Pamir Uyghur Restaurant

Gongguan has long been known as one of the foodies’ paradises in Taipei because this is a goldmine where you get your global cuisine passport stamped — you can even take your palate to the faraway silk road simply by sitting yourself down at Pamir Uyghur Restaurant. This place serves authentic Uyghur cuisine from the Xinjiang region of China, which is quite a rarity here in Taiwan. If you have no clue where to start with, like most of the people do, let the waiter do the talking and he/she will bring the best food to your table. The signature dish “Yangyu Tohu Kormisi” is a big plate of spicy hot chicken stew served with wide flat hand-pulled noodles. The chicken is cut into bite-size pieces, sautéed with spices and coarsely chopped vegetables and potatoes, and finally simmered in the aromatic gravy, making it a very appetizing casserole-like dish.

The thin-wrapper steamed bun stuffed with chopped mutton and onions as fillings is also worth a try. The pan-grilled lamb pie (Tawa Kawap), crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, is a common staple food unique in the homes of Uyghur people. One thing that you can’t find anywhere else in Taiwan is the homemade “Kvass,” a non-alcoholic drink made from honey, whose flavor is beyond description — it is more like a journey than a taste. Now, now, are you ready for an one-of-the-kind culinary adventure all the way to the silk road?