Baked Samsa (Samsa)

Samsa is made by filling an unleavened dough wrapper with diced lamb, onion (piyaz), cumin and pepper, sealing it into a square parcel and baking it against the tonur wall. Fresh from the oven the crust is a deep golden-brown, and a bite releases a flood of lamb juices, the fat and lean mingling in a heady aroma.

Samsa is a traditional Uyghur pastry that uses the residual heat of the tonur to bake through, showing the Central Asian knack for turning one oven to many uses. In Kashgar's old city the samsa shops cluster around the ovens, and the morning steam of the first batch is one of its most familiar street scenes.

Best eaten piping hot, it is a common breakfast or street snack, paired with a bowl of yogurt or brick tea to cut the richness; locals buy them by the bag to eat on the move, a ready-made meal for a day at the bazaar.

The crackling crust from the tonur wall and the burst of juicy lamb-and-onion filling within are the defining marks of the samsa.