Anytime and anywhere in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, tasty Nang is available in a variety of sizes. The flour-based food is the traditional staple for people of the Chinese Uighur minority, as well as residents of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tatar. Nowadays, this ancient treat is increasingly popular among Han Chinese.
A piece of nang made during the Tang dynasty was excavated in Tulufan, and displayed at the Museum of Xinjiang. It is round, like the nang made today, and proves that the dish could be found on dinner tables in Xinjiang as far back as 1,000 years ago.
The main ingredient of nang is flour, and sometimes cornmeal. Nang is baked in a round shape, in different sizes, "Aimaneke", the largest kind, is thin and crisp in the center with a thick soft crust, and is often as big as 40-50 centimeters in dismeter. Each aimenke nand requires one kilogram of flour, prompting its nickname as the "king ofnang". The thinnest nang, "tuokexi", just one centimeter thick, is really a culinary work of art. Whereas the thickest nang, "jierde nang", can be 5 to 6 centimeters thick and more than then centimeters indiameter. Because of the tiny holes poked in the center, the people of Han ethnic group called it "wowo", which means, "hole". You can find the delicious golden-brown jierde nang in Kashgar. All these varieties of nang are usually made of leavened flour. There is also a kind of oily nang made of unleavened flour mixed with oil or suet. Because of its taste, brittleness and crispness, it is often served on holidays and other special occasions. Salty water can be added during the baking; sometimes it is replaced by syrup. The crystal syrup gives the baked "sweet nang" a shiny appearance and a unique flavor.
Many ingredients can be used to make nang: flour, sesame, onion, eggs, oil, milk, salt and sugar are used for the "vegetarian" kind. Meat-eaters may prefer nang made with fresh minced mutton, oil, salt and onion.
The process of baking nang is also one-of-a-kind. Almost every Uighur family has a nang baking pit - sometimes several families use a single one -and the size of each pit depends on the number of people in each family. A nang pit looks like an ordinary hearth, with a height ranging from less than a meter to two meters. It is square outside, and round and hollow inside, like a drum. As soon as the pit is red and ready, the nang dough is rolled into balls which are flattened into pancakes by the cook with a small roller. The cook then places the pancake in a mold, and tops it off with salt and sesame dressing. With a flip of his hand, the cook can toss a nang cake onto the wall of the pit. The common firewood for nang baking is pine or cypress, but connoisseurs may prefer the flavor of "suosuo", a shrub. Nang baking pits can also be used to cook mutton or gigot.
It can also be found in othe places like Beijing, Shanghai and some other north cities in China. But you may not find Nang if you have Guilin tours.
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