Our new favorite restaurant is a Uyghur Barbecue eatery down a back alley. Katie and Thomas have always been the adventurous ones for which I am most grateful. For their guts have introduced my stomach to some scrumptious food. The latest of which was this Northwestern Uyghur cuisine.     

Thank you for your adventurous side.

Nothing beats a great BBQ

The main dishes are skewers of meat and vegetables.  As the Uyghurs are typically Muslim there is no pork. The meat is typically beef or goat. The vegetableselection is varied but our favorites are the potato and eggplant.   

The restaurant uses a combination of spices that is mouth watering. It is all prepared in front of the restaurant. After 6pm the restaurant often remains packed until well into the night. It is among a few restaurants to remain up open until well into the mornings on the weekends.   

The cooks are constantly trying to keep up!

Tubs and tubs of prepared skewers are constantly being prepared. Once ordered the skewers are moved to the long BBQ in the the front. It is a long narrow channel that has hot coals continually added.   

The skewers are laid across the top, spices are added and then they are rotated to the perfect doneness.   

Anyone up for a game of pick up sticks?

It is not uncommon for the skewer count by the end of the night reach well over 100.    

And before my vegetarian family members comment on that count, its the veggies that contribute the most they come on double skewers.   

My latest favorite is the fried mantou (steamed bread). It’s the closest thing to toast I’ve been able to find in this county.   

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The following pictures are NOT for the faint of heart nor for non-meat eaters. I’ve added these pictures for completeness sake but warn, you view at your own risk.

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I'm pretty sure this was our dinner.

  The meat is often slaughtered and cleaned in front of the restaurant. This is a picture of the goat that would soon become our dinner.     

I had to take a double look when I first saw this.

In America we are often far removed from the animals we eat, in China this is not the case.   

To most American’s it seems meat is just a food group. As we are accustomed to boneless skinless meat that bears little resemblance to the original animal it is often hard for me to stomach meat here that still has the head attached or in this case in the front of the restaurant.