Etles Uyghur, London: "You'll be well fed and learn a little along the way" - restaurant review

Etles Uyghur Restaurant, 424 Finchley Road, London NW2 2HY (020 7431 5698). Starters £7.50 to £9.99, mains £12.50 to £16, large plate of chicken £30, desserts £4.50. Unlicensed

The menu at Etles Uyghur Restaurant, located at the leafy Golder's Green end of London's Finchley Road, isn't just an exciting list of edible promises. It is also a subtle lesson in physical and human geography. Obviously, there is no pork listed due to the predominantly Muslim culture of the Uyghur people, which the Chinese government has been trying to annihilate so brutally, for so long. There's also not a lot of fish because Xinjiang province, home to the Uyghurs, is far from the sea. Everything here revolves around beef, lamb and chicken.

Even without knowing exactly where Xinjiang is on the map, it can be assumed that it is in northern China because of the cultivation of wheat, represented by the thick leghmen noodles and the flatbreads and the beautifully pleated manta dumplings. Generally in China, it is rice in the south, wheat in the north. These manta dumplings, along with the spice-dusted meat skewers and a mercimek or lentil soup, provide another clue. There may be some Chinese dishes like mapo tofu and kung pao chicken available here. But these other dishes locate this food in China's northwest frontier regions, where the membrane between cultures is most porous, rippling in flavors and influences from Turks and Central Asia. Absolutely. Owners and chefs Mukaddes Yadikar and her husband, Ablikim Rahman, are indeed Turkish Muslim Uyghurs from Yili, near the China-Kazakhstan border.

Geography plays another role in this review, albeit in a somewhat more mundane, inexcusably pathetic way. It was difficult to find this food in the capital, beyond the vast supply of the charming Silk Road in Camberwell, famous for its large-plate chicken.Then, in 2017, Yadikar and Rahman chose Walthamstow, in the North East London, for the Original Etles, the word for the region's ornate silks. I have read many enthusiastic reports online, but the fact is that I am a repulsive and prejudiced South Londoner. I went to the far north of Scotland to review restaurants and obscure parts of England rural where the card is probably stamped with the words "h...