Xinjiang (the “x” is pronounced “sh”) is China’s large, western-most province. It’s a muslim area, and like Tibet, it’s populated by a non-Han Chinese people who would like more autonomy from the central government.

But I don’t want to get into that. I just want to tell you about the food. For Westerners, Xinjiang food is one of the most accessible and liked kinds of Chinese cuisine. It’s flour based, with lots of bread and pasta, uses tomato sauce, and has a lot of meat in it. It’s vaguely Arabic, with maybe some Indian & Pakastani influences (the bread is even called naan). Han Chinese consider it an exotic cuisine for the very same reasons Westerners find it so familiar.
Last night, CL and I went to a Xinjiang restaurant that’s across the street from the new US embassy. I didn’t have my camera, so I can only show you the take-out (I really need to work on my food photography skills!).
Going clockwise from the lower left, the photo shows naan bread, Da Pan Ji, cabbage with pepper, and a pasta dish that is very Italian tasting. Da Pan Ji simply means Big Plate of Chicken, and is one of the classic Xinjiang dishes. It’s kind of what the name says, but it also comes with potatoes, vegetables, and fat noodles. The cabbage dish was very spicy-hot and loaded with an incredible number of Sichuan peppers. I loved it.
The photo also shows what real Chinese take-out looks like, in case you ever wondered. And no, they don’t have fortune cookies… in fact, Chinese people have never heard of them. That’s because fortune cookies were invented by the Japanese, in San Francisco.