51�Թ�

Clustered around her grandmother’s outdoor oven, the matrons of the family made nan bread and other dishes traditional to their community, the Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim Turkic group that called an immense territory of deserts and oases home long before it became the northwestern part of China.

Tables in every home were resplendently laid out with traditional Xinjiang dishes like homemade noodles, freshly butchered lamb and crispy nan bread.

The first time I ate here, I didn’t order nan bread, thinking I didn’t want to fill up on carbs.

The general rises every day at 4:30 a.m. to say her prayers; then she sweeps the floors, has a breakfast of nan bread or green tea and gets ready for work.