Abulez was a cook. Now he is taking up his old job -- to give a real treat to everyone on his son's wedding party.
The loving father is going to make kebab, a most welcomed dish on the local banquet menu: Not those fleshless, insipid skewers you can buy in the market, but the thick and tasty ones made with his secret recipe.
For generations, Abulez's family has been living in a bazaar in Kashgar, an important town on the ancient Silk Road, so he knows best about the signature dish of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China.
Abulez (R) prepares the dishes for his son's wedding.
Abulez has bought 20 kg of meat to make 400 skewers for the feast.
Abulez has selected the meaty leg of lamb, which has tighter and leaner meat than other parts. He slices the meat into three cm-long, two-cm thick cubes. He also adds some fat meat of the lamb hip to add more flavors.
The meat needs seasoning twice. Abulez first mixes the meat with some salt and, surprisingly, an egg. "The egg will make the meat more tender," the old cook says.
Abulez's four-year-old grandson Yimulan enjoys kebab.
Fifteen minutes later, Abulez adds cumin and flour into the mixture. Cumin, the foreign spice imported through the Silk Road, would remove the gamey odor of lamb, while flour would help retain the freshness and moisture of the meat.
Next, Abulez skewers the meat on the sticks. The job requires patience, because he has to skewer meat cubes of the same size on one stick to make sure they are done at the same time. Each stick has four cubes of lean meat, and Abulez adds one small piece of fat meat between the lean meat to enrich the savor.
The last and most import step is grilling. "It takes about ten minutes," says Abulez, busy fanning the fire in the grill. The meat sizzles, and the mouth-watering smell fills the air of the bustling bazaar.
"To make the best kebabs requires hard work. Every step is important," says the father-in-law to-be. "It's just like life in a marriage. You have to live every day seriously to live a happy life." (All photos by Zhao Ge)
