A taste of inner China

Another night, another fun dinner in Shanghai. Continuing our virtual tour of China's regions, we had Uighur food from western China. I did not catch the name of the restaurant, but those of you who intrepidly read Chinese will make it out from the photo below.

This place was really hopping, and as I walked to the table there were many dishes I was seeing that looked so good.

The sides that came first included a baked sesame bread and yogurt with pistachios. I am a sucker for pistachios, will eat them all the time, so I lapped the yogurt right up. It was delightfully not sweet. The sesame bread was best dipped in other dishes; standalone, it got a bit hard and flavorless.

Next up was a plate of thousand year old eggs. These eggs have been aged for several months (I know, false advertising), with the yolk turning a dark green and the whites turning a transparent black. These were tasty! Lighter than normal hard-boiled eggs, with a good chilli kick, they helped to cleanse the palate in between other dishes.

Third was the standout of the meal, for me: a mixture of lamb and croutons, cut to be similar shapes and size. The lamb was good, meaty, flavorful and not too dry. The croutons were unbelievable. It was af it each one had been hand soaked in lamb fat and then baked to regain its crunchiness (which may have been the preparation, come to think of it). Absolutely delicious.

There was also a plate of slightly pickled cucumber. This was refreshing and delightful, a great contrast to the heavier meats of lamb and mutton that decorated the table. And, the cucumber were cut on the bias, always a good sign.

Getting back to the meat, a full plate of mutton skewers begged to be eaten. Fantastic, well-seasoned, and so fun to eat off of the sharp skewer.

As we were walking to our table, someone spotted this dish on another table and we knew we had to try it. With a chicken stir fry and steamed buns adorning the plate, we were hopeful we were in for a treat. However, the dish fell short of the mark. The buns were overcooked and so very dry, with no extra juice coming from the meat mixture to compensate. Also, flavor took a back seat on this dish, which seemed all about theatrics.

The final dish was a DIY mini-fajitas with minced meat. Just ok, as the dish was bland and the tortilla-like wrappers not superb.

In sum, a couple of hits and some misses, but a good adventure to the cuisine of west China.