Turpan Naan

Naan is the heart of the Uyghur table, made from wheat flour, salt and leaven, patted into rounds and slapped onto the glowing wall of a tandoor to bake crisp outside and soft within, keeping for days; archaeologists have found naan-like breads over a thousand years old in Xinjiang tombs.

Naan has been baked in Xinjiang for over a thousand years, and a Uyghur saying warns that a day without naan leaves the heart uneasy. In the grape country of Turpan, bakers fold choice green-raisins into the dough to make "grape naan," shaped like a bunch of grapes with a real raisin sealed inside each one, a local invention all its own.

Naan is torn by hand and eaten plain or alongside kebab, polo or milk tea, and is best torn piping hot from the oven when the wheat and smoky tandoor aroma shine; the grape naan is more often taken as a teatime treat or souvenir.

The smoky aroma lent by the tandoor wall, the long-keeping round form, and Turpan's signature grape-shaped naan are what set its bread apart.