{"id":2420,"date":"2017-04-27T13:35:48","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T17:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mayliang.us\/?p=2420"},"modified":"2017-04-27T13:51:10","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T17:51:10","slug":"restaurant-review-dolan-uyghur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/?p=2420","title":{"rendered":"Restaurant review: Dolan Uyghur"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uyghur (pronounced wee-gur) cuisine comes from one of the ethnic minorities mostly located in Xinjiang, China.\u00a0 We have been to a Uyghur restaurant in Beijing many years ago and were thrilled to learn that there was now a Uyghur restaurant in Washington, DC.\u00a0 Off we went to try it with some friends who had made the discovery (thank you, Joyce and Marty!).<\/p>\n

Uyghur food bears some resemblance to Middle Eastern food (not surprising, given some of the common culture and climate) and some resemblance to Chinese food (again, not surprising).<\/p>\n

We started out with the Piter Manta, steamed buns containing beef seasoned with onions and spices.\u00a0 Think of potstickers with Middle Eastern seasoning, and you come close to what these taste like.\u00a0 They were quite good.<\/p>\n

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piter manta<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We had an additional appetizer, the Samsa, made of seasoned beef and onions rolled in a bun.\u00a0 They were also quite yummy.<\/p>\n

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samsa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Popular dishes here include several noodle dishes.\u00a0 We had the Mom\u2019s Laghman (hand-made pulled noodles served with stir fried beef and vegetables).\u00a0 For those of you who like homemade noodles, this is definitely a dish for you.<\/p>\n

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mom’s laghman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The consensus favorite amongst the group, however, was the Korma Chop, a dish consisting of dry-fried noodles with beef and vegetables.\u00a0 The noodles are bite-sized in this dish and more toothsome and chewier than the hand-pulled noodles.\u00a0 In fact, the beef and vegetables are somewhat superfluous.\u00a0 The sauce is flavorful, with a bit of a bite, and paired with the noodles, it is an excellent dish.<\/p>\n

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korma chop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Somewhat more familiar to many diners is the Dolan kabob, which are lamb kabob skewers where the lamb is seasoned with salt, cumin, and red pepper.\u00a0 These were good but did not stand out like the noodle dishes did.<\/p>\n

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dolan kebab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another favorite was the Goshnan, described as a Uyghur-style pizza, stuffed with beef, onions and red peppers.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t necessarily describe it as a pizza (it has a double sided crust)\u2014in some ways, it resembles a British pasty, but with deeper flavors and a lighter crust.\u00a0 It is quite filling and quite delicious.<\/p>\n

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what’s left of the goshnan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We also tried the spicy-sour tofu, which is the Uyghur take on Mapo Tofu (the Chinese hot and spicy tofu dish).\u00a0 It was good but not a standout in the dishes we ordered.<\/p>\n

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spicy-sour tofu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The potato silk was a hit, as it consisted of saut\u00e9ed shredded potato with scallions, red peppers, and carrots.\u00a0 Our son was particularly enamored with this one (it contains potatoes, after all).\u00a0 This isn\u2019t something you can typically order at an Asian restaurant and is well worth trying.<\/p>\n

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potato silk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another well-liked dish was the Beef Yotaza, a spicy stir fried beef with assorted vegetables and served with steamed buns.\u00a0 There was a nice bite to the dish, and the steamed buns are very similar to mantou (a northern Chinese steamed bun).<\/p>\n

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beef yotaza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The honey fish is fried tilapia seasoned with sweet and sour sauce and cooked with peppers, onions, and pineapples.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t a fan of this dish, but others found it to be quite delicious.\u00a0 (sorry–the official food photographer failed on this one (that’s me!)).<\/p>\n

And, finally, there was the Dolan chicken\u2014fried chicken cooked with mushrooms, onions, red and green peppers, and bean sprouts.\u00a0 This was the consensus least favorite dish, as the flavors were muddled and meh.\u00a0 (another fail on the part of the food photographer)<\/p>\n

But there are salads!\u00a0 Below is the Tatlik salad, consisting of lettuce (duh!), cucumbers, beets, apples, and pineapple.<\/p>\n

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Tatlik salad<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The restaurant also has surprisingly good desserts.\u00a0 Or, rather, if you judge the restaurant against other Asian restaurants, it has excellent desserts.\u00a0 If you judge the restaurant against European and American restaurants, the desserts are passable.\u00a0 (No photos because we consumed them too quickly.). We tried the Dolan cake, which is the Uyghur version of baklava.\u00a0 It is dryer than traditional Middle Eastern or Greek baklava, but it is very flavorful.\u00a0 The Kat-Kat cake is a traditional Uyghur cake, and it was my favorite as it was not overly sweet and had an unusual but pleasant flavor.\u00a0 The fried bananas were good, but you have to like bananas (obviously) to like this dessert, and the Bak-Kal-Li is a walnut cake dried with chocolate.\u00a0 This is a heavy\u2014almost peasant-like\u2014cake that is worth trying but is not for everyone.<\/p>\n

I also highly recommend the Uyghur tea, which uses black tea as a base but adds ginger, date, and other fruit flavors as well.\u00a0 Even the son, who does not like tea, liked this one.<\/p>\n

The restaurant itself is small and austere, typical of an Asian hole-in-the-wall restaurant, but the wait staff is friendly, competent, and helpful.\u00a0 We really liked the food at Dolan Uyghur and will definitely be back to try new dishes!<\/p>\n

Dolan Uyghur is located at 3518 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20008 (www.dolanuyghur.com).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Uyghur (pronounced wee-gur) cuisine comes from one of the ethnic minorities mostly located in Xinjiang, China.\u00a0 We have been to a Uyghur restaurant in Beijing many years ago and were thrilled to learn that there was now a Uyghur restaurant in Washington, DC.\u00a0 Off we went to try it with some friends who had made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25],"tags":[455,331],"class_list":["post-2420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-restaurants","tag-dolan-uyghur","tag-restaurants"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p23QXm-D2","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2420"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2421,"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2420\/revisions\/2421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}