Small Shelly Fauna

A 14, a 7, a 9, and lychees

Chinese food: we know it, we love it. We order take-out on a weekly basis in a stereotypically New York Jewish fashion. There’s not a corner of the United States where it cannot be found. Often, we hear tell of how the “real deal”, the actual Chinese food in China (or, as they call it, “food”), is a far cry from the radioactive sweet-and-sour chicken we pick up at Nicky’s. This is a half truth. Yes, it is the case that the majority of Chinese take-out you might pick up in Little Rock or somesuch is a bland, over-sauced shadow of the native cuisine that birthed it so long ago. However, I found for the most part the Chinese food to be had in Beijing generally equivalent in quality to what you would get in a good Chinese restaurant in a major urban area in the U.S. That is to say, “Chinese” food as we know it, which is a simplification of a vast and ethnically (and culinarily) diverse chunk of Asia. To even speak of “Chinese food” is akin to speaking of “North American food”. In the U.S., we get relatively few of the regional cuisines—the majority of “Chinese food” we eat is Cantonese in origin. If you’re lucky, you might get an authentic Szechuan or even more rarely Hunan restaurant in some American Chinatown. But I tell you, there are rare and powerful local cuisines of almost unfathomable deliciosity that are only to be had in Cathay itself. Case in point: Xinjiang cuisine. I had never even heard of this one before eating it, despite name-recognition of the Xinjiang Province (because it is the main source of Chinese therapsid fossils). Xinjiang is a very interesting place, because as the westernmost Chinese province, its people both ethnically and culturally share much more with the various “-stan” countries in the area than with the ethnic Han Chinese or other Eastern Chinese peoples. For one thing, the population is predominantly Muslim, and as a result the pork omnipresent in much of what we think of as typical Chinese food is nonexistent. Also, the food includes lots of typically Western food types, like breads and cheeses, albeit in distinctly non-Western combinations. I was taken out to lunch at one of the bigger Xinjiang restaurants in Beijing (a note on going out for meals with Chinese scientists: by standard etiquette for treating guests in the country, I have never been allowed to pay for a meal. Indeed, I’ve spent like, zero monies since I took the cab to the hotel. I am not complaining about this). Among the dishes we had (and an enormous spread was put out, perhaps because my rapid consumption of nine meat-filled buns the previous day had earned me a reputation as a beast with many stomachs) were such scrumptious offerings as a bowl of bread filled with meat broth filled with pieces of goat, a number of strongly spiced, skewered meats (including a stack of ten kidneys), and braised leek-like vegetables in warm milk. Now, although I’ve never been to the big ‘uns out in Callie, I’ve been to many a Chinatown in my day and I've never seen a Xinjiang restaurant, so I’m fairly certain that even in this world of increasing globalization this may be something that you have to go to China to get. Is it worth the trip? I'm going to say that I can think of very few single meals that are worth a day's worth of flight time and thousands of dollars in airfare, but on the off chance that you should happen to be in China, get some, damn you!