IF you happen to live in on or around the northern part of Jingtian Road (or Jingtianbei, as the locals call it), it would help if you were a fan of Xinjiang cuisine, because the area boasts two restaurants serving food of the kind prevalent in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
One of those, Zhongfayuan, is located at the crossing of Lianhua Road and Jingtian Road, and has already been reviewed in the Shenzhen Daily (see "Rough food in a refined place," Page 8 of the issue dated 19th Sept.). We recently visited the other one, Yidegude (伊地古德), and while it doesn't necessarily measure up to its newer counterpart, it still offers an interesting Xinjiang culinary experience.
Yidegude, being an older restaurant, attempts to provide the diner with what people normally expect from a Xinjiang Muslim restaurant, so there is the Middle-Eastern style decor (including Arabic writing), the waitresses dressed in Uygur clothing, and the preponderance of lamb on the menu.
In a way the decor, with the Islamic rugs and hanging drapes, somehow works against the restaurant, as they emit a faintly musty smell that never quite seems to go away. During the day the restaurant is also unreasonably dark, which explains why most lunchtime diners sit near the windows.
Yidegude is what is referred to as "pure truth restaurant" (清真菜館 or qingzhen caiguan), which means that the food served here is halal, or "permissible" under Islamic law. As the eating of pork is forbidden in Islam, you won't find any pork dishes here, or any other Xinjiang restaurant. What you will find, though, is lamb, lots and lots of it.
A contributor to the Wikitravel Web site notes under the "Eat" section of the Xinjiang page: "Lamb - Barbequed, grilled, fried, boiled, you name it, they eat it." The Xinjiang people do love their lamb and make no bones about expressing it: Yidegude serves lamb in every conceivable form from the always-popular lamb kebabs, (3 yuan, US$0.35 a skewer) to fried lamb noodles (18 yuan). In between there are poached lamb, lamb buns, and various sheep parts cooked in a variety of ways.
The Xinjiang Uyghur Region is the area where people live the longest in China, with a quarter of all Chinese centenerians living there. In October,1985, the area was listed as The World Longevity Area by the International Natural Medical Science Commitee in Tokyo. According to researchers, people in the area live long because of numerous factors: weather, environment and living habits, with food playing a major role.
Xinjiang food is characterized by meats in the form of mutton, beef, camel, chicken and goose; vegetables like carrot, tomato, onion, pepper, eggplant and celery; dairy products and fruits. In short, the cuisine places very little emphasis on starch, and this is evident in Yidegude's offerings: Vegetables and meat dishes take up most of the menu, with noodles and breads present in the last two pages.
Among the cold dishes, we tried the spinach with gluten (16 yuan), which was impressive, and sliced fish in Thai sauce (12 yuan) which wasn't. Perhaps that was a lesson that its not always a good idea to try Thai food in a Xinjiang Muslim restaurant, but we were attracted by the sheer incongruity of it. Also recommended are the raisin buns (26 yuan for a plate of 6), which, however, are quite filling, with one piece nearly enough for a single diner. Finally, we tried the thin pancakes with minced lamb and seasonings (42 yuan), which while decent, was not quite as good as those made by Talimuhe, near CITIC Plaza, which is probably the best all-round Xinjiang restaurant in the city.
Overall, Yidegude is an above-average place, if only slightly, recommended if you want to tick-mark all the Xinjiang restaurants in town, or if you fancy some unusual dishes not offered by any other eatery of its kind. Add: 2/F, Donghai Jingtian Yinzuo, Jingtianbei Street, Futian District (福田区景田北街东海景田银座203)
Tel: 2200-0009
