Yunnan Cuisine

We’re just back from a week’s holiday in Yunnan Province in South-West China. Yunnan Province has the largest number of ethnic minorities in China (more than half of the total Chinese minority population according to the Lonely Planet). The cuisine, therefore, is incredibly varied, taking its influences from many directions. Its proximity to Sichuan Province means the dishes tend to have a healthy dose of chilli and being mushroom season when we were there ensured that various types of funghi featured heavily on the menus also.

Our first stop-off was Lijiang – a beautiful town teaming with tourists, and a plethora of restaurants to choose from.



Our first lunch was at a little restaurant, which I was told was called Yi mi yang guang yu fu situated on what is most commonly know as ‘Jiu Ba Jie’ or ‘Bar Street’, where we ordered up some local goodies:



Baba is a type of bread cake that is made on street stalls all over Lijiang – it comes either sweet or savoury, so we tried the savoury version to accompany our feast. For any traditional Brits out there – it tastes a bit like a suet pudding:



Also on the table was Dongba Chicken with Mushrooms & Chilli (Dongba being the culture of the Naxi minority – the most prominent ethnic group in Lijiang)



Spicy Yak – bursting with an amalgam of flavours from the various herbs and spices in it, and our first experience of the tongue-numbing Sichuan peppercorn!



Lijiang Pork – with strong ginger and chilli flavours



And an interesting addition to our vegetable repertoire – a type of local fresh water seaweed which, like everything else on the table, was delicious.



What a good start to our China holiday!