HIDDEN GEM FOOD ADVENTURE in DALI! Yunnan's carb capital!
coming up in today's food adventure that's not a fish i'm back in yunnan and the flavors do not miss Is this flavour OK for you? What English songs do you know? Michael Jackson i'm about to throw down the performance of a lifetime get comfy and please oh please subscribe hello hello! and can we just take a moment to appreciate this gorgeous coffee spot i have found this morning i'm on the banks of Erhai the beautiful lake here in Dali in the background because it is still February flying everywhere and these mountains and this water i always feel so calm when i come here to dali and that's the reason why i just keep coming back time and time again you may remember making videos and the reason i am back there is an extremely popular tourist traveling route that goes from Kunming to Dali into Shangri la every video today we are starting off here in Dali traveling route a lot of people do come to Dali Lijiang and Shangrila i'm Gonna be mixing it up which is extremely popular and busy i'm not gonna be going to xizhou which is where i base myself on my last trip which is also quite busy instead today i'm going somewhere i've never been to before which is called Weishan with over a thousand years of history why is a lot of these stores they're not as much geared towards tourists as they are towards just the local population here and clothing stores not as much as i've seen in other towns in the dali region so i'm really loving that i i can get this kind of slice of local life that still existing in this town you've got this grid design so you're walking down this main thoroughfare here this is north road in the middle which is basically the center point of the city all roads lead to the tower and then you've got these grid designs so every now and again you'll come across these little alleyways i'm gonna go down this one here wait am i the food today oh yes, this is VERY ok for me i've also got a very special treat for you Can you sing us an English song? Michael so grab snacks and welcome back to another Chinese food adventure and welcome back to Yunnan we have snow capped mountains and it is just looking out onto this with the birds I wasn't here all too long ago about five six months ago i was here with Alice is i have unfinished business here in yunnan so the thing you need to know about Yunnan is to li jiang all the way up and that's exactly what i'm gonna be doing in this video series i'm doing one city but because this is an extremely popular as much as possible and finding those hidden gems so today i'm not gonna be heading to the Dali Old Town it's about an hour and a half drive south of Dali Old Town and it's a gorgeous ancient town and it definitely feels a lot different to other towns i've been in in the Dali region before, first reason i mean you've just got local grocery stores and shoe stores you do have an element of that commercialization but definitely another thing that striking me is the town layout you have the gongchen lou and every alleyway has something different for you to discover as well they're really famous for a variety of carbs called ersi i understand ersi is a lot more labor intensive to make which is steamed and then pounded so the resulting and here there are so many different ways of using ersi so when i saw this place specializes in a variety of ersi called Guojiang ersi crossing the river ersi bowl number one brings the flavor in there In there we've got lots of spices and sauces with some pa rou which is this pork here i also added a fried egg to my bowl too At the very last moment some broth is added to the bowl to mix all those flavors together the second just that same broth with ersi noodles inside here's what also accompanied by lots of pickles and also some peanuts so first off i think i want to just try the noodle by itself because i've been told it's gonna be actually really glutinous let's go first stop of the day is obviously going to be breakfast and here in weishan which is kind of similar to mi xian but from what and also is a very different texture because it's made from rice noodle is apparently gonna be quite a glutinous texture to have breakfast or lunch or dinner so i'm gonna have one of the varieties for breakfast so i got a local tip here in Weishan you know if a restaurant is legit if it starts with lao aka old i walked right in. this place i'll explain why in a minute but what you need to know for now is it's a dish made of two parts that's been stewed for over 15 hours because they look so delicious The second part of this dish bowl number two is basically the final dish looks like those noodles are so nice and chewy like imagine a mochi noodle that's exactly what this is and the noodle kind of shatters in your mouth and it very much stays together it even taste good it's already very tasty but uh an important the name of this dish is guojiang ersi to get to the other side of the river where you can this is very very special that's because it's been stewing for over 15 hours the first reason i love this dish is because it's got some drama you're putting it from here to here and the flavor really does transform kind of broth once you put it into this bowl and you have it with some of that meat so you've got the softness of that meat and that meatiness and then you've got the sauce or that soup in there slightly spicy but most notably a little bit smoky also can't help i've also been told that the pickles here in weishan are very very famous so i think i might actually try my next bite with some pickles this first one is like a cabbage pickle can we just have a moment to appreciate the work that pickles everywhere honestly slay and slightly spicy got another little pickle here too oh that's interesting Salty pickles ohhh celery? You need to mix up this ersi a bit more and it won't clump together Thanks! come over and show me how to do it can't go any further into this video without mentioning this yum it doesn't have any of that like crunchy or crispiness that you find in like your typical mixian where you bite down this on the other hand you chew it just with the plain soup itself part of this dish is actually crossing the river and you have to cross the river then be dunked in this incredibly flavorful looking sauce and the meat inside you can see how it's almost like strands of meat here it's called pairol to another specialty of this area you're kind of getting involved and like being a part of it transforming its flavor even though it was really tasty already in that very simple it's completely been transformed which is so damn soft and then you've got the chewiness of that noodle so it's already a texture explosion which is salty Also can't help but notice we have three different varieties of pickle in front of me here do adding zing and excitement to dishes it's crunchy and sour oh wow i don't know what this Thank you! Would you be able to tell me what this is? And it's made with... Made with celery with big celery love it! You like it? Mix it like this and it won't break apart This way each and every strand will stay nice and long Thank you so much! Also, should I put all the noodles in here? Or... Move the noodles bite by bite - Don't move them all at once - got it! so tasty! oh so sweet and she's also brought me more of these amazing cabbage pickles because i think she noticed that i was really enjoying them amazing fried egg that i've also ordered with this let's bite into it but it's got a very interesting texture on the outside which i really really love if you want to enjoy these noodles with that broth on its own because i just went back and it doesn't cut it anymore now that my mouth is adjusted to this amount of flavor so i'd say go in first and have a bite of this with the broth this was an awesome way to start my morning here in weishan slowly start to come to life oh yeah you like that coffee number two of the day i love how many amazing cafes there are here in the Dali area And a lot of them actually use locally sourced Yunnan coffee beans If you didn't know Yunnan produces a lot of coffee but anyway and i was looking around and the first thing so i don't know how they've done it almost like strands of batter and you can definitely feel that when you eat it and also you've got that deep fried oiliness which adds another dimension to this dish a word of warning do it before you even think about touching this bowl and just tried a bite of these just with the broth inside and then go in with this eating my breakfast and watching the town hey kitty oh hi i don't know what to do with cats guys i've never had a cat. do i pat it? do i play fetch? i was just sitting here is how different and now this is where it starts to get a little bit wordy so i've got my phone here for some support even though within the Dali bai autonomous prefecture Weishan Yi and Hui Autonomous County within the Dali bai autonomous prefecture which i guess can account for the difference in the architecture so it's a very unique town hey how cool is this i think this is like a place to drink some tea it kind of reminds me of chengdu just sitting outside drinking some tea they have all these parks where you can just sit down and drink tea we are not in Sichuan province right now we're here in Yunnan Would you like to try? Check out this tea here Us locals like to drink this toasted tea with toasted rice added Thanks! How long does it need to steep for? so those bits you see coming out there that's a Humi the baked rice which is gonna make this tea even more fragrant apparently green tea so when you drink it you can definitely tell that it's green tea it's i wouldn't say smoky but you can definitely tell that it's been cooked in some way hey this is chair's comfy with everyone else on this kind of chairs the thing about those chairs is they are so freaking uncomfortable and creaky that's really striking me here about weshan it looks architecturally from some other towns that i've visited in the dali region before so the full name of Dali This is a city called Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture.
which basically means the Dali bai autonomous prefecture which indicates there are a lot of people of the bai ethic minority living in Dali but this is where it gets interesting because Weishan the full name of Weishan is actually which basically means the Weishan Yi and Hui autonomous county which means that here in Weishan it's actually not predominantly bai ethnic minority it's the yi minority and the Hui ethic minority and every turn in the road brings a new surprise so in Chengdu if you haven't been before and have some guazi and chat the day away but this is a very very similar concept You can try the characteristic tea of Weishan here sounds great, what's best to order? Is it just you today? Yep just me Come, let me show you the menu This is it here, roasted tea with toasted rice, we also have flower tea These are the special teas of Weishan. This here is the toasted tea, so fragrant to drink This toasted rice plays the role of cooling and removing fire from the body It also tastes really good. You can already drink it now Oh ok! so quick you can smell it, it smells really good.
oh yeah it smells really really fresh Enjoy! oh wow i mean it's a variety of but it's got an extra depth of flavor to it now that's that's a difference to Chengdu so every time i go to People's Pakr in Chengdu and i drink my tea in the park and just not the most pleasant chairs to be spending hours drinking tea on in my opinion kind of hard to get comfortable but these this really really supports your back but wait it gets even better i've just realized that these chairs you can actually just watch the world go by at like a slower pace and it's not an exaggeration you really can spend hours here just drinking your one cup of 15kuai tea that you basically just keep refilling you don't just steep these tea leaves once you can do it like heaps of times next stop, we're actually leaving Weishan very briefly so my friend in Beijing wanted to be more one with nature and be more one with nature you got to check out where we are right now i'm not too sure exactly where we are choose how far back you want it to go it can be adjusted look oh now i can lie back like this i could sit here for hours to be honest and that's why i love these kind of little tea stores it's a way of like enjoying a city or a place because you have this massive thermos of hot water so you've got this kind of like a little bit like a never ending cup of tea but alas all good things must come to an end but where one story ends another story begins next up i'm visiting a friend of a friend she's always telling me about her friend who kind of got sick of life in the big city and decide to actually move out here we are really kind of making our way here that's where my friend's friend has set up shop but i wanted to first show you this beautiful youcaihua field here youcaihua is basically rape flour this is a very striking element in the landscape like someone has taken a fluro marker to the grass and this is the season for it right now her name is Yatou and she manages a horse farm My CPU couldn't keep up with big city life My brain couldn't handle it all I can understand. Yes There's too much pressure I feel like living in Beijing is like living a superhuman life It's hard to get up in the morning And my eating patterns and daily activities were not ideal Why did you decide on Dali? It's got a great climate So rich in wildlife, produce and landscapes Yunnan is the best for all that What kind of changes have you noticed in yourself since the move? At the very least, I'm becoming quite tanned but i think i'm about to go horse riding so on the banks of this reservoir here you'll find a small town called canglu gu Heron valley we have just arrived i think this is where my friend's friend is situated over there there's a bit of activity happening and it's a key ingredient that goes into making caiziyou which is a very very popular oil use kind of in this region I personally really love youcaihua kind of looks and yeah makes for some really nice videos and photos and here's my friend's friend here okay here in Heron valley Why did you decide to move here to Dali? Life in the big city is so fast and chaotic I stay up too late at night You know, I can't let life live me. So I said goodbye to Beijing Dali is good The ecology is good In China There may not be any other province quite like Yunnan And minority culture I herd the horses Why did you choose this industry? You can't keep them caged You need to walk them And if you don't walk them, they'll get sick And I'm becoming healthier.
Living and looking more and more like a local So what is it you mainly do here? Because of health reasons You see, horses are very athletic animals you have to ride them, or follow them around So you simply can't be lazy so this is my instructor for the day he's going to be teaching me how to ride this horse i don't know where to touch him Can I pat here? He loves getting patted here A very good horse, very smart actually and i've been told number one rule of horse club do not be frightened or nervous because they can smell it on you whoa hello gorgeous hello hello OK good boy good boy wow Is he a good horse? Very high I.Q. How do you know it has a high IQ? When I teach him moves he will remember my voice and sounds I make, like this oh wow Go He's a little tired now wow so he's basically just changed like a mouth clicking he just said ole and then dafu just stopped, very smart horse next step was learning how to initiate the slow walk with the tsk tsk sound good good good and after an hour or so of practicing in the ring i was ready to go for a ride outside and these horses were so chill they even let us walk them through the water i officially now know how to ride a horse no no no yes ah okay okay okay Goodness me my god that was the most appropriate use of that phrase ever okay um Next stop on today's itinerary we're continuing on with our animal experiences Go he doesn't feel like walking Okay, now I'll tell him to trot oh wow i'm gonna be right in that horse first step was learning how to get on the horse and then last step is cantering this was so cool i oh literally wo de 马 ya (oh my horse) Oh my horse, let's do our next activity we're going fishing that's not a fish! so these gorgeous birds you see fishing culture of the bai ethnic minority Today when I went fishing earlier, this bird here Why doesn't he just fly away? he won't fly away from me He must really like you they're extremely obedient they don't have any because basically catching the fish and bringing it back to the master ready to watch because there's a fish in there i mean you can see just how much bigger his neck is than everyone else it looks like a big fish ok now what now here are cormorants and they play a big role in the local caught 5 fish Because he's here with me Yes of course, because I feed him these birds that are sitting on this boat here i don't know ropes around them they have their own free will this fisherman is their master the fisherman feeds them every day and basically the comorants they are going to be diving into the water so i'm on a separate boat here this centuries old tradition play out with my own eyes so first step the birds are thrown/pushed into the water then the fisherman starts to make this noise to make it clear to the birds it's time to go fishing then they'll start diving under the water looking for fish my question is what stops the cormorants from just eating the fish that they catch? do you see this cormorant? here see how big its neck is he's got a fish I'm interested to see how this is gonna go now the fisherman needs to get that cormorant back on board oh look ok it's gone back in took a lot of coaxing to persuade i learned the reason just eat the fish itself is too large to be swallowed by these birds i mean look at the size of this next one absolutely incredible but this leads me to my next question Because it wants a reward Then when they are successful, they get a snack So when they catch a big fish, I give them a small fish as a reward it's an extremely effective way of catching fish and one of the reasons why catching fish in this way Many years ago we used to fish in Erhai Lake Now we want to protect the fish in Erhai Lake So here there's a small reservoir. a while ago I moved over here to fish My grandpa my dad, my father and my uncle, they all did this i feel so lucky to have been able to witness this tradition with my own eyes today and Yatou aka my friend's friend and you'll get 15% off any of the activities here now how does this work Did you see that massive fish come out? this cormorant to drop its fish actually and when i interviewed this fisherman afterwards the cormorant doesn't simply because the fish is too big They can't actually eat it whole so yeah that's the reason the fish is simply physically So why are the cormorants willing to catch fish then? Basically we train the birds from an early age To only catch the big fish to encourage it.
and the fish just kept coming and coming is currently banned on erhai lake but not anymore Now I also do this. let me know that if you want to visit muye xiaoyao hui her business here in Heron valley just say my name just finished fishing and i am sitting here with zhouzhou who is actually a volunteer here and apparently so i'm gonna get in and ask him some questions What do you think I should eat for dinner tonight in Weishan? this morning I tried the 'crossing river' ersi Uh, not quite the same. Because in this version the ersi are cooked in claypots And then you also have Weishan BBQ maybe you can try it's zhouzhou it's the walking map of Yunnan food okay Let's first try the claypot ersi! so here's the restaurant zhouzhou suggested we eat at i just know it's Gonna be a banger it's legit well we decided to also get a serve of that too that you eat in like a clay pot bowl and as you can see we have some bowls here over the fire and what's cooking inside are you ok with stinky tofu as well as a third variety of ersi called parou ersi we had this morning locals here love to eat this as a late night snack check out these ersi here hmm Is this ok for you? This taste it's so good first thing that hits me about this dish is it's amazing and then it's also quite crunchy in there they're pickles nice and crispy it's really good a little bit of sourness Every time I come here I see them frying the ersi And it looks so delicious I'm too full to eat anything else Let's try the parou ersi And also some of that skin this is the skin here, i've been instructed to gather some lean meat the lean meat, the crispy bits and that soft soft skin You know how to eat You reaaaally know how to eat both of these are equally as delicious, I'd say a little less intense that we need to actually try is our my god this is heavy ah check that out it That's the stinky tofu. oh this is stinky tofu, okay Also get some of this pickle here, and this braised meat too oh i can smell the stinky tofu Take another sip of soup i really can taste um the Stinky tofu inside actually because i got a big chunk of it you will like this you will not like this i'm really happy or somewhere a little bit more underrated the kind of shop front it's not overdesigned and there's no attention paid to the interior design means the more fks given when it comes to the food he is a walking food map of yunnan Here in Weishan Local residents tend to eat a lot of ersi noodles in claypot bowls Is it a bit similar to the dish you mentioned? back in weishan it's time for dinner, and guess who has time to join me What's our first stop for dinner tonight? and check out the name of this place because remember what i said earlier if it's got the Lao character at the front here we have not one not two but three Lao characters wow so old must be so good let's check it out here they're also making fried ersi yet another way that ersi is used, fried in the wok and it smelled so amazing but this here this is what we came here for it's the claypot ersi the shaguo basically means something is basically what we're gonna be eating and here's the finished product it's so bubbly and vibrant and looks so packed of flavor There's also stinky tofu in this stinky tofu? really? yes! we've also got our fried ersi on this plate it's basically soup noodles with that same Ultra soft pork Let's start with the driest dish OK it looks amazing I'm SO ok with it the texture that ersi is like very chewy you've got some of these what are these? because those little pickles that gives it but also a little bit of saltiness as well And it's also a little spicy This is actually my first time trying this But after I order this claypot ersi And you say I should try everything together, right? Yes, get some lean meat. some skin, some noodles as well as one of those cabbage pickles i love and have it all together in one big bite By eating it like this you can appreciate the different textures in this if you're in the mood for something like spicy and really like tingly on the palate get this but if you're in the mood for like some more hearty you should go for this one it's so good last one looks absolutely fantastic Check out all those ingredients inside also got me some stinky tofu in there Thank you! - Try that all together - check this out Wow, this flavour is super strong... yes it's a very prominent flavor maybe but yeah it's a whackbang of flavor in your face if you like stinky tofu if you don't like stinky tofu because i set out in this video to find like a more hidden gem this kind of restaurant you wouldn't be able to find in like Dali old town which is frankly what i look for in a restaurant like the the less fks given when it comes to interior design The difference between tourists and locals....
Have a seat! is that okay? Oh yeah. That was amazing! Is he ok? Wow, you scared me! just so-so Australia let's hear it Michael Jackson? ah yes! Ready? let me have a listen first OK!I know! I know OK, let's do this! wait wait wait wait i need i need i need the lyrics Okay, I'm ready. There will be more locals in this area here You can just tell by looking at them How can you tell? Tourists dress like this, like me And the locals are just very casual yes of course! So good! You speak Chinese well.
Where are you from? I can speak one word in English. Australia Can you sing us a song in English? And I can support on guitar what English songs do you know? Michael Michael Jackson, okay! this guys awesome there's quite a crowd that has developed to hear my awful singing how did i do guys? - Okay! - 'tai ban zha le' tai ban zha le oh my god how hilarious was that but guess what the food adventure is still not over singing burns calories that's been made by the exertion of my vocal cords with some local shaokao right underneath we can just cook our stuff on the stove directly first thing and see this oil here i'll give you one guess what kind of oil it is it's the rape seed oil from the flowers we saw earlier while we waited for our tofu to cook this is called xidoufen another weshan local specialty made from ground white it creates the most interesting texture check this out Do we eat this with chopsticks or... eat with chopsticks but interesting you can see this this is basically the crispy bits that are on top it's actually a little bit more not crispy um so look at this and if i just submerge that for a little bit of time i have no idea what to expect with this a little bit spicy and a lot salty. The way to eat here is to eat it with some mint together.
You can also add mint to the rice noodles. that's very special behind the Mint it just gives it that freshness that it needs very interesting dish let me know in the comments yes yes amazing Can I teach you how to say something in our dialect? What does that mean? it means, very good! it means 'that's amazing' You guys are 'tai ban zha le' I'm gonna get going Bye! so good! Bye, good luck i will not be forgetting that anytime soon as you know and we're about to fill the space so we're at this table outside where they put some hot coals and yeah we put on was some tofu and something you need to know people from yunnan love tofu see how yellow it is another very interesting item arrived on our table peas when water is added to it Eat with chopsticks?? i mean i wouldn't say like chopsticks is the best option i mean it's not as crispy as you'd think but when it goes with that soup i've just put it in it's gonna get really soft and juicy and kind of combined with that sauce a little bit spicy all kinds of things here can be paired with mint. i really see the logic behind the mint because this is quite a salty dish very very salty but when you put it with the bohe with that mint and we also have some tofu here hmmm it's not singing yet who's currently sitting next to me that the local way to know when the baojiangdoufu is ready to eat you see this piece here this one was just right come listen to its song just beat it just beat it this is a special kind of tofu called baojiangdoufu and basically on the outside but on the inside it retains super soft and a word of warning that tofu it holds its heat very very good which is hairy tofu if you've never had maotofu before like oh hairy tofu whatever remind yourself that camembert cheese it goes through a very similar fermentation process almost like a blue cheese texture in there as well and also intensely flavorful but i always find it very salty and very very whackbang flavor is very good big thank you to yatou and i will see you guys we are heading to lijiang it's gonna be amazing stay tuned comment and subscribe and i will see you next week goodbye from dali look i'm not crazy i was told by another volunteer from the horse farm is if it starts to sing or make a kind of whining sound it's like hard it's like very soft tender texture it's like a balloon of tofu i've had it quite a few times here in yunnan before i don't know if you can see but inside it's almost like a almost like a tofu pudding texture oh that is hot yunnan tofu it's the best another tofu product we have on our table is this maodofu and your inclination is to turn your nose up out of being a lot of those beautiful moldy cheeses that you love from France and has mold on the outside of them hmm i love maodoufu and the reason is is has this amazing earthiness about it like i mean it might be the sauce polishing off our barbecue here but that's gonna bring us to the end of today's food adventure big thank you to zhouzhou thank you for having me today and for letting me ride your horses next week don't forget to like
2025-03-23 03:36
