A favourite food of the Uyghurs, you can find streetside stalls selling mutton kebab all over Urumqi.

In the olden days, the horse-back riders of the nomadic tribes would kill an animal, clean it, cut it into pieces and thread them over their daggers or swords to cook over open fire. That was the first Kebab, ie pieces of meat threaded on a dagger or sword and cooked over open fire. Today, shish kebab means 'skewer with grilled meat'.