Yak Butter Tea

From Lijiang we travelled north to Shangri-La, in the Tibetan Plains. We were lucky enough to be staying at the Banyan Tree - about 15 miles outside of Shangri-La itself, in a cluster of villages known as Ringha.

Here, during a ‘cultural tour’ of the surrounding area, we were invited into a family home to partake in one of the local delicacies – Yak Butter Tea. This is the ultimate staple of the Tibetan diet and is drunk by the gallon by Tibetan nomads, the high fat content in the butter providing plenty of warmth during the long harsh winters.



Basically Yak Butter Tea is black tea, mixed in with yak butter and salt – with the result being… well it tastes like somebody took a perfectly good cup of tea and added a big dollop of salty butter to it – yes, definitely an acquired taste.



The tea was dished up with home made bread, which we were encouraged to dip into the tea, skimming off the layer of butter from the top of the tea; home-made Yak Cheese – similar to a sour Feta (another acquired taste?!) and a bowl of barley powder, which was either stirred into the tea, or thrown into the mouth with a teaspoon. We chose the latter method and ended up with a mouthful of sticky powder that tasted like stale puffed wheat (you guessed it… another acquired taste!)



We politely sipped away at our tea before we realised that as quickly as we were drinking, it was going to be topped up again – so we soon learned to drink a bit slower! Certainly an interesting experience, but one I don’t think I’ll be rushing to try again anytime soon.

Ginger Candy

One of the specialties of Lijiang is Ginger Candy, and there are numerous shops where they hand-pull this at the side of the road.



It's quite fascinating to watch, as it starts out as a hard ball and is eventually pulled out into a long stretchy mass of candy, with almost a candy floss texture. If you stand close and smile sweetly enough, you've a good chance of being given a small sample while it's still warm.



This is then laid out in long sausage shapes onto a hotplate to harden and then broken up into pieces to be bagged.



The result is a hard but chewy candy (similar to Blackpool Rock if that means anything to you), with a strong ginger flavour and a hint of peanuts - definitely interesting!

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!