Nurlan Restaurant

Posted on October 25, 2019 by Rich

When I write about restaurants on Instagram, they’re usually brief takes accompanied by a photo or two. (You can see my feed right here on ethnojunkie.com, updated almost daily, by selecting the “Instagram” category from my home page – no signup required.) But because of Instagram’s character count limitations, it’s often necessary to break up a review into several parts. This one originally appeared as three posts, published on October 22, 24, and 25, 2019.

I’ve been intrigued by the cuisine of the Uyghurs ever since I first experienced it at Café Kashkar about a decade ago. Primarily a Muslim ethnic group, they reside in the Xinjiang region of northwest China near Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan; as you’d expect, the fare is a comingling of Chinese and Central Asian cuisines. Because of the political conflict in the Uyghur Autonomous Region, the public at large is becoming more aware of the plight of the these people who are in essence being persecuted for aspiring to pursue their lives and their culture in a homeland of their own, an “Eastern Turkestan”.

In terms of the food, when you hear Uyghur you tend to think laghman, and when you hear laghman, you tend to think soup. Further into Central Asia the customary habitat of these hand-pulled noodles is indeed soup but here you’ll find them as the foundation for stir-fries or stews.

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Nurlan Laghman

At Nurlan Restaurant, 43-39 Main St, Flushing, one of several options featuring these chewy noodles was topped with a slightly spicy lamb and vegetable mélange. Any attempt to capture the obligatory noodle-lift photo proved nigh on impossible since this plate arguably contained one long, coiled noodle and hoisting it to the max would have crushed even Stretch Armstrong into humiliating defeat; happily, scissors are provided to ward off subsequent muscle aches. Acrobatics notwithstanding, it was a tasty dish.

Ding Ding Laghman

Geographically appropriate linguistic notes: laghman is a cognate of lo mein and ding, in Chinese food environs, refers to cutting into dice. So here we have diced noodles, with similarly sized bits of meat, scallion, onion, and red and bell peppers, easily as delicious as the Nurlan Laghman above. Personally, I think a big ol’ spoon is the best method of conveying them lipward.

Stir Fried Noodles

Stir Fried Noodles, here incorporated into rather than providing an underpinning for the stir-fry, strewn with sesame seeds. This one was kicked up with what I’m pretty sure were Sichuan peppercorns, a welcome contrast.

Sam Sa

If you’re at all familiar with Central Asian cuisines then you know samsa. The linguistic and culinary cognate of samosa found in India (and throughout Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East to be sure), Nurlan Restaurant, 43-39 Main St, Flushing, serves up this authoritative Uyghur version. These plump, baked buns stuffed with chopped lamb and onion topped with two-tone seeds would make a satisfying snack by themselves had they not been part of a grander lunch.

The obligatory post-bite shot

Polo

More fun with cognates! This is Polo. Its pronunciation, puh-Law, makes the connection to pilau, pilaf, and plov an effortless one. The rice is cooked in broth (I’m assuming lamb) which produces a savory, perfumed dish enhanced by carrots and the lamb that gave its all to the stock.

Lamb and Chicken Kebabs

Tender and piquantly seasoned, that day they partnered with…

Freshly Baked Uyghur Bread

Dapanji

Dapanji, literally “big plate chicken” in Chinese, originated in Xinjiang, China and became popular there only about 25 years ago. This rich stew boasts flavorful and incredibly tender chicken and gets its heat from both dried red pepper and spicy long green pepper. It’s loaded with potatoes, of course, but it’s nothing without…

A great pile of noodles!

Ravioli?

The menu calls it Ravioli, the Chinese characters for wonton, 馄饨, were there too, but do as I didn’t and heed the photo: it’s a soup. I didn’t ask about specifics or the bit of writing (looked like چـۈچـۈرہ – Uyghur alphabet, based on Arabic) over the picture so I need to go back. (As if I needed an excuse! 😉)

Good eats at Nurlan Restaurant; definitely check it out. They’re located 43-39 Main St, Flushing, Queens.

Tarim Uyghur Food

Posted on October 2, 2019 by Rich

Instagram Post 10/2/2019

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Breaking News! New Vendor Alert: Stall number 5 at the New World Mall Food Court, 136-20 Roosevelt Ave, Flushing is now home to Tarim Uyghur Food. They appeared about 10 days ago filling the void left by Pho Sushi (I suspect it was that, but I never tried it) which in turn occupied the former digs of Erqal and its distinctive Uyghur ice cream among other authentic dishes.

I’ve written extensively about Uyghur cuisine and I’ll do a comparison with my feast at Nurlan Uyghur Restaurant, also in Flushing (soon, I promise!) but for now, here’s a look at two dishes from Tarim.

Lagman (Handmade Noodles), item 2 on the menu, was a stir-fry (see first photo) of freshly sliced lamb (I witnessed him carving the meat from a huge chunk), sweet red bell pepper, spicy long green pepper, celery and onions.

Lagman (cognate to lo mein) presents as a single interminably long hand-pulled noodle…

…stored in a coil, ready for action. Perfectly textured, dense noodles, the tasty dish had a spicy kick albeit no other side notes.

Diced Fried Noodles, item 8 on the menu. Called Ding-Ding Lagman at Nurlan (ding refers to dicing food into small cubes), the dish is as much about texture as it is about flavor at Tarim. Tiny cubes of lagman were stir-fried with lamb and the same vegetables as above, all cut into matching-sized bits; certainly comfort food (you want to eat it with a big ol’ spoon), but I wish it had a little more oomph in the flavor department.

Some decorative Uyghur bread. I’ll return soon to sample other items on the menu (since I’ve already tried everything at Nurlan! 😉)

XinJiang House

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Rich

Instagram Post 7/8/2019

As I sift my way through the stalls and their respective menus at Elmhurst’s HK Food Court, 82-02 45th Ave, some gems have begun to emerge; XinJiang House, number 17, is assuredly one of them. They offer the Halal cuisine of Xinjiang, the Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China near Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Because of the political conflict there, the public at large is becoming more aware of the plight of the Uyghurs who are in essence being persecuted for aspiring to pursue their lives and their culture in a homeland of their own, an “Eastern Turkestan”. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to learn about these people and their cuisine.

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This is Spicy Lamb Chop with Noodles (also available with rice). Succulent lamb riblets (on the bone where the meat is sweetest) accompanied by chunks of potato and intensified with green and red chilies plus palpable nubs of ginger and garlic. Gilding the lily, this all goes over a bed of wide, thick, chewy, hand pulled noodles to soak up the juices – not visible in this photo, but you’ll dream about them later.

I was curious about the dish that’s probably the least accessible on their menu, Spicy Lamb Feet. There’s precious little meat on these, but that’s to be expected; you’ll be consuming skin for the most part, but the heady broth (too trivial a word) that’s the consummation of this preparation is just remarkable. Pour it over the accompanying rice and prepare to be amazed.

Kashkar Cafe

Posted on May 31, 2019 by Rich

Instagram Post 5/29/2019

While fine tuning my ethnojunket through Little Odessa, I visited Kashkar Café, 1141 Brighton Beach Avenue in Brooklyn. Kashkar serves the food of the Uyghur people, a primarily Muslim ethnic group who live in the Xinjiang region of northwest China near Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan; as you’d expect, the fare is a comingling of Chinese and Central Asian cuisines and definitely worth getting to know.

(Click on any image to view it in high resolution.)

Ashlangfu (ашлангфу) salad, aka lang-foo noodles. If you’ve enjoyed Chinese mung bean jelly noodle, you’ll recognize these slippery slices as their cognate, liangfen. The dish included bits of lamb and chopped vegetables in a light, tangy sauce, but lurking unexpectedly beneath the pile was lagman, Uyghur’s claim to noodle fame (Chinese cognate: lo mein).

Kazi (you might see qazı) was described as “pickled sausage from the beef meat in home styles”; in Central Asia, kazi is made from horsemeat, so the annotation was reassuring. This isn’t a ground meat type of sausage, rather it’s dry cured rib meat in a natural casing, served cold. Not particularly pickled in flavor, it was dense and earthy and the vegetables plus a squeeze of lemon were a welcome accompaniment. A little goes a long way with these slices, but it’s worth doing once.

This was a winner. Tsomyan (цомян), cognate with chow mein, was described as sliced fried dough and lamb meat with vegetables. When you see “dough” on the menu, it refers to a thick doughy noodle that’s a little reminiscent of Xi’an hand pulled noodles if a bit drier; the term distinguishes it from lagman noodles. Splendid char on those chewy noodles; really excellent.

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AND speaking of Little Odessa, there are some slots open for Tuesday, June 4th’s ethnojunket along Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach Avenue! Simply click here to find out how to join in the fun!
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Kashkar Cafe – Samsa, Two Ways

Posted on September 30, 2018 by Rich

Instagram Post 9/30/2018

(Click on any image to view it in high resolution.)

While preparing for my ethnojunket through Little Odessa, I passed Kashkar Café, 1141 Brighton Beach Avenue in Brooklyn, and grabbed a few items to bring home. Kashkar serves the food of the Uyghur people, a primarily Muslim ethnic group who live on the Chinese/Russian border near Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan; as you’d expect, the fare is a blend of Chinese and Central Asian cuisines.

Samsa are baked (usually in a tandoor or clay oven), filled with a tasty lamb/onion mixture, crisp outside, moist inside, and often decorated with a few nigella seeds. On the left, a large, round one (triangular samsa are common too), one to an order. On the right, Samsa Parmuda, four smaller pieces to an order, same filling, but easier to divvy up on a food tour! The white bun in back is Yutaza, a plain, steamed multi-layer bread, a little like a Chinese bao but denser.

Photos of a dine-in experience to come soon.

Ethnojunket: Snacking in Flushing – The Best of the Best

Posted on January 1, 2018 by Rich

An ethnojunket is a food-focused walking tour through one of New York City’s many ethnic enclaves; my mission is to introduce you to some delicious, accessible, international treats (hence, “ethno-”) that you’ve never tasted but soon will never be able to live without (hence, “-junkie”).

Snacking in Flushing – The Best of the Best
On this ethnojunket, we’ll choose from a seemingly endless collection of authentic regional delights from all over China: Heilongjiang, Shandong, Henan, Shanghai, Shaanxi, Guangzhou, Hubei, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and Japan and Taiwan as well. We’ll enjoy Chinese crêpes, juicy dumplings, tasty noodle dishes, yummy dim sum, and distinctive snacks from the savory to the sweet. And as if that weren’t enough, we’ll finish with some amazingly rich Chinese influenced American ice cream! If you’re into cooking, we can also check out JMart, a sprawling Asian supermarket. All this within four blocks!

Some photos from past visits:
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Details:
The cost of any tour is $85 per person (cash only, please) and includes a veritable cornucopia of food so bring your appetite: you won’t leave hungry, and you will leave happy!

Tours usually begin at 1pm and typically run about 3 to 4 hours (depending upon the neighborhood).

Sign up!
Simply send me a note below and tell me when you’d like to experience a food adventure and which ethnojunket you’re interested in – I’ll bet we can find a mutually convenient day! I’ll email you with details.

Please note: While I generally have a pretty good idea of what ingredients go into whatever we’re consuming, I can’t vouch for salt or sugar or gluten or so many other clandestine buzz killers. If you have any dietary restrictions or food allergies, please be mindful of that and take responsibility for them just as you would if you were dining under any other circumstances. (I’m a foodie, not a doctor!) By the same token, if something troublesome happens to you along the way, I can’t take the liability for that any more than if you were just walking along the street or in a shop by yourself. (I’m a writer, not a lawyer!) In other words, when you join one of my ethnojunkets, you are taking complete responsibility for your own welfare and safety.

What I can do is bring you a few hours of entertaining, educational, and delicious fun!

Questions? Feel free to write to me directly at rich[at]ethnojunkie[dot]com.

Ethnojunket: Exploring Eastern European Food in Little Odessa