Memetmin Abdulla and his stall (Xinhua photo/Zhang Xiaolong)

Memetmin Abdulla may not have found the goose that lays the golden eggs, but this common waterfowl has given him unlikely means to make his fortune.

Hotan Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The bazaar is full of stalls selling sizzling roasted lamb, naan, and dumplings. The shouting vendors, chatting customers, sizzling pans, bubbling pots and clinking tableware filled the sweet, smokey air.

Memetmin's roasted goose eggs. (Xinhua photo/Zhang Xiaolong)

Roasted goose eggs are a lesser known local specialty in the region. Every day the 23-year-old's stall is crowded with people waiting to buy his golden eggs. Memetmin's signature dish, roasted triple goose yolk, are an original creation of his, and a sellout success at the market.

He picks a goose egg and cracks the shell on its top to make a coin-sized hole. The strength of cracking is the key. Too much, the egg would break. Too little, the hole would be too small.

He drains the white, leaving the yolk in the shell, and adds two more yolks with honey and saffron. He then places the eggshell gently on the burning coals. It takes 20 to 30 minutes to cook. The shell is thin, so timing and temperature are key: too hot and the shell will crack and the contents will leak, he says.

Memetmin also experiments with chicken and pigeon eggs, and sometimes adds matsutake mushrooms or Uygur medicine.

The eggs are so popular that Memetmin makes a net profit of 200 to 250 yuan (about 30 to 38 U.S. dollars) a day. He does his own accounting in a black notebook, which records every transaction since he set up the stall in May. "It's important to keep records," he says.

"Now that I can make money, I must work hard and pinch pennies so that my mother can lead a good life," he says. His father died when he was little so his mother raised him and his sister by herself.

Memetmin takes down transactions on his notebook. (Xinhua photo/Zhang Xiaolong)

Memetmin mastered the cooking skills as an apprentice at a roasted egg stall. He then borrowed 50,000 yuan to start his own business. Every day he leaves home at 8 am, scooters for 40 minutes from the village to the downtown bazaar, and won't leave until 2 am.

The long hours and careful planning has paid off, his debt is mostly cleared.

"I don't see it as a hardship. Being busy gives me hope," he says.