The photo you see here is the one that I cut my picture from for this blog. It shows me sitting in front of some of my favourite people, waiting eagerly for a favourite snack.
The kebab (if you can call them that) seller is a happy faced guy who is always really friendly and pleased to see us. His fare – little bits of mutton roasted on a skewer with nice spices, is especially good when served in a bun which has been cooked in oil with the spices too. Mei, all anti oil and salt, frowns on that a bit. We probably get something from him about once a fortnight, and occasionally he gets a joint of mutton for us to cook at home.
As we don’t have an oven to cook it “properlyâ€, as I would say, it gets cut down into smaller pieces and done up Northern Chinese style with flat noodles and vegetables. The bone goes to make a nice stock for soup. Sunday you say? Well we’ll see what we can do.
Today, after a brief chat with my contact at the orchestra about work permits and visas, we headed off to a nice little eatery which is in a hotel next to Lanzhou University, which is brand new. The hotel, not the university. If you are hereabouts, head past the university gate going away from the station on Tian Shui Lu and you’ll see it on the right.
They serve a thing called Guan Guan Ji, which is a little earthenware pot with a lid containing chunks of chicken on the bone in a soup containing butter beans and some black mushrooms. With a bowl of rice, a few picked vegetables and a dish of peanuts in soy sauce it makes a great lunch. A bargain at 10 kwai a head.
OK – you can go and get your food now. Easy on the pepper sauce!
Too bad that its not usually lamb, but most of the locals cut pork with lamb because it’s cheaper.
it would be interesting to find out though with the recent rise in price of pork if most of the kebab pushers are still doing it.
Allah must not like it either. There must be some religious ramification for this blatant blasphemy.
Thanks Sean – great to hear from you! There are places where you can see the preparation of the kebabs and those are definately Lamb joints. Perhaps I’d be better using those!
Actually, recent developments at my local stall have led me to look elsewhere. The guy is chopping his stuff so thin it isn’t worth it.