An Lushan at the table

In An Lushan's time, the table of a great military commissioner was not arranged as starter-main-dessert but organized around two worlds set side by side. On one side, the eight Chinese grains (rice, millet) as porridges and whole grains; on the other, hushi (胡食), the "Western food" so fashionable in Chang'an: oven-baked flatbreads, fragrant roasted meats, fermented dairy, and grape wines from the Silk Road oases. Everything was served in abundance on low trays, and a man like An Lushan, huge and gluttonous, attacked everything at once — the salty with the fermented, the flatbread dipped in mutton jus, the wine cup never empty.

Brought from Central Asia by Sogdian merchants — An Lushan's people — cumin marks the "barbarian" cuisine that set Chang'an's streets ablaze. On grilled mutton, its peppery, earthy heat was the very hallmark of hushi, that taste of elsewhere that the Tang court clamored for.