Discovering Xinjiang BBQ!

In July 2019, I was invited to my friends Peng and Angelina’s house for “Chinese BBQ”. I had no idea what to expect, but that one evening changed my whole view on Chinese food.

The First Experience

I picked Peng up early from work while his wife, Angelina, finished up at the shop, and we headed out to their home to prepare for friends and family arriving later.

After offering to help and politely being told to relax, I watched Peng prepare the lamb. Small pieces both fatty and lean, cut into cube shapes, were threaded on skewers. The skewers are long flat metal, about 1/4″ wide with wood handles. Peng explained the skewers were special order from Shanghai.

Leaving Peng to the preparation in the kitchen, I walked outside onto the back deck looking for the grill. The first thing that caught my eye was a small, long and narrow rectangular stainless steel tray with deep vertical sides, supported by fold-up legs. Was this a barbecue?

Peng came outside and looked around in the shed. Discovering there were not enough briquettes to get us through the night, I offered to go on a briquette run while Peng finished the preparation.

Friends started to arrive and we were offered cold beer and snacks, sitting outside enjoying the warm summer evening. Peng picked fresh scallions from a small garden beside the deck, and served with yellow soybean paste (黄豆酱 Huángdòu jiàng) for dipping the onions, and warm salted soybean pods (edamame or 毛豆 Máodòu).

I love fresh garden vegetables. Growing up on a small farm, I remember my father dipping scallions from our garden in salt and eating them raw. He would have loved the salty soybean paste!

While drinking with Peng and my new friends, I noticed quickly that each sip (or swig) was preceded by clinking the glasses together, and in some instances, cheers (干杯 Gānbēi). I found this interesting and enjoyable! It really kept us at pace with each other, was very interactive, and carried a sense of respect with the action.

Peng preheated the briquettes in the barbecue tray and began cooking a few skewers at a time, occasionally adding seasoning and hot chili flakes as he turned the skewers.

While barbecuing the meat, Peng took one of the empty skewers and poked a hole in the top of a full plastic water bottle, and proceeded to squirt a small stream of water on the briquettes, producing a nice smoke to flavor the meat.

As each skewer was cooked to perfection, we were offered them right off the barbecue, still smoking with the lamb fat melted and crispy. This is when things really started to get interesting!

After eating a couple of lamb skewers hot off the barbecue, I was shown a delicious variation, enthusiastically called “Chinese Hamburger” by one of my new friends. Taking a square of tofu skin, he used a scallion to spread some soybean paste, folded the scallion, and pinched a skewer of lamb and scallion surrounded by the tofu skin to create an amazing tasting Chinese Hamburger!

This was not the “Chinese food” that I grew up with (we had one restaurant called Chins that served the usual Cantonese options). I have been exploring different Thai, Indian, and Japanese regional foods. I now have a new passion for exploring amazing Chinese food!

Angelina and others arrived later and we enjoyed more drink, barbecue, and shared stories around a fire pit. I speak only a few words of Mandarin and sat listening to the conversations, trying to guess what they might be talking about. We had many exchanges using Google Translate and shared photos to illustrate our conversations. The warmth and friendship was wonderful. I will never forget my first Chinese BBQ!

The Adventure Continues

I decided I wanted to learn more about Chinese BBQ after this amazing experience! I went to Amazon to find the Chinese BBQ and metal skewers and had them delivered in a few days. I searched for Chinese lamb barbecue recipes and came across many resources. The one resource that I really enjoyed was Maggie’s Xinjiang Lamb Skewers post. I have referred to it so many times now, and saved her recipe in my Plan to Eat recipe app and shared more about the Xinjiang Lamb Skewers Recipe here.

My family loves the Chinese BBQ! I cook vegetables, meat, and fish dishes on it, producing amazing flavors!