced commercially for export outside the region. History China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region have an ancient history of viticulture goin ...

'', is commonly made and used by the locals and is also produced commercially for export outside the region.

Desserts

While it is different from Middle Eastern phyllo dough made

baklava Baklava (, or ; ota, باقلوا ) is a layered pastry dessert made of filo pastry, filled with chopped nuts, and sweetened with syrup or honey. It was one of the most popular sweet pastries of Ottoman cuisine. The pre- Ottoman origin of t ...

, the same appellation is used for Uyghur nut cake. Dates, raisins, walnuts, and syrup are the ingredients of the nut cake.

References

External links

Uighur Food

Herembag Company
{{Authority control

East Asian cuisine

Cuisine A cuisine is a style of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, techniques and dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, customs, and ingredients combine to ...