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Yunnan cuisine | |||||||
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Traditional Chinese | 雲南菜 | ||||||
Simplified Chinese | 云南菜 | ||||||
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Dian cuisine | |||||||
Chinese | 滇菜 | ||||||
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Chinese cuisine |
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Yunnan cuisine, alternatively known as Dian cuisine, is an amalgam of the cuisines of the Han Chinese and other ethnic minority groups in Yunnan Province in southwestern China. As the province with the largest number of ethnic minority groups, Yunnan cuisine is vastly varied, and it is difficult to make generalisations. Many Yunnan dishes are quite spicy, and mushrooms are featured prominently. Flowers, ferns, algae and insects may also be eaten. The cuisine of Yunnan is often compared to the cuisine of Southeast Asia as the province borders the region and many of the ethnic minorities or related cultural groups also have a presence in Southeast Asia.
Three of the province's most famous products are the renowned Pu'er tea, which was traditionally grown in Ning'er; Xuanwei ham, which is often used to flavour stewed and braised foods in Chinese cuisine and for making the stocks and broths of many Chinese soups; and guoqiao (crossing the bridge), a rice noodle soup with chicken, pig's kidney and liver, fish and pickled pork.
Yunnan cuisine is unique in China for its cheeses like Rubing and Rushan cheese made by the Bai people. Other influences include Mongolian influence during the Yuan dynasty (i.e. Central Asian settlement in Yunnan), and the proximity and influence of India and Tibet on Yunnan. [1] Yunnan cuisine is gaining popularity in the west. [2] Likening the food vlogger Dianxi Xiaoge to the Chinese documentary television series A Bite of China , Xinhua said Dianxi Xiaoge could be called A Bite of Yunnan in introducing Yunnan cuisine to the world. [3]
Image | English | Traditional Chinese | Simplified Chinese | Pinyin | Origin | Description |
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![]() | Baba | 粑粑 | 粑粑 | bābā | Naxi | A thick, round and heavy bread, either prepared plain or with various fillings. |
Banana flower | 芭蕉花 | 芭蕉花 | bājiāo huā | Dai/Zhuang people | The heart of the banana flower. Frequently eaten roasted in banana leaves on an open barbecue, but also stir-fried. | |
![]() | Pineapple rice | 菠蘿飯 | 菠萝饭 | bōluó fàn | Dai people | Pineapple rice. It is found in Xishuangbanna and other areas populated by Dai people. |
![]() | Erkuai | 餌塊 | 饵块 | ěrkuài | Bai people (Dali Prefecture) | Highly refined and compressed rice cakes. |
![]() | Crossing the bridge noodles | 過橋米線 | 过桥米线 | guò qiáo mǐxiàn | Han Chinese | Literally means "crossing the bridge noodles" or "across the bridge noodles". It is Yunnan's best known dish. It typically consists of a bowl of boiling chicken soup, to which diners add their own selection of thin meat slices, mixian , vegetables and spices, much like a hot pot. It is ubiquitous throughout the province. |
Adzuki beans | 紅豆 | 红豆 | hóngdòu | Adzuki beans have been used in Yunnan for millennia. Earliest domesticated examples are known from tombs in Japan (4,000 BCE), then China and Korea (3,000 BCE). Genetic evidence indicates that the bean later crossbred with native species in the Himalayas, and Yunnan was probably exposed to the ingredient at the time. Frequently prepared fried with kale or mint. | ||
![]() | Jidou liangfen | 雞豆涼粉 | 鸡豆凉粉 | jīdòu liángfěn | Naxi people (Lijiang) | A savoury jelly made from gram flour. |
Juecai | 蕨菜 | 蕨菜 | juécài | In high altitudes, often the first green growth in spring. | Immature fronds of bracken ferns, such as osmunda japonica . [4] Stir-fried or in soup. | |
![]() | Granny's potato | 老奶洋芋 | 老奶洋芋 | lǎonǎi yángyù | A local mashed potato style dish typically flavoured with spring onions and chilli. | |
![]() | Lufu | 滷腐 | 卤腐 | lǔfǔ | Northern China, via the Mongols (during the Yuan dynasty) | A type of fermented beancurd, typically used as a condiment or made into sauces, often used on erkuai. It is reddish-yellow in colour, with a soft texture and a savoury flavour. |
![]() | Migan / Mixian | 米干 / 米線 | 米干 / 米线 | mǐgàn / mǐxiàn | Dai people / Han Chinese | Fresh Yunnanese rice noodles, typically served either in a soup of broth or stir-fried. |
![]() | Nanpie | 喃撇 | nanpiě | Dai people. [5] | Sauce-like dish made with fresh ingredients and spices. | |
Peanuts | 花生 | 花生 | huāshēng | Re-introduction? [6] [7] | Eaten fried as a condiment, as a component in fried noodles, cold noodles, noodle soups, stir-fries and fried rice. | |
![]() | Pu'er tea | 普洱茶 | 普洱茶 | pǔ'ěr chá | Han Chinese (Ning'er) | Famous dark tea that had gained popularity worldwide for its health benefits. |
![]() | Steam pot chicken | 氣鍋雞 | 气锅鸡 | qì guō jī | Han Chinese (Jianshui) | Literally means "steam pot chicken". It consists of chicken steamed with tonics and herbs in a ceramic pot. |
![]() | Rubing | 乳餅 | 乳饼 | rǔbǐng | Bai people (Dali Prefecture) | Cheese made from goat's milk. |
| Rushan | 乳扇 | 乳扇 | rǔshān | Bai people (Dali Prefecture) | Cheese made from cow's milk. |
Shiping tofu | 石屏豆腐 | 石屏豆腐 | shípíng dòufǔ | Han Chinese via the Mongols (Shiping) | Traditional bean curd made in Shiping County, dating from the Yuan dynasty. | |
Xuanwei ham | 宣威腿 | 宣威腿 | Xuānwēi tuǐ | Han Chinese (Qujing) | Traditional ham made in Xuanwei, a county-level city in Qujing. It dates from the Ming dynasty. | |
![]() | Yiliang roast duck | 宜良烤鴨 | 宜良烤鸭 | yíliáng kǎoyā | Han Chinese (Yiliang) | A crispy skin roast duck similar to Peking duck, but honey is used to crisp and colour the skin. It is roasted with pine branches and needles, which impart a unique flavour to the dish. |
![]() | Zhe'ergen | 折耳根 | 折耳根 | zhé'ěrgēn | Yelang | An edible rhizome with a fresh, spicy and peppery flavour. The leaves are also eaten. |
![]() | Da jiu-jia | 大救駕 | Tengchong | Chinese stir-fry that consists of Erkuai cut into thin slices before being fried with pork, egg, soy sauce, and vegetables | ||
Crisp stuffed bun | 破酥包 | 破酥包 | pòsūbāo | Han Chinese | A lard-layered bun with pork, lard, bamboo shoot, and soy sauce; or with the filling of Yunnan ham and white sugar or brown sugar. Poshu Bun was created by a chef from Yuxi almost a hundred years ago. |
Yunnan is located in the Yunnan-Guizhou plateau, with an extended range of mountains, plains, and lakes, forming a colorful scenery and three-dimensional climate of tropical, subtropical, temperate, and cold zones. [8] This kind of diverse physiognomy and environment are beneficial to the growth of a variety of plants and animals. Yunnan is known as the "fungus kingdom," "plant kingdom," and "animal kingdom." [9] It is one of the regions with the most abundant edible wild fungus resources in China. There are more than 250 kinds of edible native fungus, among which common ones are bovine liver fungus, Qingtou fungus, chicken fir fungus, dried fungus, bamboo sun fungus, matsutake fungus and so on.
The cooking technique is an essential factor in cooking dishes. Many dishes are unique in their varied use of cooking utensils, fire, flavors, and colors. Yunnan is known for its diversity and ethnic minorities. The ancient cooking methods of 25 ethnic minorities found in Yunnan are merging with the cooking techniques of the Han nationality, which makes Yunnan cuisine uniquely flavorsome and colorful. In the province, the Han peoples' techniques of steaming, frying, sautéeing (with starch extract), braising, quick-boiling, boiling, and stewing are melding with the methods of minority techniques of baking, grinding with mortar and pestle, heat-contact, curing, cooking on stone, preserving with salt and other cooking methods. [10]
For example:
Bamboo rice: Adding glutinous rice into bamboo to make bamboo rice with soft and glutinous fragrance. Pineapple rice: Pineapple purple rice made with hollowed pineapple with fragrant pineapple flavor. Steamed chicken: Steamed chicken made with Jianshui purple pottery special steam cooker with original flavor.
Cantonese or Guangdong cuisine, also known as Yue cuisine, is the cuisine of Guangdong province of China, particularly the provincial capital Guangzhou, and the surrounding regions in the Pearl River Delta including Hong Kong and Macau. Strictly speaking, Cantonese cuisine is the cuisine of Guangzhou or of Cantonese speakers, but it often includes the cooking styles of all the speakers of Yue Chinese languages in Guangdong.
Teochew cuisine, also known as Chiuchow cuisine, Chaozhou cuisine or Teo-swa cuisine, originated from the Chaoshan region in the eastern part of China's Guangdong Province, which includes the cities of Chaozhou, Shantou and Jieyang. Teochew cuisine bears more similarities to that of Fujian cuisine, particularly Southern Min cuisine, due to the similarity of Teochew's and Fujian's culture, language, and their geographic proximity to each other. However, Teochew cuisine is also influenced by Cantonese cuisine in its style and technique.
Chinese cuisine comprises cuisines originating from China, as well as from Chinese people from other parts of the world. Because of the Chinese diaspora and historical power of the country, Chinese cuisine has profoundly influenced many other cuisines in Asia and beyond, with modifications made to cater to local palates. Chinese food staples such as rice, soy sauce, noodles, tea, chili oil, and tofu, and utensils such as chopsticks and the wok, can now be found worldwide.
Shanghai cuisine, also known as Hu cuisine, is a popular style of Chinese food. In a narrow sense, Shanghai cuisine refers only to what is traditionally called Benbang cuisine which originated in Shanghai. In a broader sense, it refers to complex styles of cooking developed under the influence of neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.
Thai cuisine is the national cuisine of Thailand.
Vietnamese cuisine encompasses the foods and beverages originated from Vietnam. Meals feature a combination of five fundamental tastes : sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and spicy. The distinctive nature of each dish reflects one or more elements, which are also based around a five-pronged philosophy. Vietnamese recipes use ingredients like lemongrass, ginger, mint, Vietnamese mint, long coriander, Saigon cinnamon, bird's eye chili, lime, and Thai basil leaves. Traditional Vietnamese cooking has often been characterised as using fresh ingredients, not using much dairy or oil, having interesting textures, and making use of herbs and vegetables. The cuisine is also low in sugar and is almost always naturally gluten-free, as many of the dishes are rice-based instead of wheat-based, made with rice noodles, papers and flour.
Steaming is a method of cooking using steam. This is often done with a food steamer, a kitchen appliance made specifically to cook food with steam, but food can also be steamed in a wok. In the American Southwest, steam pits used for cooking have been found dating back about 5,000 years. Steaming is considered a healthy cooking technique that can be used for many kinds of foods.
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Fujian cuisine or Fujianese cuisine, also known as Min cuisine or Hokkien cuisine, is one of the native Chinese cuisines derived from the cooking style of China's Fujian Province, most notably from the provincial capital, Fuzhou. "Fujian cuisine" in this article refers to the cuisines of Min Chinese speaking people within Fujian. Other cuisines in Fujian include Hakka cuisine, and the ethnic minority cuisines of the She and Tanka people. Fujian cuisine is known to be light but flavourful, soft, and tender, with particular emphasis on umami taste, known in Chinese cooking as xianwei, as well as retaining the original flavour of the main ingredients instead of masking them.
Pancit, also spelled pansít, is a general term referring to various traditional noodle dishes in Filipino cuisine. There are numerous types of pancit, often named based on the noodles used, method of cooking, place of origin or the ingredients. Most pancit dishes are characteristically served with calamansi, which adds a citrusy flavor profile.
Chinese Indonesian cuisine is characterized by the mixture of Chinese with local Indonesian style. Chinese Indonesians, mostly descendant of Han ethnic Hokkien and Hakka speakers, brought their legacy of Chinese cuisine, and modified some of the dishes with the addition of Indonesian ingredients, such as kecap manis, palm sugar, peanut sauce, chili, santan and local spices to form a hybrid Chinese-Indonesian cuisine. Some of the dishes and cakes share the same style as in Malaysia and Singapore, known as Nyonya cuisine by the Peranakan.
Filipino Chinese cuisine is a style of Filipino cuisine influenced by Chinese cuisine historically brought to the Philippines by Chinese Filipinos, starting with the Sangley Chinese and their Chinese mestizo descendants and modern descendants in the Chinese Filipino community of the Philippines. It is characterized as a fusion of Fujian/Hokkien cuisine and Cantonese cuisine adapted over the centuries to Filipino cuisine to suit the general Filipino palate/taste.
Peranakan cuisine or Nyonya cuisine comes from the Peranakans, descendants of early Chinese migrants who settled in Penang, Malacca, Singapore and Indonesia, inter-marrying with local Malays. In Baba Malay, a female Peranakan is known as a nonya, and a male Peranakan is known as a baba. The cuisine combines Chinese, Malay, Javanese, South Indian, and other influences.
Jiangxi cuisine, also known as Gan cuisine, is a style of Chinese cuisine derived from the native cooking styles of Jiangxi province in southern China. According to the East China Travel Guide published in 1983, Jiangxi cuisine has its unique taste which can be described in four Chinese idioms: 原汁原味(aim to bring out the own flavor of the cooking material),油厚不腻(dishes contained a significant amount of oil but the taste are not greasy),口味浓厚(dishes have really thick taste),咸鲜兼辣(always come with spicy solid, salty flavor). Jiangxi cuisine is widely popular within the ordinary family because most of the notable dishes from Jiangxi cuisine are the extension of homely dishes with solid local flavor.
Chinese imperial cuisine is derived from a variety of cooking styles of the regions in China, mainly from the cuisines of Shandong and Jiangsu provinces. The style originated from various Emperors' Kitchen and the Empress Dowagers' Kitchen, and it is similar to Beijing cuisine which it heavily influenced.
Javanese cuisine is the cuisine of Javanese people, a major ethnic group in Indonesia, more precisely the province of Central Java, Yogyakarta and East Java.
Betawi cuisine is rich, diverse and eclectic, in part because the Betawi people that create them were composed from numbers of regional immigrants that came from various places in the Indonesian archipelago, as well as Chinese, Indian, Arab, and European traders, visitors and immigrants that were attracted to the port city of Batavia since centuries ago.
Chinese regional cuisines are amongst the many different cuisines found in different provinces and prefectures of China as well as from larger overseas Chinese communities.
Sarawakian cuisine is a regional cuisine of Malaysia. Similar to the rest of Malaysian cuisine, Sarawak food is based on staples such as rice. There is also a great variety of other ingredients and food preparations due to the influence of the state's varied geography and indigenous cultures quite distinct from the regional cuisines of the Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak is famous for its multi-ethnic population. As the homeland of many unique communities, Sarawak has a variety of cuisines rarely found elsewhere in Malaysia. The uniqueness of Sarawak well depends on its ethnic groups. Every native group in Sarawak has their own lifestyle, traditions, cultures and also foods. Sarawak cuisine is less spicy and has a subtle in taste. It uses fresh seafood and natural herbs like turmeric, lemongrass, ginger, lime and tapioca leaves. These ingredients are not only easily available, but also add a hint of aroma, texture and freshness to the delicacies. Food is one of the most cultural identities for native groups in Sarawak with each ethnic group having their own delicacies. Among the Iban, popular foods include tubu (stems), tuak and pansuh. The Malay have bubur pedas (porridge) and kek lapis Sarawak ; the Bidayuh have asam siok and sup ponas Bidayuh. The Melanau make tebaloi, sagu and umai and the Orang Ulu are known for garam barrio, kikid (broth), tengayen, and urum giruq (pudding).
Dianxi Xiaoge is a Chinese food vlogger and YouTuber from Yunnan. Dianxi Xiaoge, along with Ms Yeah and Li Ziqi, are the only Chinese Internet celebrities who have reached international prominence, according to the Southern Metropolis Daily in 2019. Her actual name is Dong Meihua, and she goes by the nicknames Penji and Apenjie.