At Restaurant Russian Family, such a table of food costs about 300 yuan (45 U.S. dollars). (Xinhua photo/Zhao Ge)
URUMQI, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- The best cuisine is not always just found in star-rated hotels or restaurants. You may also find it hidden at eateries developed based on the home grounds of farmers in far-flung areas of China. For Russian cuisine lovers, they may find a restaurant, titled "Russian Family" and run by a farmer of the ethnic Russian nationality in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, is a good place to go.
The restaurant, located in a forest park in Tacheng, has been well-known for its traditional Russian cuisine combined with local features. At the restaurant, you can feast on typical Russian delicacies as following:
- Khleb, or Russian bread, with blackcurrant jam.
- Pickled cucumber and beef to go with Blini, Russian Crepes.
- Sup, traditional Russian-style soup.
- A kind of snack with meat filling and egg wrapping.
- Fried rice with sliced beef, sliced carrot and dough balls.
- Sausage filled with rice and beef.
- Braised fish.
- Alexei Nadja pours Kvass, a traditional Russian fermented beverage.
- A kind of Russian cake. It's a very important dessert.
Alexei Nadja, whose Chinese name is Gao Manhua, is a Chinese national of ethnic Russian background. She started to run the restaurant 30 years ago, when she saw the business opportunity from development of tourism in rural areas of China.
As more and more city dwellers long for a return to rural lifestyle, rural tourism is developing rapidly in China and bringing more income to local farmers.
Today there are more than 1,000 restaurants scattered across Tacheng City, probably the most in Xinjiang. The city, which borders Kazakhstan, has been a major center on the ancient Silk Road for trade between China and Central Asia.
"Running a restaurant is not easy. I have to work all year round," said Nadja, "Every year I have only five days to rest."
"The busier, the better. I feel happy when I see my customers enjoy my cooking," she said.
