Mijune and I spent more time at the Richmond Night Market this weekend. There are just so many stalls I want to try—you can’t do it in a single visit.
“You like lamb?” Mijune asked me.
I love lamb.
“Okay, then let’s head over to Chef James. He makes the best lamb skewers around.”
Chef James is actually James Chen. His weekday gig is as a chef at the Fairmont Waterfront in downtown Vancouver. But on weekends, he’s a rock star out at the Night Market. I’ll tell you what—if the Fairmont is hiding Chef James in the back, they’re not taking full advantage of his talents. James is a natural showman. He’s got moves like Jagger. Truly.
Even before you get to his stall, which is called Chef James Xin Jiang Man BBQ, you hear him talking up the crowd, moving them towards him like a carnie at the state fair. “You want bbq, I know you want bbq, so you should come and get bbq because I make the best bbq you can find.”
Xinjiang is in the far western region of China, near Afghanistan, and what Chef James is pushing is a staple of the region’s Uighur cuisine, lamb on a skewer flavored with salt, black pepper, red chili pepper, and roasted cumin seed. It’s the cumin that sets Xinjian cuisine apart from other Chinese cuisine.
Chef James doesn’t just grill up lamb. He’s also got beef, chicken and honey garlic prawn skewers. And they’re all good. But the lamb is the thing.
Tags: Canada, Chef James, Richmond Night Market, Xin Jiang Man BBQ
-
Thanks for the tip on the roasted cumin seed. We love to grill lamb; we’ll have to add the cumin on our next session with lamb. But there’s just something special in food from food stalls like Chef James that can’t quite be replicated at home. I think the secret is in the grease that accumulates on the grill itself.
Comments are now closed.
2 comments