People who've been to Yunnan, what's it like? The fungal diversity seems so fascinating and I'd love to see the ecological contrasts between their mountains and my local ones.
Never been but I buy so much tea from there because it's the most magical place on earth.
Oh if that place is so freakin' great then what kind of dishes do they have?
second best food in china probably, but the competition is tough. do you like vietnamese food? lao food? sichuan food? do you like fermented pickles, sauerkraut, hot sauces, herbs like mint and culantro?
mixian (rice noodles):
- daiwei (dai ethnicity style) mixian from the south is a bit like vietnamese pho. herby, tangy, brothy. thin noodles, lemon juice and pickles and fermented bean products.
- douhua mixian is a kunming dish with thicker noods. no soup, instead a miso-like spicy sauce and peanuts, and most importantly a ton of soft tofu (douhua)
- chou doufu mixian is mixian with stinky tofu. good + good = very good
- xiaoguo mixian is the regular kunming soupy mixian in a rich spicy broth
wandoufen (yellow pea jelly):
- wandou liangfen is cold pea jelly with a spicy sweet and sour marinade.
- zha doufen is deep fried pea jelly cubes with a dipping sauce.
- xi doufen is pea jelly that hasn't solidified yet, eaten like a porridge. dehong specialty.
erkuai (sticky rice blocks?) similar to korean rice cake or east chinese niangao
- chao erkuai (just stir fried pieces of same), like a less saucy tteokboki
- ersi are thin strips of erkuai used as noodles
- shao erkuai is a round flat piece of erkuai toasted and made into a little taco with funky sauces, pickles, youtiao
Off the top of my head I mostly know Yunnan dishes for working magic with bamboo. Also don't be too harsh. The Sichuan region may have the best recipes in the entire world, but it doesn't mean other stuff isn't also amazing. ✨
Haven't been to Yunnan myself, but my parents have. They seemed to like it. According to them, the climate was quite temperate compared to the rest of China (which can get boilingly hot in the summer) thanks to the mountains.
Possibly. I remember seeing some video a while ago that said they have 600 or so edible species of fungi.
Oh yeah, I'm in 武汉 right now and wish I was in 昆明 regardless of fungi.
Outside temperature here: 40°C
Outside temperature there: 27°C
Unfortunately all of my family's here in this oven of a city.
kunming is a popular retirement spot because it's never hot or very cold. i didn't even know it could get to 27, i remember it was like 23 in the summer.
hahaha i was just in chongqing and it was 40 too. they're not called the 四大火炉 for no reason.
Also how do you do the furigana like superscript?
I don't want to do too much of an Orientalism here but Yunnan is maybe the most truly fantastical place in the real world, between the mountains, wildlife, people, history etc. Made all the more fantastic by the fact that 90% of Americans have never heard of it and probably think so Kung-fu movie mountain vistas and jungles are, like, an hour drive outside of Beijing or something and not halfway across the continent.
Yunnan is one of those provinces I always try to steal from China when I'm playing as the Sikh Empire, it's full of opium, iron AND coal
The fungal diversity seems so fascinating
The mushroom market in Kunming is great. Expensive, didn't buy anything, but really cool. Around the city there are PSA billboards warning people against poisonous shrooms and to properly cook your edibles. Went to a vegan place that had great shroom dishes.
see the ecological contrasts
So many diverse regions. South/southwest is similar to laos and myanmar. north/northwest is part of the tibetan highland. east is similar to guizhou. northeast is similar to eastern sichuan i guess, haven't been up there.
