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Just last weekend we made a quick visit to the capital city of Urumqi. It’s not something that we normally do because, quite frankly, we’ve never enjoyed that city. In the past it has sometimes felt like taking a trip to the state dump – and paying good money to do so! It is known all over this province as the dirtiest, most crowded city and we think that’s a modest description. Up until this point we’ve avoided traveling to Urumqi unless: 1) we need to go somewhere besides our 3 square mile city, 2) we are out of imported cheeses or hot chocolate not sold in Karamay (which isn’t often a problem thanks to certain packages!) or 3) we’re trying to leave Xinjiang…this city is the only way out.

But to our surprise, we had a good time this weekend!! We went with a friend from here in Karamay who introduced us to many different people in Urumqi that we will be staying in touch with as the next year passes on. We stayed at a different Urumqi hotel, ate at different restaurants, met with new people and all of that together added up to both a much more enjoyable trip as well as a much cheaper trip (the new hotel was nicer and half the price of the hotel that all the foreigners before us have told us to stay).

Our purpose of travel last weekend is beyond what we want to mention here on this blog, but aside from this our happiest moment was being able to ditch Pizza Hut as our restaurant of choice when we travel to Urumqi! I’m sure most of you don’t catch the significance of this statement so let me explain. Here in Karamay pretty much our only option of reprieve from Chinese food is to cook for ourselves with Chinese ingredients or to go to KFC. Unfortunately, not only is KFC quite expensive – it gets old very quickly. So for the past year and a half we have found solace during our trips to Urumqi at Pizza Hut – the only other western restaurant (we thought) in the entire province. Don’t get me wrong – we love pizza – but as the Summers family can tell you since they visited with us last Spring Festival, it’s over-priced, greasy, and not the best pizza you’ve ever tasted. Believe it or not, Pizza Hut is considered an “up-scale” restaurant here! Can you imagine considering any pizza joint in America one of the nicer and more expensive restaurants in the city? I sincerely hope not.

So we’ve ditched it – never to go back. We’ve broken up with Pizza Hut and now we’re dating a new restaurant, our restaurant of choice. It’s called (drum roll, please!!)…The Texas Cafe! Heck yea! They serve, among other things, chicken-fried steak, quesadillas, enchiladas, salads, hamburgers, and even carrot cake! It’s basically a slice of heaven wrapped up in a small cafe. It was opened about 3 years ago by an American from Austin, Texas named Paul. We met with him and talked a bit
about how and why he’s here and then proceeded to marvel over how he was able to teach Chinese cooks to serve up a mean chicken enchilada! Our Chinese friend was so impressed that not only did we eat there a second time (it’s reasonably priced) but we’ve promised to make him home-made enchiladas here in Karamay so that his wife, who couldn’t travel with us due to pregnancy, could have a try.

So in case you missed our point we’ll say it in more official terms: We now hereby, forthwith proclaim that from this present time forward we will cease all activities at Pizza Hut and vow to quench our appetites with the food of our homeland, the great state of Texas and it’s neighboring country of Mexico. Hereby. Forthwith. A–men.