Eating in Jianshui

Jianshui is in the mid way from Kunming to Yuanyang. For me, what makes Jianshui fascinating is the delicious local food.

In sunset time, outside Jianshui old town, walk in the Chaoyang square, the sunglow reflect in Chaoyang Tower and light up the sky. The old city has a history of 600 years.

Jianshui tofu is very famous in yunnan. A little way further down the west lane we passed many food store. Sitting around the fire, put the tofu inside the grate, the flavour and crispy voice make you overwhelming. Jianshui people were skilled with tofu, they have many ways to cook it. Another interesting thing : they count numbers of Tofu you eat in corn nuts !
Dried bean curd in Jianshui

Another common dish in Jianshui is Steam Pot Chicken
As far back as the period of the Qianlong Emperor in the Qing Dynasty, Steam Pot Chicken was popular in the south Yunnan. According to legend, it is a dish created by Yang Li, a cook in Defuju Restaurant in Jian’an Prefecture (now Jianshui County). In that year, the Emperor made an inspection tour to Jian’an Prefecture. To please the Emperor, the magistrate proclaimed that he would collect the most delicious dishes and the selected dishes could win 50 taels of silver. Yang Li was poor and his mother was ill. In order to get the generous award, he integrated the local methods of cooking hot pot and steaming buns and created the steam pot.
In addition, regardless of risking his own life, he climbed to the height of swallows to get a bird's nest for the purpose of cooking a steam pot chicken with bird's nest. Unexpectedly, the steam pot was stolen and Yang Li was accused of deceiving his majesty and sentenced to death. Fortunately, when the Emperor inquired about the facts, he absolved Yang Li from the death penalty and changed the Fudeju into “Yang Li’s Steam Pot Chicken”. Since then, the Steam Pot Chicken has gained considerable fame, becoming a famous Yunnan dish. At that time, the cooking method of the Steam Pot Chicken was very simple but its taste was mellow and pure.

Erin from travelaroundyunnna
info@ travelaroundyunnan.com