Naan is a specialty of Xinjiang.

Naan in Xinjiang has the reputation of "rather three days without meat, not a day without naan", and historically, the Gashi people are famous for making a living with naan. The largest naan called "Amank", thin in the middle, thick edge, the center has a pattern, the diameter of 40-50 cm, known as the king of naan. The smallest naan called "Torkasi", 1 cm thick, the most delicate workmanship; there is also a diameter of about 10 centimeters, about 5-6 centimeters thick, there is a hole in the middle of the "Gegid" naan.

There are many varieties of naan, Kashgar people love the "nest naan", "nest naan" was born full of stories and folk wisdom. The first generation of naan people initially spread the dough on the stone baked with a wood fire, and later found that the pasty dough flowed to the ground, was hot loess hot, better taste. So they started to build naan pits with loess, in which they burned wood to bake naan. The dough is slightly thicker on the outside and thinner in the center, making the naan soft and crispy at the same time.

How Naan is Made

Most Uyghur naan is baked in naan pits. Naan pits are also unique, with different forms and materials depending on the region. General naan pit height of about 1 meter, with wool and clay made of inverted cylinder-shaped adobe, surrounded by soil blocks into a square earth platform; some areas of the southern border is the choice of local nitrate and mud naan pit billet; Urumqi area of the Uyghur people also use bricks to build naan pits; the size of this naan pit varies, and also into the square, according to the number of the population to determine the size of the naan pit.

Although there are many styles of naan pits, some naans are not baked in them. For example, there is a type of meat naan that is fried in oil in an iron pot. In addition, there is an ancient method of naan baking, which is to bury the naan in the hot ashes of a burned wood fire, without turning it over or looking at it, and then bake it after half an hour. When eating, blow off the surface of the ash, its flavor is equally delicious.