Check it out
It’s Trevor James
I am in Turpan, China
And today, I really want to go try this one special street food that I’ve heard a lot about
And then we are going to go have an awesome dinner feast
Let’s go check it out
As you make your way deeper into China’s far west
You begin to find a completely new street food scene and new people
The locals have a cuisine that is worth the trip alone
And as you make your way deeper
There is one thing that you will see everywhere
Deep tandoor ovens pumping out all sorts of delicious street foods
One of them, the Samsa, AKA kao baozi
Is a beautiful beef or lamb and onion stuffed baked pocket of goodness
And is found on almost all street corners
You can literally smell the fat sizzling as you walk by
These are just pure street side joy
Oh, beautiful beautiful
That is the baozi paradise
Kao baozi in this deep oven
Just look at them fall off the edge
That is like a pure baozi paradise
Deep in the oven
Wow!
We are going to order some up
Those look plump!
You can really smell the juice just bubbling
It all starts with a spiced fatty beef filling
And some hand made dough sheets
They are meticulously pinched into these little perfect pockets one by one
And placed aside for the oven master to handle
Just look at these!
Just look at these beautiful baozi
It’s like clockwork putting them in
Look at how they peel off
And the crisp, you can actually hear the sizzle and the crisp of them
You can just hear the crispness, the sizzle, of the pastry and the meat
Unbelievable!
And the little bit of char from the oven will definitely give it some flavour too
Just look at that
The jackpot kao baozi
Its like roast baozi
These look really good
Look at these coming right from the oven
We really hit the jackpot
We really just hit the baozi jackpot you know
Just walking up here
You can really smell the beef aroma
The roasted coals and the beef aroma coming out
You can actually see the heat coming from that oven
And he says he sells 2000 of these beauties every day
And its so hot
I’m going to have to take a bite
That is next level kao baozi right here
That flavor, that beef aroma
The juices bursting from it
And there is a little bit of onion
But the real flavor comes from the fat
It’s quite juicy
This honestly is a meal right here
You eat six of these, twelve of these
And your’e really happy
It is bursting and it is full and it is plump
And it is unbelievably juicy
Look at all the fat in there
It is so saturated with juice
And the inside is so soft
Almost like a phyllo dough
And just slightly crispy
Like a croissant
It’s perfectly seasoned
And that flavor
Unbelievable
The best baozi I’ve ever had
The roasted baozi
Right on the street
Oh yeah
That is going to be a feast
Look at the inside
It actually has a slight but not overpowering cumin flavour
And that totally elevates it
It just melts into your mouth with the beef fat and the cumin and the oils bursting out
That is…
That was delicious
After that delicious street food delight
We made our way for a walk around the ancient alleyways of Turpan
A truly unforgettable experience
So we just took a turn after those beautiful 12 baozi and we are what feels like in an old traditional uighur neighbourhood
Everything is made from bricks and grass
And one thing that has shocked me about this whole city is how ancient it really feels
And this is a true travel destination
This is totally a different world just walking through this neighbourhood
This city, it feels like a completely different universe
The culture and the history
And you can walk through these old Uighur towns
It’s breathtaking
Look at these alleyways
There is like no tourists here
And you’re walking through what feels like this ancient oasis town
This is totally a unique part of china
There is a mosque behind me
There is unique bread
We just got a Xinjiang style bagel from across the street
There is nang, there is cows and mutton hanging up
And everyone is smiling as we walk past
This is a totally worthy travel destination
Not only for the food
But for the people and the adventure
We are just walking through this neighborhood right now
I’m totally blown away
By how amazing the food is
And the people
And how chill it is here
And the nature is awesome
You cannot see any of this in other cities
After that nice walk through ancient turban
We made our way to a famous restaurant to try some local Uighur specialties
So we have been walking around
Enjoying the outskirts or Turpan
Now we are back in the main city
And we are going to go to a famous Uighur restaurant to try some of the best meat
Let’s go try it out
Let’s get some good meat
Oh yeah
So we are here early right now
It is about 6:30
But in Xinjiang that means it is 4:30
Beijing official time is 6:30 but all the locals go by Xinjiang time
Which is two hours earlier
So that’s why its empty
But we are hungry because our stomachs are on Beijing time
Oh look at all of this beautiful, beautiful food
All of the food just got here
And this is really what we came for
Right here, this dish
This Shouzhua rou
Literally translated as hand grasped mutton
Covered in onions
It looks like it doesn’t have much seasoning
But we are going to just go right in and try it out
This is really actually…
Looks can be deceiving
It’s seasoned quite well
And the meat is very muscular
And juicy as well
We also have a big lamb kebab on a stick
And then the hand pulled noodles over here
I think these are beans
Doudou literally means beans
And you can see that they are light
With big chunks of mutton and hand pulled noodles
That’s going to be gorgeous
And then over here
This is the zhuafan
Basically a pilaf
Central asian pilaf
With nice big chunks of mutton and carrots
And I believe these are yellow carrots as well
And it’s quite oily
They use cotton seed oil
I gotta go in for this right now
Oh yeah
Oh it really tastes like there is a sweet pumpkin in there
Very smooth and soft and sweet pumpkin
With this ultra tender melt in your mouth lamb meat
What we really gotta try is the banmian
There is nothing like the texture of delicious hand pulled noodles in a special sauce
And this is their home made sauce so we are going to try it out
Oh yeah
The beans on there
Give it a very deep earthy hearty flavor
And the mutton is also very good
With the hand pulled noodles
This is, this is incredible
If you’re enjoying this Silk Road series
Please leave me a thumbs up down below
And leave me a comment too letting me know what you thought
I would love to hear from you
This Silk Road trip really is the trip of a lifetime
From all of the amazing food, friendly people, and beautiful scenery
Coming here on a food trip really is a must
So thank you so much for watching
You can check out the whole Silk Road street food playlist
To watch the full series
Thanks again guys