"... a beleaguered Ming Dynasty emperor came to the city of Tengchong, where the locals offered him this simple dish, which is made of “erkuai,” flattened squares of glutinous rice, fried with eggs, tomatoes, spring onions, and pork. The emperor greedily devoured the dish, and declared that it had saved his life. Hence, the dish was known as “da jiu jia,” or “the emperor’s lifesaver.”

"Fried Beef Tripe, or called Bao Du in Chinese, has been a traditional snack in Beijing since the era of Emperor Qianlong (1735-1795) in Qing Dynasty. It is a general name of the snack and it can be called as Lamb Bao Du or Beef Bao Du, for it is mainly made and served by the Hui people. The most important ingredient of the snack is fresh lamb tripe or beef tripe. First of all, lamb tripe or beef tripe should be completely cleaned and then cut into slices before it is cooked in boiling water. It is often served with oil, spring onion, vinegar, chili oil, scallions, coriander, sesame sauce, soy sauce, fermented tofu juice and other seasonings. The snack tastes crispy and tender, and the local often eat it with beer, Er Guo Tou or other alcohol."

There are disputes about where shashlik was first come up with and how to translate this dish. Here are some of the most plausible versions of the origin of shashlik.

“Shash” from with ancient Turkic means “piece”. And ”lik” means ”six”. As a result, shashlik - is six pieces of meat.

The name "Lagman" is derived from the word "lyumyan" translated from Dungan to "stretch the dough." It reflects the main feature of cooking lagman: homemade dough for noodles, which is put in the soup, specially rolled and hand-drawn.

Uzbek lagman is very famous and popular dish of Uzbek cuisine. Lagman Uzbek noodles is cooked from meat (especially lamb), various vegetables (green radish, onion, carrot, bell pepper, etc.) and special long noodles.

Kuqa Noodles in Soup is well known in Xinjiang. Kuqa is located in the central-west Xinjiang. When preparing the snack, the local chefs pay particular attention to the quality of noodles and to the soup as well. The soup is prepared according to the following procedure:

Select high-quality mutton; boil the mutton until it is well done; slice the mutton, put the mutton broth aside for later use; prepare egg shreds; stir-fry minced garlic; cut the sheep tail fat into dices, prepare one-inch spinach; plunge the sheep tail fat into the mutton and again; and add onion oil, mutton slices, egg shreds, mutton broth, vinegar, pepper oil, and pepper powder before the noodles are served. Kuqa Noodles in Soup is palatable, aromatic, nutritious and not greasy.

We ordered a selection of their kebabs – from right to left, layers of lamb and fat, fish, minced meat kebab, and bull testicle.

Each was totally different, marinated in light spices, but mainly relying on the cuts of meat, and the expert grilling with perfect smoke point.