Looking for the night market? Just follow your nose

Customers wait before a kebab stand in the night market in Hotan, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Customers can choose from pigeon, chicken and goose eggs, which are neatly piled around the barbeque. Before burying the eggs, Turson removes the shell at the top and leaves a small opening so he can see what is going on inside. Customers can produce flavors to suit their own tastes by adding salt, pepper or honey through the small opening and eventually eat the contents with a small spoon.

In the barbecued egg business the premium deal is the three-in-one egg, Turson says. "Let me show you how it's done," he whispers as if this is all very top secret. First, he makes the small opening at the top of a goose egg then carefully removes the egg white. He later puts the yolks of a chicken egg and a pigeon egg into the goose egg and mixes the yolks.

He then places the goose egg on top of the coal. When the yolks are beginning to thicken he takes the mixture out and adds a little honey and a pinch of saffron. The egg is then put back in the coal and Turson keeps on stirring the mixture until the texture turns into something like creme brulee. The result is delicious.

Apart from barbecuing eggs, Hotan locals take pride in their barbecued "lamb's eggs", in reality lamb's testicles. Every barbecue stall has the ingredient on the menu. "They've got to be fresh ones," says Memetjon Abliz, 43. He sells at least 30 testicles a night, he says, adding: "It's good for men."