Uyghur food is the “next big thing” in ethnic cuisine: Uyghur (pronounced: wee-grr) cuisine could be the “next big thing.” Yimamu Maimaiti, a partner in the first Uyghur restaurant to open in the Washington area, tells The Washington Post‘s Maura Judkis “Uyghur food is going to be the next big thing in the United States… Uyghur food is going to be in every corner in the world.” Judkis writes “Uyghurs are among the more than 50 ethnic minority groups in China, and many hail from the westernmost autonomous region of Xinjiang … Uyghur culture reflects this crossroads, and it is distinct from mainstream Han Chinese culture, particularly because Uyghurs are Muslim and speak their own Turkic language, also called Uyghur.” Their cuisine is not your typical Chinese food, either. Their most famous dish is the Uyghur lagman, which although it has some Chinese influence, comes with flavours more akin to Middle Eastern and Central Asian food. “The noodles for lagman, a beef stir-fry with green peppers and onions, are hand-pulled, dense and always a little chewy, and the same dough goes into manta, beef or pumpkin-stuffed dumplings that are traditionally served for very special guests. The length of the noodles may perplex some American diners: The goal is to have ‘Just one noodle’ fill an entire plate … The longer the unbroken noodle, the more talented the chef,” Judkis writes. She says: “go to a Uyghur restaurant and ask questions. They’ll likely be answered with a smile, maybe over a perfumey cup of rose tea.’”

Cairo has a flourishing Uyghur “Chinatown.” And no, we are not talking about the six or seven new-ish Chinese restaurants in Maadi. Uyghurs have reshaped the Ahmed Saeed street in Abbassiya as home away from home. “It’s home to a growing Chinese population and some say it’s Cairo’s own fledgling Chinatown. It may be off the beaten track for tourists but if you are looking to sample authentic flavours from the east, Ahmed Saeed is certainly the place to be,” according to CGTN. A BBC video report from 2012 shows how Ahmed Saeed street was starting to become Cairo’s own Chinatown and showed part of the process of making Uyghur lagman noodles (runtime 01:58). Miriam Berger raves about the lagman there in Roads & Kingdoms, but points out that “the main restaurants in Abbasiya now aren’t actually Uighur … They’re Hui, another mainly Muslim ethnic group with communities (and cuisines) in northwest China and dispersed and assimilated throughout the country.” She says the lagman dishes “arrive cooked al dente with onions and peppers and mixed with la jiao you, hot pepper-infused oil, and a hint of something sweet… For a moment, Cairo tastes of another world. I devour the experience fast.”