New Shanghai restaurant to serve Xibo minority food

Uighur-run Xinjiang restaurants with their lamb kabobs and thick homemade noodles have become a staple of the Shanghai restaurant scene. But China’s western Xinjiang province is also home to a less familiar minority group called the Xibo (or Xibe).

This summer, Xibo entrepreneur Kuo Xin Rui will bring her version of Xibo cuisine to Shanghai. Xibo Grill, open in the French Concession this month, will offer familiar Xinjiang dishes along with the homespun specialties of one of China’s smallest minority groups. 

Dig in, Xibo style

There will be mutton skewers, of course, but the menu will also emphasize fresh, simple vegetable medleys. Key materials such as meat, milk and rare mountain spices will be sourced directly from Xinjiang to keep the flavors authentic. 

Some of Kuo’s favorite dishes are a roasted eggplant and pepper salad and homemade pumpkin dumplings. Guests can expect freshly-made flat bread, creamy yogurt and milk tea. 

Xibo Grill will offer not only upscale Xinjiang cuisine but also rooftop dining that’s so coveted in Shanghai as well as cultural accents you won’t get from your local noodle joint.

From the third floor deck, diners can see from Pudong’s skyscrapers looming over the old neighborhood homes next door. A New York designer helped craft the indoor space with Xibo touches including a thatched-style gray brick wall, Xinjiang-crafted gourd lamps, and wooden grape trellises. There will also be a traditional bread-baking oven and cultural art.

From Xinjiang to Shanghai

I feel responsible for my culture. I want people to know Xibo and I want the Xibonese to feel proud.— Kuo Xin Rui, Xibo Grill owner

The Xibo people, who are ethnically linked to the Manchurians, originated in Asia’s northeast and were known as powerful archers. Many of them traveled across the country to Xinjiang as part of a Qing Dynasty military outpost nearly 250 years ago and settled there.

Kuo’s own reverse journey from landlocked Xinjiang to Shanghai’s coast has been a long one. She grew up in Chapchal in a small farming village an hour’s drive from the Kazakhstan border. When Kuo was nine, her parents separated, and she stepped up to help her single mother and two older brothers. While her mom worked long hours in a convenience store, Kuo would cook dinner at home. 

“The first meal I cooked was awful,” she says, laughing. “My rice had the consistency of risotto, the potatoes were too salty; I had a stomach ache later.”

Still, the early exposure to her region’s cuisines sparked a passion for cooking and food, and Kuo always imagined opening her own restaurant somewhere far away.

Her first step was moving to the coastal city of Xiamen after high school. While studying in Xiamen, she also worked as a restaurant manager and later for a hospitality management company. In 2005, she came to Shanghai to work for Marriott in customer service, where she perfected her English and learned how to make guests comfortable. 

Last year, Kuo started on the path to fulfill her dream of keeping her Xibo culture alive, and launching her own restaurant. She traveled to Xinjiang to find the right chef, whom her mother schooled in the nuances of the Xibo dishes.

Censure figures estimate there are less than 175,000 members of the Xibo minority left, only 40,000 of whom speak the language.

“I feel responsible for my culture,” Kuo says. “I want people to know Xibo and I want the Xibonese to feel proud.”