A recipe made from memories of meals at a Uyghur restaurant on Yishan Lu in Shanghai . Aubergine Frites (Eggplant Fries) is third and last offering from Silk Roads, A Flavor Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing (DK, 2025) by Anna Ansari, with photography by Laura Edwards, a nourishing book that makes you travel through food.
AUBERGINE FRITES
Serves 2–4 as a tapas
When I lived in Shanghai after university, my friends and I frequented a Uyghur restaurant on Yishan Lu, a stone’s throw from one of our homes. We would feast on lamb and soups and noodles and kao baozi (see p200 for my recipe). And this dish – cuminy fried aubergine fritters – or something like it, at least.
I haven’t seen this anywhere else. The most similar dish I can find is the Spanish berenjenas fritas con miel, one of my all-time favourite tapas. The Arabs brought the aubergine to Spain in the 8th century. They got it from Asia, where it has been cultivated and eaten since at least the start of the Common Era. And once the nightshade landed in Iberia, someone at some point started deep-frying it and drizzling it with syrupy sweetness.
A fellow American now living in Barca, Coley is my son’s godfather, the first friend I made when I moved to Shanghai, and a man who loves to eat. Between Coley, myself, and his wife Zia, we cobbled together our collective food memories in an attempt to recreate the frites we ate together decades ago, and, in doing so, created something new – a dish tinged with memories not only of rowdy, lamby meals in Shanghai’s Xujiahui District, but also with more recent ones – white tablecloths, dappled sunshine, the sparkling blue Mediterranean behind us, our children drawing pictures together on one side of the table as we finish another bottle of Albariño on the other. And fried aubergines, drizzled with honey.
The restaurant on Yishan Lu is still open, I hear. I hope they still have their aubergine frites on the menu. If they don’t, that’s OK – because I can always make these. And now you can, too.
Ingredients:
1 aubergine (about 350g/12oz), cut into 2 × 2 × 8cm (3⁄4 × 3⁄4 × 31⁄4in) frites
750ml (3 cups/11⁄4 pints) milk, beer, or sparkling water, plus extra as needed
120g (41⁄4oz) plain flour
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp fine sea salt
vegetable oil or other neutral oil, for deep-frying
To serve
honey or date molasses
cumin seeds
Directions:
Place the aubergine frites in a large bowl and pour your chosen liquid over the top, adding more as necessary to fully cover. Set aside and to soak for 30 minutes.
In another bowl, combine the flour and cumin.
Drain your soaked aubergine frites in a colander. Once they’re looking decently dry, toss the frites (still in the colander) with the salt, and then dump them into the flour-and-cumin bowl. Turn to coat the aubergine pieces in the flour-and-cumin mixture, and get ready to deep-fry.
Pour oil into a large saucepan or sauté pan to a depth of 5cm (2in) and heat it over a medium–high heat until it’s shimmering and nearly (but not!) smoking. Line a plate with paper towels and have it at the ready next to your stovetop.
Using chopsticks or tongs, carefully place some aubergine frites into the hot oil. Fill your oily pan with aubergine frites, but don’t overcrowd it. It’s better to work in batches here.
Fry the aubergine frites for 2–3 minutes on each side until golden brown, turning occasionally and paying close attention. Now, golden aubergine can devolve into burnt aubergine before you know it and, while there is a time and place for burnt aubergine, this is not it. Remove your golden frites from the pan and place on the paper towel-lined plate to drain.
Repeat until you have fried all your aubergine frites.
To serve, pile up your frites on a platter, drizzle with honey or date molasses, and sprinkle some cumin seeds on top for good measure.
(“Excerpted from Silk Roads reprinted by permission of DK, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © Anna Ansari 2025″, Photography: Laura Edwards)
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