Gas.jpg (Photo : Reuters)
Naan, a staple in the Uyghur diet, had natural gas as a replacement for charcoal in baking. The Uyghur diet is popular in Southern Xinjiang, and because of this replacement, the local residents had bid goodbye to bio-fuel burning.
The manager of Naan Restaurant in Kuqa County in Aksu City, Arskar Tursun, said that people obstinately believed that naan could only be baked by charcoal for its special flavor. According to locals, there was a local joke saying that natural gas can be used for everything except for making naan and nailing horseshoes.
A free sampling was done for a naan cooked in natural gas to convince customers that the pancake's flavor is still preserved with the usage of natural gas for baking. These samples were baked by the largest restaurant in the region, and more than a hundred locals were invited.
According to Tursun, a whopping 90 percent agreed on the taste of the gas-cooked naan, which is still on par with those baked via charcoal.
Charcoal is said to produce poisonous discharge such as carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide, and Chef Arken confirmed that natural gas is handy and safe.
The Tarim Oilfield is the largest natural gas producer in China and is coincidentally located in Xinjiang. In the past decade, the company has sent more than 140 billion cubic meters of natural gas to the east of China. This has benefitted 400 million people in more than 80 cities and 3,000 enterprises.
Apparently, locals in Xinjiang have gotten access to the natural gas produced by the oilfield in recent years. This project was realized after 93 percent of government-sponsored gas stations were built to pipe gas to households in almost 40 counties that benefitted 2 million residents.
