🍽️ Jiayuguan Grill

Silk Road lamb skewers with cumin.

Jiayuguan Grill is a hearty late-night specialty of the Jade Gate Pass, the western end of the Great Wall on the Hexi Corridor Silk Road. Local lamb is cut into chunky pieces, skewered on iron rods and roasted over fruit-wood charcoal, liberally dusted with cumin, chili powder and salt while still on the fire—cumin is used generously to give it a bold, aromatic character. Lamb chops, legs, shanks and even tripe and trotters go on the grill; the chunks are thick, crisped outside and juicy inside. Long a hub of Silk Road travelers, Jiayuguan rows its night-market stalls where people gather around charcoal fires on summer evenings. The grill is both street snack and a signature taste of touring this frontier fortress town.