Horse Meat at 西域风情 XinJiang Style Restaurant Shanghai

The Xin Jiang Province, شىنجاڭ‎ or 新疆, is located in the far west portion of China. With a population that is heavily influenced from the Kazaks and Hans, there is a blending of the different cultures and cuisines.

At Lao Wai Street in the Hong Qiao district, there is a small pedestrian street where there’s a bunch of restaurants, pubs, and bars. At least 15 different types of cuisines can be found, including Iranian, German, and Italian. After milling around for a bit, we choose XinJiang Style Restaurant 西域风情.

We started off with a couple of skewers to get us warmed up – a regular lamb skewer and a lamb kidney skewer. The lamb meat is peppered with cumin, peppers, and other dry spices. Though there is a gamey taste, it was actually pretty good. The lamb kidney, was not something I liked. It was a soft and slightly chewy texture. I could barely eat one of the pieces.

Mr. L said that Xin Jiang cuisine was his favorite cuisine. I believe the appeal of Xin Jiang cuisine is in the variety of meats and unique spices. Not necessarily with a lot of heat, but with a grainy texture accompaniment. Another trait of Xin Jiang cuisine is their popular use of lamb. In fact, they use lamb in almost every dish.

Since Xin Jiang is located north of India, they share some similarities with their foods, as well. The Nan, the bread from India is also called Nan in Xin Jiang.

Another unique dish we had was horse. Yes, horse meat. It was served raw. And strangely, it was really good. I thought it was one of the better dishes we had that night. I know all of my classmates hadn’t tried it. I am really glad we did.

Other interesting dishes we had were the Da Pan Ji (大盘鸡) – a large dish of chicken in red sauce. The red sauce, which looked intimadatingly spicy, wasn’t spicy at all – it was sort of tangy. The chicken literally soaked up the red soupy sauce. Another similar dish we had, had diced Nan, surrounded all around – all in the red sauce. I liked the bread with the juices – which is like using bread rolls on gravy in American cuisine.

Mr. L commented that this place was average at best. I thought it was pretty good. I expect Mr. L to take up to a better Xin Jiang restaurant in the future.

What to Order: Horse Meat, Nan, Chicken, and Lamb Skewers
What not to Order: Lamb Kidney Skewers

Rating
2 Pigs
Price Range 1 $/¥/NT

Links
dianping listing

西域风情
Xin Jiang Style
闵行区虹梅路休闲街15号
021-64659822

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