Sama Uyghur - Union City

[robert]

Came across this place on Yelp looking for kofte, which they don’t have.

The Yelper who says this dish isn’t spicy is wrong. Not very spicy by my standards, but my dining companion couldn’t eat it. Reminded me of the cold chicken at China Village.

Fantastic. Exponentially better than the one I had at Omar in San Gabriel.

Really good and crazy cheap at $5 for two.

Very good. Tasted somewhere between Italian and Cajun. There were some thin slices of al dente potato.

I’ll definitely go back, easy stop on my way to the office. You could get there on BART, it’s two blocks away. Looks like they’re moving to a larger space in the same mall, at first we thought they had closed since there was a “coming soon” sign and construction going on.

http://www.samauyghurcuisine.com/

[robert]

'They don't know us': At Sama Uyghur Cuisine, three immigrants recreate their...

[raihan]

Really wanna try that whole lamb kebab.
Not by myself, of course.

[hyperbowler]

You’ll need 15-20 people for the now $438 20 lb. lamb if you get sides (you should)! It’s boiled in a mega-pot, roasted for hours, and then hacked up and tossed in spices. It’s excellent, but I think you can hit many of the same notes with a sampling of other dishes (lamb kebab, stewed mutton with soup, lamb polo, lamb laghman, and lamb hoof while you’re at it)

@robert, I like their cold chicken dish as well. It’s cooked in a green Sichuan peppercorns oil. if you’re down there again, stock up on Chinese ingredients at Marina Foods grocery store a few doors down, which is way better for Sichuan ingredients than stuff closer to you.

Their big plate chicken is well prepared, but I prefer it at places that can use alcohol (rice wine or beer) and which use different seasonings.

Sama’s lamb pie was made to order when I had it—- Uyghur meat pie is horrible if not made to order, so I wonder if that’s what happened when you went to Omar. Incidentally, neither Sama nor Silk Road have yogurt, which Omar makes in house.

[robert]

Samsa (lamb samosas) were great. Must order.

Meat pie was a huge step down from last time. Tasted like it might have come out of the freezer. Crust was somehow both underdone and hard. Filling was good but pretty much the same as in the samsa.

Portion and price both up slightly so still a great value. Must order.

That’s one noodle. How do they make those so long? Kind of hard to eat, especially to get a bite with all the elements.

I guess I was hungry, all that was left to take home was half the meat pie.