Food & Cuisine in Yunnan
Yunnan, a province has a general mild climate with pleasant and fair weather, is home to a large number of plants and animals, offering ingredients in Yunnan cuisine in diversity all year round. Yunnan cuisine has a beautiful mix of different styles with its numerous ethnic minority characters adding. Yunnan dish moderate balances salty and spicy, tender and sweet, and mushrooms are featured prominently. Yunnan cuisine pays high attention toretain the original taste and flavor of its ingredients. Apart from its cuisine, there are numerous snack options in high streets and back lanes.
What to eat in Yunnan?
Steaming-Pot Chicken (Qiguo Ji) This dish can be found only in Yunnan. It gained its name from its way of steaming the chicken in the pot which has an opening in the center. The dish once was highly prized by the emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty during his tour in Yunnan province. The chicken is steamed in the pot with rare native medicinal herbs adding as well as with ginger, a shallot, pepper and salt and steam for about four hours. The chicken is tender and this dish is very nutritious that the soup has many medicinal qualities.
The Bridge Noodle (Guo Qiao Mi Xian)
The dish is quite popular with the locals and visitors. Actually, the dish is a soup broth, with rice noodles and spices. The soup broth is usually made by boiling a fat chicken and pig soup bones. Other meat such as pork, liver, fresh fish, ham, and cuttlefish can also used for the preparation of the broth. The broth is served with a large bowl, rice noodles are added to the bowl, followed by ingredients like raw vegetables, chili oil, ground peppers, sesame oil, and salt and lightly cooked meats. Qiao Xiang Yuan is a good place that serves the dish. It is located at No. 2 in Wenlin Jie, Jinma Biji Square in Kunming.
Bittern Duck (Lu Ya)
This dish is the first selection of the tourists. After the duck is chosen from the Dianchi Lake, and been prepared for some ten steps. Then it can be served. The dish is of soft flavor and is said to do much good to health. A good place for trying this dish is Fuzhao Lou located at Meishicheng crossing near South Gate of Kunming downtown. Another famous restaurant is Lao Fangzi with a 100-year history. It is situated at No. 18 - 19 in Jixiang Xiang, Dongfeng Xi Lu.
Braised Jizong in Soy Sauce (Hongshao Jizong)
Jizong is a kind of mushroom. On this wonderful land with warm temperature and adequate rain, mushrooms are well-growing in various species. It is home to many species of edible mushrooms such as Jizong, Songrong, Zhusun which are of the most commercial values. Jizong has a chicken like taste. For this dish, Jizong, tenderloin, chili, egg and starch should be prepared. The mushroom is cut into pieces; chili and tenderloin are chopped into pieces as well. Then, wrap tenderloin and Jizong pieces in egg white, starch and salt mixture; fry in hot oil. Then braise the Jizong and tenderloin pieces with garlic, ginger and shallot. Finally, the dish is served with sesame drizzling on top.
Local Snacks
Modern Cake or Modeng Baba is popular in Yunnan. It is a thick, round, heavy bread, either prepared plain or with various fillings. Besides Modeng Baba, other snacks include Shao Ma, Pineapple Rice, Wandou Fen (bean jelly), and Erkuai (highly refined and compressed rice cakes) are also notable snacks in Yunnan. All this snacks can be found in the Xinan Dasha snack street in Kunming downtown. Bei Damen Street, Xingyuan Road, Dianchi Road and Guannan Avenue are famous dining areas.
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