She recently ate at Dolan Uyghur Restaurant in Washington, D.C., with a group of friends and coworkers. There, they had what Clegg described as a “delightful spread” of common Uyghur food dishes: hand-pulled noodles, kebabs, nan, steamed rice with meat, and more. Before her visit to the restaurant, she knew little about Uyghur food, she said.

“I had heard of Uyghurs, yes, but it was always in an academic context, or a political context, never in terms of the culture or the cuisine – the stuff that makes up the core of the people. And I think that food is a great way to learn culture.”

Clegg says it is “rare” that she tastes something completely new, or different from anything she has tried before.

Eating Uyghur food, however, was one of those rare experiences, she said.

“You feel echoes of other cuisines, but it all comes together in something new.”

Who are the Uyghurs?

Uyghurs are an ethnic group in Central Asia. About 10 million of them live in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, a huge area in the northwestern part of the country.

They speak Uyghur, a Turkic language that is similar to Uzbek, and use an Arabic-based alphabet. Most practice İslam.

Aliqismet BADALOV,

“Khalq qazeti”