Baked Samsa (Kaobaozi)

Kaobaozi, the Uyghur samsa, is made from unleavened dough rolled thin and wrapped around a filling of fresh diced lamb, onion and tail fat seasoned with salt and pepper, sealed into a square parcel and slapped against the heated tandoor wall to bake, the crust shatteringly crisp and the filling tender and fragrant.

Kaobaozi is found wherever Uyghurs live in Xinjiang and shares its roots with the stuffed pastries of Central and West Asia; the abundance of lamb and wheat here shaped its distinctive filling of leg meat and great handfuls of onion, a classic snack baked fresh in the bazaars and streets.

Eaten piping hot from the tandoor, one bites through the crisp shell and minds the scalding juices inside, often with a bowl of yoghurt or brick tea to balance it; in the lanes of Yining's Kazanqi and Liuxing Jie, queues of diners wait before the tandoor for a fresh batch.

The tandoor-baked golden crust, the scalding lamb-and-onion juices and the square pleated shape are the unmistakable marks of kaobaozi.