Lijiang's Famous Wild Mushroom Hot Pot
One of Lijiang's most famous foods is the wild mushroom hot pot. This is because this region of Yunnan Province more diverse mushrooms (over 800!) than anywhere in the country, and possibly the world.
The best time to enjoy mushroom hot pot is during July and August, when fresh mushrooms are in seasons. During other times of the year, the mushrooms will be frozen. In our short 3 day trip right in the middle of mushroom season, we tried to eat as many mushroom hot pot meals as we could!
Jun Wo Zi Wild Mushroom Garden Restaurant 菌窩子野生菌花園餐廳
There is a particularly famous variety called jian shou qing (見手青),that has hallucinogenic effects. Jian shou qing must be cooked for at least 20 minutes to destroy its psychedelic effects. Supposedly you start to see images of little people (小人人) if you eat undercooked mushrooms. The internet in China exploded in 2023 after Janet Yellen, while visiting China, was photographed having some.
Jian shou qing literally means "meet hand blue/green" because the mushroom turns blue when it comes in contact with a human hand.
We ordered both a stir-fried version of this mushroom as well as in a hot pot. It was always the most expensive item on the menu (by far), with a small plate of sauteed mushrooms costing around USD $20 (which is a lot in Yunnan considering that our entire 4-person hot pot set menu was only RMB268, roughly US $37).
Other mushrooms we tried included 牛肝菌 (porcini), 羊肚菌 （morel), and 金耳菌 (golden fungus). We also tried a local wild potato (with pink center!), two wild local vegetables, and a chicken broth made from local free range chicken was was sooooooo flavorful.
It was fascinating to see how the professional restaurants handle serving these "poisonous" mushrooms. We were particularly impressed with the safety measures. The staff kept detailed records, taking a tiny vial of "sample" (our soup!) and recording detailed notes for every hot pot served.
At this restaurant we were able to try several more fun local dishes, such as these multigrain steamed buns served with a side of wild mushroom filling. 野生菌雜糧窩窩頭
This is an interesting dry mountain bread filled with a stickier quinoa-like filling.
Deep fried pancake (“bing” of sorts) that was flaky and crispy, not unlike a scallion pancake but filled with black sugar inside. It was delicious!
Chi Jun Ke Yunnan Wild Mushroom Hot Pot 吃菌客雲南野生菌火鍋
We sought out Chi Jun Ke Yunnan Wild Mushroom Hot Pot (吃菌客-雲南野生菌火鍋) because our friends told us it was the best mushroom hot pot they had EVER had . . . and they live in Yunnan Province!
With views overlooking the river and plenty of mushroom themed decorations everywhere, this place was indeed fun, well-established, and a great place to enjoy a mushroom hot pot meal.
I really appreciated this poster, which is a like a little cheat sheet explaining a little bit about each of the mushrooms.
The 4-person Mushroom Hot Pot Set Meal
We went with a 4-person set that included a really nice variety of different mushrooms.
Aside from mushrooms, Yunnan province grows all sorts of produce for China. The availability of fresh vegetables is astounding. We had local pink potatoes (again) as well as some other local greens.
This particular set menu included A LOT, such as Yunnan ham (another local specialty), and oddly, fried chicken strips with chili powder??
The "liang pi" (涼皮), cold noodles tossed in a spicy and slightly acidic dressing, was refreshing and quite nice.
We also ordered some scallion steamed buns.
Interestingly, there were a few mushrooms that were served "sashimi-style", including the golden fungus (which has a really nice texture, sort of like tendon?) and black truffles (!).
The Hot Pot - in Stages
Although our friend highly recommended the free range chicken broth, we decided to try something different since we had chicken broth the day before at our first mushroom hot pot. Here, we went for the duck broth! It was more intense, and also quite good (though I probably prefer chicken, but that's personal preference).
Usually you cook only the mushrooms first to keep the overall flavor profile of the broth "clean". If you have a "poisonous" mushroom, they will make you wait 20 minutes before you can eat.
Once everyone has finished eating the mushrooms, you can add the vegetables and the ham, which will impact the clean flavor of the original broth + mushrooms.
We decided to order (again) the hallucinogenic jian shou qing mushrooms stir fried with chilis. This dish is not for everyone. The mushroom is quite dry and leathery in texture, especially when prepared in this wok-fried manner. Those who love it enjoy the texture because they can chew on it for a long time, savoring the intense and rich flavor of the mushroom. For me, it was VERY spicy and a bit too chewy.
Frankly, aside from the novelty, I would not order this on a regular basis. As mentioned above, it's quite expensive compared to the rest of the meal.
Posts in this Lijiang Series (links to be added once published)
Lijiang China Trip Report: Lijiang Old Town
Blue Moon Valley of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Lijiang, China
Yu Hu Village in Lijiang, China 玉湖村
Baisha Village in Lijiang, China 白沙村
Lijiang Food: Mushroom Hot Pot 野生菌火鍋
