Apricots
( 2005-09-13 )

Apricots are tasty, juicy, and full of nutrition. The pulp of apricots contains the anti-cancer Vitamin B17, while bitter apricot kernels can help stop coughing and moisten intestines.

Kucha of Northwest China'sXinjiangUygur Autonomous Region has a history of over 2,000 years in apricot cultivation, and more than 20 fine varieties have been preserved to the present, with the biggest the size of an egg, and the smallest the size of a litchi. The fruit has beautiful colors of red, white, and yellow, and so on.

Apricot trees are one of the most widely cultivated fruit trees of the Uygurs, and Kucha is reputed as the "home of apricots." Apricot jam, candied apricot jam, candied apricot peel, apricot tins, and preserved apricots are rather appreciated by the locals as well as the tourists.

The unique Kucha almond wrapped-in-apricot-meat, golden in color and sweet as honey, is a traditional dried fruit that had a distinctive local flavor even back in the days of theSilk Road, with the processing method of wrapping an almond with layered apricot meat.