Yunnan Travel Food Guide: Uncovering Lesser-Known Yunnan Delicacies
Actually, I considered traveling independently to Yunnan, but many friends said the attractions in Yunnan are quite scattered, making independent travel very inconvenient, so joining a tour is more carefree and effortless. Essentials before departure: ⚠1. Documents: ID card, bank card, cash ⚠2. Electronics: charger/power bank, phone, camera, batteries, selfie stick ⚠3. Clothing: sweatshirts, shirts, T-shirts, 3 skirts in various colors, underwear, flat shoes, sneakers ⚠4. Skincare: sunscreen, makeup remover, face cream, facial cleanser, lipstick, eyebrow pencil, cotton pads ⚠5. Medicines: essential balm, stomach medicine, cold medicine, band-aids, altitude sickness prevention medicine, etc.
[Daily Itinerary]
🔴Day1: ✈Arrive in Kunming → Kunming Old Street → Golden Horse and Jade Rooster Archway → Dianchi Lake (Kunming airfare is cheap, so many like to use Kunming as a transit point). First, go to Kunming Old Street for authentic Yunnan cross-bridge rice noodles. Before May, you can still see seagulls in Kunming. In the evening, visit Golden Horse and Jade Rooster Archway.
🔴Day2: Stone Forest 1→Stone Forest, representative of karst landforms, filming location of 'The Legend of Chusen' 2→Chuxiong, the journey from Stone Forest to Dali is long (7 hours by car), so stay overnight in Chuxiong, which is between Kunming and Dali, to avoid fatigue and danger from night driving.
🔴Day3: Dali 1→Dali Ancient Town, with flowing streets and flowers in every household, plenty of delicious food 2→Erhai Lake, you can rent a cool Jeep to drive around Erhai Lake, don't rent an electric scooter as it has many drawbacks; you can also take a yacht out on the lake 3→Luoquan Peninsula, on the east bank of Erhai, facing Dali Ancient Town, with Luoquan Tower, Luoquan Temple and a dozen attractions 4→Shuanglang Ancient Town, by Erhai Lake at the foot of Cangshan Mountain, a popular spot for taking photos, capture a 'mirror of the sky' shot.
🔴Day4: Lijiang 1→Lijiang Ancient Town, with attractions such as Sifang Street, Mu Mansion, Big Water Wheel, Baisha Residential Cluster and Shuhe Residential Cluster. 2→Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, about 1 hour drive from Lijiang, snow-capped year-round, you can hike or take the cable car to get a bird's eye view of the entire snow mountain 3→'Impression Lijiang • Snow Mountain Chapter' theater is set in the embrace of the snow mountain.
🔴Day5: Dongba Secret Realm 1→Dongba Valley Wellness Town, ride horses in the canyon at the foot of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain to explore the Dongba secret realm, then walk across the red internet-famous glass bridge to test your courage! 2→Return to Kunming to conquer various food streets, taste Yunnan-style snacks, or prepare souvenirs for friends.
🔴Day6: Fly back home from Kunming. This trip was actually quite good. It was indeed a group tour, maybe not as free, but it saved a lot of trouble. Relatively speaking, it was okay and cost-effective. If you also hate the hassle, you can join a tour too. Sharing Yunnan travel tips with a group.
The shop facade is small, but inside it's a different world. Two courtyards casually scattered with a few tables and small stools. At the entrance is a large freezer full of various grilled items; you order directly in front of the freezer. Foodies from Beijing and Shanghai may know 'Huoshaoyun', a rare restaurant. Huoshaoyun actually copied two dishes from this barbecue shop: 'Jinjinguo Beef' and 'Mint Pig Brain'. The waiters here didn't seem to know what Jinjinguo is; maybe it's a name the Huoshaoyun owner came up with. Since it was late at night, we 'only' ordered five grilled items: Jinjinguo Beef, Mint Brain, Beef Jerky (Niuganba), and Stuffed Tofu. All dishes can be cooked by the shop, but grilling them yourself might be more fun and flavorful.
The beef eating method is more like hotpot. A small iron pot contains a base made of cilantro, small chili, crushed peanuts, houttuynia cordata, garlic puree, and some unknown spices. It's placed on the grill to boil, then you add pre-marinated beef, cooking and eating immediately. When eating, you need a special dipping sauce made from fermented bean curd, cilantro, crushed peanuts, houttuynia cordata, and other spices. The flavors of various spices collide in the mouth, with none standing out too much, yet they complement each other perfectly. Mint brain is another must-order. Grilled pig brain is common in mainland BBQ joints, but here fresh mint leaves are added. The brain's membranes are very cleanly removed, making it extremely smooth and creamy, while the mint adds a refreshing note to the heavy brain. When eating this dish at Huoshaoyun in Beijing, I often mix the brain into rice—that's also a delicious way. Niuganba is a common ingredient, essentially dried beef. The special thing here is the dipping sauce: made with sesame oil and garlic puree, plus some spices the shopkeeper glossed over, making the jerky addictively flavorful. Pig tail is also a small highlight. The skin is roasted exceptionally crispy and fragrant. The tail actually has little lean meat, but between the skin and bone lies a layer of rich fat. Dip it in dry seasoning for a soft, sticky, spicy taste. Compared to the above dishes, stuffed tofu is somewhat overshadowed.
2. Lin's Meatballs (Lin shi yuan zi)
Locals love to eat 'yuan zi' (meatballs), rice noodles, and rice noodle rolls in the morning. Yuan zi are essentially mini beef balls. Order a bowl of clear soup yuan zi, yuan zi rice noodles, 'shua baba' (a type of fried flatbread), and milk tea. The seemingly simple yuan zi rice noodles allow diners to add various seasonings according to taste: chili oil, chopped pickled peppers, pickled vegetables, pickled vegetable paste, pickled vegetable water, garlic powder, pepper powder, tsao guo powder, etc. 'Shua baba' is somewhat like Indian naan; it contains eggs and is drizzled with condensed milk. The milk tea is similar to Southeast Asian milk tea, made with strong tea and condensed milk.
3. Gan Ying's Pickled Chicken Feet, Meng Huan Lao Nai's Paoluda, Gan Lao Nai's Bitter Sa
Not far from Lin's Meatballs is the Best Food Court. These small shops are all inside the Best Food Court, a large courtyard housing several stalls, allowing you to try various Dehong specialties in one stop.
Pickled chicken feet cost 2.5 yuan each, with mix-and-match flavors: garlic, lemon, sweet and spicy, etc. Paoluda is a dessert that seems to witness the flow of flavors. Tracing its name, it probably originated from Persian Falooda, a cooling dessert made with rose water and milk containing thin noodles. Later, it was brought to the Indian subcontinent by Muslim merchants and flourished during the Mughal Empire. In Paoluda, the base is replaced with locally accessible milk, coconut milk, and condensed milk. The ingredients also creatively include bread croutons, fresh coconut meat, and Chinese-style ingredients like 'liang xia' (rice starch jelly) and 'bing fen' (ice jelly). Food is perhaps the simplest source of happiness. Regardless of religion or culture, people's pursuit of good food is probably universal. Paoluda, a dessert originating in Persia, managed to bypass the Tibetan Plateau and appear in this southwestern Chinese border town, with ingredients adapting to local tastes and conditions, but the flow of flavors and people's imagination in pairing ingredients can sometimes be astonishing.
Just after finishing Paoluda, it started raining heavily. While sheltering from the rain, we ordered some more food to pass the time. 'Sa pie' refers to a series of Dai ethnic dishes: cold-mixed ingredients paired with meat-based dipping sauce, used as a dip for rice noodles. Varieties include bitter sa, lemon sa, etc. For our first try, we chose the slightly heavy bitter sa. Bitter sa is made by pounding raw pork mince, Chinese chives, and large coriander, plus the semi-digested green bitter juice from cow intestines—similar to the 'nu bi' (cow bile) eaten in Guizhou. Before eating, you swirl a spicy chili in the juice and use it as a dip for rice noodles. Despite its strong taste, the bitterness hides a grassy fragrance, like the scent of a freshly mowed, wet lawn after morning rain. The flavors of herbs like large coriander and Chinese chives also collide in the mouth. Perhaps because Dehong is hot and humid, eating bitter sa also helps dispel heat. Dehong cuisine is skilled at playing with various uniquely scented spices, herbs, and ingredients, and can perfectly neutralize heavy flavors. One can't help but admire the inventor of sa pie's bold imagination... and courage.
At the entrance of Best Food Court, there is also a stall selling pickled fruits, including pickled green plums, pineapples, pears, and sour papaya marinated in pickled chili. They are served with chili oil and white sugar. The sour papaya is especially memorable: the fruit's own sourness, the pickling liquid's sour and spicy, the chili oil's spicy, and the sugar's sweetness all tug-of-war in the mouth, ending with a licorice-like aftertaste.
Accompanied by good food and the sound of sporadic rain, I felt relaxed.
