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Weekend Trip to Kunming, China: Yunnan Specialties

Yi Village - Da Mo Yu 大墨雨

This next series explores a quick, weekend trip I took to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province. The trip was short, a mere 48 hours, but we were able to enjoy A LOT of fantastic food (which I can't wait to share with you!). I'll split up these experiences over a series of four separate posts. 1) This post: an exploration of Yunnan specialties from a number of great, casual sit-down restaurants 2) Our visit to a local Yi Village and the farm-to-table meal we enjoyed 3) Local Street Food on Old Kunming Street and 4) Crossing the Bridge Noodle at a delightful local shop with a really passionate owner!

Yunnan, The Harvest Capital of China

Yi Village - Da Mo Yu 大墨雨

Yunnan is the produce capital of China, and is particularly known for its vast variety of vegetables (often not found anywhere else in China), mushrooms, fresh flower pastries, and Pu-er tea (just to name a few). Kunming is the capital of Yunnan Province and is also the largest city in the region. As a result, if you’re short on time, it’s a great place to experience a wider variety of the bountiful foods from the Yunnan Region.

Here’s a brief look at some of the delicious Yunnan foods we were able to enjoy during this quick, 48-hour weekend trip to Kunming.

外婆味道 Grandma’s Kitchen

外婆味道 Grandma’s Kitchen Kunming China
I've loved Chinese style savory steamed egg custards ever since I was pretty young. I remember my mom telling me that the entire bowl of steamed egg custard only consisted of a single egg. I was floored. This Yunnan version is similar to other steamed egg custards, but comes with some local mushrooms on top.
外婆味道 Grandma’s Kitchen Kunming China
Perhaps unsurprisingly, they call what we know as potatoes as “foreign taro” in Yunnan. This dish, 丽江紫洋芋 Lijiang Purple Potato “Foreign Taro”, consists of locally grown potatoes, which are waxy and very, very flavorful. We enjoyed this beautiful variety from Lijiang Province that is red/purple on the inside and white on the outside. Yunnan cuisine tends to be quite spicy (Southeast Asian influence!), and these potatoes were thinly sliced and stir fried with chilis and scallions.
外婆味道 Grandma’s Kitchen Kunming China
香茅草烤鸡 Lemongrass Grilled Chicken came with a crispy skin and a side of spicy chili powder!
外婆味道 Grandma’s Kitchen Kunming China
苦菜酥红豆 (bitter vegetable and crispy red beans): another Kunming specialty, these deep fried beans are fried with bitter vegetable leaves and chili. The resulting bites are addictive, like snacks!
外婆味道 Grandma’s Kitchen Kunming China

Shiping is a county located about 350 km from Kunming. This next dish, 石屏铁板包浆豆腐 (Shiping teppan-grilled battered tofu), consists of lightly battered tofu which is fried on a hot flat plate. The resultant tofu is charred on the outside yet still soft and silky on the inside.This type of preparation is especially popular in this region in the Southwestern part of China
外婆味道 Grandma’s Kitchen Kunming China
外婆味道 Grandma’s Kitchen Kunming China

We ordered several simple vegetable dishes, stir fried and in broth.

福照楼汽锅鸡·云南菜 Fuzhao Lou Steam Pot Chicken

A local friend had recommend this restaurant. Although we didn't have time to dine there the first night, we were thrilled to discover there was a branch right inside Kunming Old Street. We decided to "forfeit" some stomach face from street vendors in order to have a proper meal at this restaurant.

福照楼汽锅鸡·云南菜 Fuzhao Lou Steam Pot Chicken
奶香摩登粑粑 Circular flatbreads are liked steamed buns formed into a swirl shape, flattened, and pan fried. The resultant flatbread is dipped into a sweet, creamy sauce, sort of like condensed milk.
福照楼汽锅鸡·云南菜 Fuzhao Lou Steam Pot Chicken
This restaurant's version of 包浆豆腐 Battered Tofu was very different from the one we had the night before. These tofu blocks were slowly grilled to form the harder exterior, reminding me of Jian shui's famous well water grilled tofu (but frankly this one wasn't as good as the ones we had in Jian shui).
福照楼汽锅鸡·云南菜 Fuzhao Lou Steam Pot Chicken
Sweet and Sour Eggplant 糖醋脆皮茄子 glazed with a thin layer of sugar, flour, and chili spice (and then deep fried!) was surprisingly addictive.
福照楼汽锅鸡·云南菜 Fuzhao Lou Steam Pot Chicken
Although summer doesn’t ever get THAT hot in Kunming, it’s still refreshing to eat cold noodles on a summer day. This Cold Rice Noodle (滇味凉米线) dish was simple, yet excellent due to the quality of the cold noodles, which were rice based and had a great QQ texture. The server tossed it together with a savory spicy sauce and all the toppings, including shredded carrots, cucumber, red cabbage, wood ear mushroom, ham, and deep fried mushroom.
福照楼汽锅鸡·云南菜 Fuzhao Lou Steam Pot Chicken
The most expensive dish of the night, this plate of Wild Mushrooms with Peppers and Yunnan Ham focused on wild seasonal mushrooms. The ham added a lovely umami depth while the red and green bell peppers gave textural balance.
福照楼汽锅鸡·云南菜 Fuzhao Lou Steam Pot Chicken
Local Green “stems” stir fried with fish cake. These greens are local to the region and can’t be found anywhere else.

General Thoughts

It's impossible to fully experience what Kunming has to offer in just a mere number of days. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to visit and at least try some dishes. I was very thankful for these two family-style meals where I got a taste of the variety and abundance of produce, spices, and cooking styles that make up Kunming "cuisine."

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