Wild West Cuisine

Xinjiang restaurants in Beijing generally fall into two categories. The first, catering to large groups of raucous, beer-swilling laowai, consist of large eating halls with long tables, providing nightly “traditional” entertainment in the form of scantily clad dancing girls and swarthy Central Asian musicians. Secondly, theree are the smaller, quieter, more authentic Xinjiang establishments with decidedly cheaper, albeit less westernized menus.

Don’t get me wrong - the first type of Xinjiang restaurant can be great fun. If you’re in the mood to make a whole night out of your eating experience then these are the places to go. The Xinjiang Red Rose is a personal favorite, with some great live dancing and music, a pretty reasonable menu (a lot cheaper than the overhyped Afunti) and vibrant party crowd.

However, if you’re in the mood for a more traditional Xinjiang meal, and one where you can actually make normal conversation, shy away from the restaurants above. A little known secret in Beijing is that if you visit any provincial offices there is usually a restaurant attached to them. These restaurants cater to the provincial government officials in Beijing. Here you can escape the glitz and over-inflated prices of the tourist-trap eateries, and sample some truly authentic dishes at minimal expense.

The best restaurant (by far) attached to Beijing’s Xinjiang Municipal Office is Xinjiang Fanzhuang. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the authenticity of a Chinese restaurant in China is usually inversely proportional to the percentage of foreigners eating there. Both times I have visited Xinjiang Fanzhuang, I have been the only laowai present throughout my whole meal.

The food at Xinjiang Fanzhuang is the best I have tasted outside of Xinjiang itself. Their crispy fried rack of lamb (yipin xian yangpai – 6 RMB) uses fresh mutton flown in daily from Urumqi. Another regional favorite is their bahali bread (10 RMB) stuffed with nuts, raisins and fruit. If you can get enough people together (I recommend at least 20), then there is even a whole roast lamb plus side dishes available for 1000 RMB. The government offices also ship in crates full of Xinjiang’s famous Hami melons and grapes for sale at discount prices – perfect for healthy autumn eating.

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Xinjiang Dining -