Mike and I left early Sunday to fly from Chengdu to Urumqi. I was excited because Xinjiang food (Xinjiang is the province out West in which Urumqi lies) was one of my favorite things to eat back in Shanghai, and we haven't found anywhere in Chengdu that serves it. I was thrilled (of course) at the thought of three Xinjiang meals a day in this Northwestern city.
The view during the flight over was incredible. Lots of desert, mountains, long stretches of snow. We could tell that we were going to a place that was different from the rest of China that we had visited so far.
When we arrived we were surprised at the large number of outdoor markets and the different kinds of fruits and nuts that they were selling These markets were everywhere and they sold not only dried fruit and nuts, but also all sorts of breads. We made it a habit to go explore them every morning and get a sampling of different kinds of breads for breakfast. It was delicious!
The clothing markets were crazy! Very crowded and for good reason: the prices were inexplicably much cheaper than anything else we've seen. At one point we walked around behind one of the large markets trying to take a shortcut to the Xinjiang Museum (the desert has preserved bodies almost 4000 years old, and they've got several at the museum!) and we saw a long line of trucks snaking down a side road, each of which loaded down with sacks and sacks of clothes, shoes, wallets, trinkets - I don't know how they're able to sell like that, but they've got throngs of people buying.
A different day we ventured farther south looking for some markets mentioned in the guidebook. These markets were filled with stalls selling things more traditional to the local Uyghur culture. They had carpets, knives, spices, jewelry, amazing instruments and other things that Mike and I thought of as Middle Eastern.
It was beautiful the whole time we were there and although it was a bit chilly we had a great time walking around and exploring.
Here I am after a long day of walking around with two of the local drinks: wine (a sweet red wine that from pictures we saw in the airplane magazine (excellent resource) we think may have been ice wine) and date juice (I want to call it Jujube Juice, but Ann is vetoing. "It's a date!"). The date juice (da zao juice) was a bit too sweet for my (Ann's!) taste, but the wine was great.
Ahhh....yes...this is one of our favorites. This pilaf is available everywhere during lunch and dinner. Both Mike and I would get a huge plate and lots of tea for just 24 RMB. Amazing. Actually, we couldn't break the bank here if we were trying - none of our meals cost more than 40 kuai (that's $6) for the two of us, and most fell into that 24-30 range.
Generally served with these great pickled vegetables (julienned yellow and orange carrot, sometimes a bit of cabbage, a little spicy, a little vinegary) to go on top of the pilaf. Also very tasty.
Pilaf is everywhere and in the morning you can see people preparing it for lunchtime. We had our eating routine: pilaf for lunch and then noodles and skewers (sometimes stew served on bread!) for dinner. The skewers are Ann's (my!) favorite and incredibly delicious. People eat much later in Urumqi which is much more in tune with our eating habits and worked out very well. Restaurants are crowded at all hours, and we often found ourselves sharing the table with some locals. Our last day there we were lucky enough to share with someone who spoke English and we had a great time talking to his group (via him) about Urumqi and Xinjiang. Then when it came time to pay and the cashier was ringing us up for the wrong things, the woman at our table stepped in and rescued us (calling over to him to tell him what we had eaten).
Mike and Ann
This place sounds amazing!
ReplyDeleteWhat do people ask you about when you are able to make conversation?
We get a lot of questions about Obama. It is pretty interesting. (I am also relieved to just have to answer questions about Obama's policies and not Bush.)
ReplyDelete