UIGHUR CUISINE

Quizine’s first ever visit! We found ourselves in Etles Uighur, an authentic Uighur eatery in Walthamstow, north east London! This was a truly wonderful experience. Just a short walk away from Walthamstow Central station, this gem of a restaurant brings Xinjiang, northwest China to the streets of London.

The old silk road penetrated this part of the world, the age old trading route bringing together a melting pot of cultures and flavours including – Chinese, Turkish, Persian, Middle Eastern, Mongolian, South Asian any much more – has had a noticeable influence on this cuisine.

We ensured to order a selection of dishes so that we had enough to enjoy and assess. Let’s start exploring. First up, we ordered the Samsa somosa! A crispy Uighur somosa, stuffed with lamb, onion and spices.

We were big fans of these. It was an interesting cross between a patty and a pastry. The pastry was a mixture of crispy, flaky and doughy. You could taste the butter glaze with a little pinch of sesame seeds. I was specifically a fan of this as I find pastry that’s too flaky to be quite sickening but the Samsa somosa was just right.

Inside the pastry there was a generous serving of minced meat and caramelised onions. Whilst containing a good amount of spice, the onions brought a sweet flavour into the fray. All in all, very well cooked pastry with a solid filling. The ultimate question for any pastry is the filling to pastry ratio – no one likes too much pastry and and no substance nor all substance no pastry. The balance was perfect at Etles Uighur!

Also on our table was the Beef Leghmen, stir fried noodles, peppers and spring onions sprinkled with sesame seeds. The Leghmen is a central asian staple containing pulled noodles, meat and vegetables. You’ll find some form of variation of this dish across all of Central Asia (Kazakh lağman/ Uzbek lag’mon/ Kyrgyz lagman/ Tajikistan) and perhaps even in parts of northeastern Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The meat and veg was cooked beautifully and was sufficiently oily. However, the most interesting part of this dish was the actual noodles. Pulled noodles are made from soft wheat flour and are created by twisting, stretching and folding dough into strands. The length and thickness of the noodle is contingent on the number of times the dough is folded. This unique and very interesting method of making noodles originated in China and can be traced back to 1504!

Perhaps the most enjoyable dish on the table for me were the Tugur dumplings. A Uighur edition to the more commonly known Chinese Jiaozi dumplings. These are boiled dumplings stuffed with lamb and onion. The filling was cooked with the perfect amount of spice and resembled south asian style mince meat curry, just this time it was inside a boiled dumpling. My mind was blown!

The Pollo was next on the hit list. Steamed rice with carrots, sweet sultanas topped with fatty pieces of lamb. The long grain rice was cooked in enormous amounts of butter and absorbed the juices from the fatty meat. It was delicious. It’s always fascinating trying different variations of Pilau. If you are someone who dislikes meat, like Naeem for example, this probably isn’t the dish for you. But if you’re someone like me, who thrives of fat and buttery goodness, get yourself one of these bad boys asap.

We had the skewers next. One we both really enjoyed, the Etles lamb skewer. The tender lamb seasoned with fiery special spices was a joy to the taste bad, cooked to perfection it was a melt in your mouth moment. The chilli flakes were not overpowering, but did provide a good kick to the dish.

The other skewer we had unfortunately did not go down a treat. This one was made ok lamb kidney. Neither of us had actually tried plain kidney, we’re both used to trying the kidney our parents make which is cooked in numerous spiced and has is masala’d up to the max. I realised upon tasting this kidney, just how crucial that spicing process is in South Asian as it completely destroys the awful gamey taste and odour.

To do Etles Uighur justice in relation to the kidneys, it is something incredibly difficult to get right. Kidney was traditionally food for the peasants around the world as the wealthy gobbled up the best parts of animals. It is an organ which is fundamentally responsible for filtering urine, hence the reason it tastes and smells horrid. So the task was a behemoth one to begin with, so I can’t complain nor allow it to impact my assessment of the restaurant and cuisine as a whole.

We ended the meal with some traditional Uighur tea! This was certainly different to any other tea i’ve tasked as it contained salt. Served in a bowl, the chai was packed with milky froth and had a rich and creamy texture, but strangely is tasted a little like green tea with a hint of salt. It certainly had my taste buds confused, nonetheless, an enjoyable experience.

PRICING

Our total bill was £46.50 excluding service. This is a really reasonable price, I would personally be willing to pay more! The service was exceptional, the atmosphere was incredibly welcoming and we were able to immerse ourselves in an authentic Uighur experience that we’ll remember for the ages!

ADDRESS

The restaurant we dined at:
235 Hoe St, Walthamstow, London E17 9PP

They also have a second branch:
424 Finchley Rd, Childs Hill, London NW2 2HY

HALAL INDEX

Everything is halal, the owners are Muslim and the restaurant doesn’t serve alcohol.

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