Hotan Date Polu

Hotan, the southern oasis on the Silk Road's jade route, divides its polu in two: the savory kind cooked with lamb, and a sweet kind built on dried fruit rather than meat — the latter usually vegetarian. Hotan's sweet polu is anchored on the city's famous red dates (jujubes), a variety said to have been brought from Shanxi and naturalized in the southern oasis, where the sun and sandy soil grow it large and fleshy with a soft, unsticky sweetness; it is now a noted Hotan specialty. Yellow carrots and onion are softened in oil, the rice spread on top and steamed through, then dates, raisins and dried apricots folded in, sometimes with eggs nestled in and a scatter of peanuts. In Hotan and Yutian, whether for Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr, weddings, or honoring an important guest, a pot of polu is the dish of honor — guests seated, hands washed, gathered round one platter to eat by hand.

Rice stained amber by lamb fat or oil and the sweetness of yellow carrots, the grains separate and distinct. The Hotan dates, having drunk in steam during the cook, turn soft and dissolve into pockets of concentrated sweetness, mingling with the tang of raisins and dried apricots and the crunch of peanuts — a fuller fruit-sweetness than a plain savory polu carries. Quartered tomatoes on the side cut the richness.

Hotan dates are large and fleshy, and as the polu steams under the lid the date flesh softens and bleeds its sugar into the rice, deepening the natural sweetness of the yellow carrots beneath. The result reads rounder and richer than a raisin-based sweet polu — the jujube sweetness is fuller-bodied. The cook follows the usual polu rule of layering, not stirring: carrots on the bottom, rice spread on top, everything steamed through by the rising vapor. Stir it mid-cook and the rice turns to mush and the layers collapse.