Help me deconstruct these Chinese cumin-lamb skewers!

I live in NYC area and have a Taiwanese buddy who is a BBQ guy and also an all around foodie. For months now he was telling me about a food cart in Flushing, Queens that sells the most unbelievable lamb skewers. There is an enormous Chinatown in Flushing - with some amazing foods to be found, but I was always a bit skeptical of this. I didn't think the Chinese were really known for this type of thing, but I figured I'd give it a shot.

So two weeks ago we drive down there, and I get to sample this. I was absolutely blown away. These were one of the best grilled meats I'd ever tasted, and definitely the best grilled lamb I'd had. Plus, an extra bonus is that the skewers are only $1.25 each! (although we did each eat 10 of them).

So now I'm on a mission to reproduce this delicacy at home. I tried it once already, and while good, was nowhere as good as what they made. So I went back a second time to do some research and try to figure out the secrets (and of course sample some more). They wouldn't really give a straight answer about all the methods, but I did pick up some more tidbits.

I was hoping some people here could maybe give me some ideas.

Here's what I know so far:

- The meat is very heavily spiced. The main flavor component is cumin, followed by hot pepper and salt. In fact, I confirmed on my last trip there that those 3 things are all they use. They are extremely spicy. I think that they fresh-grind the cumin because I noticed that

- The meat is not marinated or seasoned at all before they cook them. I saw them taking skewers out of the cooler and there were no spices (that I could see) on them. All the spicing is done while the meat cooks. So basically, while one side is cooking, the guy loads on a ton of hot pepper, cumin and salt, and then turns the meat and repeats on the other side. They do this at least 2 times per side I noticed.

- They cut the meat into very small pieces on the skewers, but also cook very close to the fire (they use royal oak lump). Each set of skewers cooks for about 5 min. but the meet is not dried out or tough

- The meat is extremely fatty - the good kind of fat. In fact, some parts of the skewer seemed to be only fat - but extremely delicious!


So I'm pretty sure that I know the spices at this point - but now I need to figure out what part of the lamb to use. The last 2 times I tried it at home, I used leg chunks and cut them up very small. While good, they just weren't fatty enough. I'm thinking maybe I should try using the shoulder next time.

I'm also playing around with my set up. I'm using a Weber kettle (See below) and improvised a kebab setup with fire bricks. It worked but was so hot that they meat started burning quickly, and the skewers caught on fire and broke - even though I soaked them. Next time I will try the same setup, but choke down the air from the bottom to hopefully cool it down and allow them to cook a bit longer.

If anyone has any other suggestions - let me know!

Now some pics:

Their cart:







My first attempt (meat too big, wrong skewers)






My second attempt (too hot, not enough spice, not fatty enough meat)

landarc said:

I was going to guess lamb belly, but, looking at that meat, it isn't belly. I am leaning towards upper shoulder or even back. The top side meat can be meaty like that in a very young lamb.

Islamic Chinese food is quite common, and traces back it's heritage to a period of time when Turkish traders worked in Western China. Naturally, they did not eat pig, so lamb became the meat of choice (or goat). Chinese cumin will be very fresh, it is quite pungent and it is important that you get fresh cumin and roast it just before grinding. I would also suggest considering some Sichuan peppers added to your chile pepper mix. It creates a flavor profile called Ma-La, and is essential to the cuisine. A hot then numbing sensation, very common in Chinese lamb dishes, Numbing Lamb being the famous one.

Click to expand...

Thanks! That is some great information. Definitely going to try it. My next attempt is going to be with the shoulder. We tried to get them to tell us what part they use - but they just said they use all of it. I suppose this is possible. They may mix it up. Another thing to keep in mind is that since they sell these for $1.25 each, I imagine they are using a cheaper cut?