In Honor of the Eid

Eid al-Adha, the Festival of the Sacrifice, begins at sundown tonight, coinciding with the final observances of the Mecca pilgrimage. Like the pilgrims, observant Muslims around the world who can afford to do so will sacrifice an animal in memory of the sacrifice of Abraham or buy meat, preferably lamb, slaughtered according to Muslim law.

Tonight and tomorrow, some Muslims will eat lamb kebab and some will eat lamb curry, but Sofia Ma’s family will have lamb braised with soy, ginger and star anise. They are Muslim Chinese.

Many people are surprised to learn that there are Muslims at all in China. Actually, there are estimated to be 35 million to 40 million, which is more than the population of any Arab country except Egypt. Of course, they’re rather swallowed up in China’s 1.2 billion souls. China ranks eighth among the world’s nations in terms of Muslim population, but only about 3% of its people are Muslims.

As you might expect, Muslims are well-represented in the western Chinese provinces adjoining Central Asia. Two large Muslim ethnic minorities have autonomous administrative regions of their own out there: the Turkish-speaking Uighurs of Xinjiang Province and the Chinese-speaking Hui of Ningxia. But Chinese-speaking Muslims are found all over the country. There are several million in Beijing alone, concentrated in the Niujie and Madier districts.

Ma’s father grew up as a farmer in the heart of historical China, Henan, and served in the Nationalist Army. With the 1949 Communist takeover, he fled, like many other Nationalists, to Taiwan.

There he had to find a new career. “He was just out of the army,” says Ma, “so he opened a restaurant with the cooking knowledge he got from his grandmother.

“He made the sesame bread,” she says. Sesame bread (se ma da bing) is a Henan specialty: leavened dough rolled out as a long rectangle, oiled and rolled up into a long roll that is coiled to make a thick disk. It develops layers as it bakes--and, of course, it’s generously sprinkled with sesame seeds.

In 1982, after immigrating in 1978, Ma’s father opened China Islamic Restaurant in the MacArthur Park area of Los Angeles, where it became popular with Muslim diners of all ancestries. Five years later, it moved to Rosemead. Needless to say, China Islamic and its sister restaurant in Tustin, Jamillah Garden, serve sesame bread.

Ma’s husband, Kien Shi, has a similar family history, only his father came to Taiwan--with nothing but $3 and the clothes on his back, says Shi--from Canton. This should not be surprising; there have been Muslim Cantonese for at least 1,000 years. The first Muslim communities in China grew up around the Middle Eastern merchants who settled in the great port cities.

Everywhere in China, Muslims eat much like their neighbors, apart from the Muslim prohibition on pork and wine. They are particularly known for eating lamb, however. (Yes, there are sheep in China--in fact, China is the second-largest producer of sheep in the world, after Australia.)

“On the Eid,” says Ma, “we pray, and we gather with family and make a celebration. We don’t sacrifice a sheep ourselves--we use the halal butcher on Vermont Avenue. And then we share the meat with our friends, and with the poor.”

CHINESE LAMB STEW (Hongshao Yangrou)

This meaty stew is basically lamb cooked in the usual Chinese method known as red-cooking but with the omission of rice wine.

1 tablespoon oil

1 bunch green onions, cut into 2-inch pieces

4 slices peeled ginger root

1 star anise

1 pound lamb shoulder, sliced across bone, or other lamb stew meat

1/4 cup soy sauce

3/4 cup water

Heat oil in skillet and fry green onions with ginger and star anise until onions are soft. Add lamb and fry until brown.

Add soy sauce and water, bring to boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook, covered, 30 minutes. Remove cover and cook until meat is tender and sauce reduced, 15 to 20 minutes. Skim fat, if desired. Serve with flat bread, sesame bread or rice.

2 servings: Each serving:

346 calories; 2,132 mg sodium; 112 mg cholesterol; 19 grams fat; 6 grams carbohydrates; 38 grams protein; 0.42 gram fiber,