Jahunger Review: Not Your Everyday Chinese Cuisine

When one thinks of Chinese cuisine near campus, crowd favorites like Dumpling House, 5 Spices House, or Chang Sho come to mind. Most of these restaurants specialize in more commonplace Chinese cuisine, including dishes like dim sum, stir fries, and claypot dishes. However, just a T ride and a brief walk away is the unassuming Jahunger nestled in a quiet Cambridge neighborhood — an Uyghur cuisine restaurant that opened in late June.

While most people may be more familiar with the sociopolitical discourse surrounding the Uyghur people as a minority ethnic group in China, Jahunger spotlights the Uyghur people’s underrated yet glorious cuisine. Hailing from Western China’s Xinjiang region, most Uyghurs are Muslim — which, as a result, gives their cuisine a more Middle Eastern flavor in its use of mutton and beef rather than pork.

A good way to begin a meal at Jahunger is with the cold chicken — slices of chicken mixed with green onions and black fungus doused in a tangy Sichuan peppercorn sauce. It is a delightful choice to open the palate and prepare oneself for the level of spice one can expect at this restaurant — fragrant but not overwhelming. The chicken is a little tough and could be more tender, but any textural quibbles are overshadowed by the explosion of flavor and sensation from this special dish.

The Meefen — rice noodles with minced chicken in a gravy-like sauce — also does not fall short on the flavor front, but it can be slightly overwhelming due to the large portion size. The noodles closely resemble Japanese udon and have a satisfying chew to them, especially with the thick and comforting gravy that comes with the dish. While more chicken and celery certainly would provide more textural and nutritional variation, the dish itself goes a long way and packs a punch in both its spiciness and heartiness.

The real showstopper, however, is the restaurant’s signature “Jahunger Noodle.” This dish of hand-pulled noodles and marinated beef is stir-fried with chives and onions. Unlike the Meefen, this dish is less saucy and relies on plentiful aromatics for flavor, allowing the hand-pulled noodles’s chewy texture to shine. This dish is phenomenal — no doubt due to the compelling interplay of flavors, from the gentle char to the onions’s sweetness.

Finally, a saccharine succor can be found in Jahunger’s “Not Your Typical Honey Cake,” a honey-flavored sponge cake layered with cream and served with vanilla ice cream. While one’s taste buds might be a little numbed by the Sichuan peppercorns and chillies present in almost every dish, it’s hard not to appreciate the notes of coffee and caramel in the mouth-watering dessert. The cake is a gratifying end to the meal: moist, fluffy, and absolutely delicious.

Overall, Jahunger is a gem for those who know how to find it, tucked away from the traffic of Central Square. Serving up a virtually unknown segment of Chinese cuisine that deserves much more attention, Jahunger promises flavor and spice perfect on a chilly fall day, offering a scrumptious opportunity to expand your culinary horizons.

—Staff writer Lara R. Tan can be reached at lara.tan@thecrimson.com.