In a city with food offerings as diverse as New York, Uighur cuisine is still difficult to find. Uighur (often spelled Uyghur) is a Turkic ethnicity spread across Central Asia, mainly in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and the northwest Chinese province of Xinjiang.
I fell in love with Uighur food when I was living in China, and started searching for it as soon as I came home to New York. I went with a recommendation for Cafe Kashkar, an Uzbek restaurant named after the famed Silk Road trading city on the westernmost edge of China. I brought one of my roommates, Jared, along for the long Q train ride to the restaurant in Brighton Beach, a predominantly Russian neighborhood near the end of the line in Brooklyn.
We walked in to the familiar scent of lamb and cumin, and ordered a meat-heavy lunch along with hot green tea. The geiro laghman (lamian in Mandarin) was not exactly what I remembered, though the hand-spun doughy noodles in spicy tomato sauce, tossed with vegetable slivers and chunks of lamb did not disappoint. We ordered a skewer of lamb short ribs, which arrived glistening in fat and speared with a knife-like skewer. It was delightfully indulgent.
The waiter was kind and thoughtful, and we lingered long after the meal over tea and Bollywood-style karaoke playing on the TV in the corner. The whole experience was delightful. Definitely comes with my highest recommendations for a nice out-of-the-way adventure.
Check out Cafe Kashkar’s menu and treat yourself to a big lunch the next time you’re in South Brooklyn.
Stacey Shapiro is a language, travel, food and dance enthusiast living in Brooklyn, New York. She’s working on memorizing the subway map on a series of culinary explorations through the five boroughs.
Read more posts by Stacey
When I move to Brooklyn I want to spend more time in the Brighton Beach / Coney Island area. It’s always fascinated me, so I’ll have to keep a lookout on yummy food!