Cumin Lamb Skewers
$14 play money
Charcoal-grilled lamb with a heavy dusting of cumin and chili. On the ChowChow Feast menu it costs $14 in play money, which puts it in the Snack tier ($1 to $14). It is one of the small, cheap things that make an order feel real.
No payment, no address, no delivery. This is a game.
Key facts
- Cuisine
- Chinese
- Menu section
- Chinese
- Price tier
- Snack ($1 to $14)
- Play-money price
- $14
- Main ingredients
- lamb, cumin, chili flakes, salt
- How it is served
- Five thin metal skewers of grilled lamb cubes heavily dusted with cumin and red chili flakes on a plain metal tray
History, tradition and origin
Grilled meat on skewers reached Chinese cities from the far northwest, where Uyghur cooks grill lamb over charcoal with cumin and chili. From the 1980s it spread across the country as night market and street food. In Sichuan, small bamboo skewers are instead simmered in spicy broth and counted by the stick at the end of the meal. Skewers are late-night food, eaten outdoors with friends and cold beer in summer.
Food economy and industry
Skewer stalls and small barbecue restaurants are one of the most common small food businesses in Chinese cities and a mainstay of the night-time economy. Lamb comes largely from the grasslands of Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, and cumin is grown in Xinjiang and imported from Central and South Asia. Because skewers are priced by the stick, a stall can sell many small items at low prices.
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