The largest barbecue province in southwest China, Banzha!
Among many cooking methods in Chinese, barbecue is definitely the most rugged and heroic one. Therefore, when it comes to barbecue delicious places, people always think of Xinjiang, where mutton is full of oil, Northeast China, where artists are all over the world, and even Zibo, where barbecue has attracted a lot of traffic … In short, barbecue seems to have a natural fit with northerners.
However, in the southwestern border of China, Yunnan is definitely a "neglected barbecue province"-this warm and beautiful province is famous for its delicious mushrooms, various spices and smooth and refreshing rice noodles, but anyone who has gone deep into it knows that barbecue definitely occupies a great proportion and a very high position in the thick food list of the people in this province.
A dazzling array of Yunnan barbecues.
Figure/vision china
In a province of Yunnan, from Kunming to Dizhou, there are barbecues in the city, which are unique everywhere. The rich variety of ingredients, the wonderful and bold baking method, and the exquisite seasoning dipped in water all surprised the first-time tasters.
More importantly, in Yunnan, barbecue is not only a kind of food, but also a natural way of life, a relaxed atmosphere and interest. From a pond fire in a wooden house in a village to a huge and magical open-air barbecue city and barbecue village, the fireworks and incense of barbecue constitute the most intense and wonderful part of the gorgeous taste of this colorful province.
Fire, the original fiery impact
If cooking is the art of mutual reaction between flame and food, then barbecue is definitely the most primitive and sincere moment of their relationship. Back to thousands of years ago, our ancestors in caves made a fire and food close to each other, so delicious food was readily available, simple and direct, and without affectation.
A sizzling barbecue.
Figure/vision china
Nowadays, the equipment in most barbecue shops has become professional but full of industrial feeling. Although the taste of barbecue is still attractive, it has long lost its original taste of "accompanying with fire". The most valuable thing about Yunnan barbecue is that even today, the element of "fire" still retains a strong sense of existence.
Perhaps because of the large temperature difference between day and night on the plateau, it is very necessary to keep warm by fire as soon as the sun goes down; Or because of the customs formed by the ethnic minorities who live here for thousands of years, even today, Yunnan people still like to make fires in their daily lives. Especially in ethnic minority villages, the fireplace is the center of a house. Some Wa people still go to the holy land to get a new fire every year. In the following year, this fire will be born in the fireplace at home and will not be extinguished. Around this pond fire, people cook, keep warm, sit around, drink, sing and dance … and barbecue happens naturally.
Wa people rest in the fireplace.
Figure/vision china
Barbecue barbecue, those who touch the flame are burned, and those who take heat from the fire are roasted. In Yunnan, you can often hear the word "fire", which is different from the fire in Hebei. In Yunnan, it means literally: put a piece of meat, a conjoined (pig spleen), a liver and a kidney on the fire with a perforated strainer, or directly bury it in a burning plant ash for smoldering. The meat cooked in this way tastes excellent, the fat and oil have already melted into the fire, and the lean meat is juicy and elastic, and it has the peculiar smell of firewood, which is by no means comparable to the barbecue cooked with a pot.
In southwest Yunnan, roasted meat can appear in any scene. If you look at a piece of meat in the refrigerator in any restaurant, the boss can directly make it for you, and then slice it and plate it. In Tengchong area, it is even more popular to burn meat rice noodles. The burnt meat slices, tomatoes and peppers are also burnt on the fire, chopped together, and then poured together on a bowl of smooth and mellow rice noodles. That taste, hot and sour and refreshing, accompanied by a strong aroma of firewood, mixed with the burnt aroma of meat and the mellow extension of rice noodle soup, is also considered to be the top grade among the dazzling rice noodle categories in Yunnan.
Braised pork rice noodles, barbecue and roasted peppers in Baoshan, Yunnan.
Photography/Wanrui
The highest level of burning meat is to burn a whole pig. In Baoshan area, a whole pig is put in a special earthen kiln, or directly set up with thatch and firewood to light a fire. The pig is free-range, eating only grass and corn until it is ripe in June or July, and then the surface washing, where the pig has been blackened, is clean. At this time, the fragrance of thatch and pine cones spreads. The pigskin is bright and golden, and the pork is tender and refreshing.
This whole pig has been chopped into eight pieces and chopped into many pieces of roasted meat. You can just grab one piece and put it in your mouth, or dip it in various kinds of water. This is not unusual, but the local people’s favorite way to eat it is a "cold roasted meat", which is pickled with water, or shredded potato, shredded radish, shredded lettuce, bean sprouts, and all kinds of sweet and sour seasonings. It is very refreshing.
The blazing fire burned pigs.
Figure/vision china
In fact, in Yunnan, except meat, all ingredients can be closely linked with the fire in daily life. For example, Jianshui and Shiping counties are rich in tofu, especially the famous wrapped tofu. Around Dashuijing Ancient Buildings and Tofu Square, there are bean curd shops, and each shop has several huge table stoves. People, either together or by themselves, find a seat beside the stove, bake a fire and eat tofu. There is often a woman who is in charge of tofu by every stove. Every time a diners eat a tofu, she silently counts a soybean for counting. So everyone chats without a word. They can order some kebabs, a plate of roasted melons and a bowl of rice noodles when they are hungry. Of course, most people just sit quietly in the warm charcoal fire and the fragrant tofu smell for a day.
Baked Jianshui Tofu, one Explosicum at a time.
Photography/Zi Jin’s Time Fragments, Picture/Picture Worm Creativity
Interestingly, although in some highly urbanized places, electric heaters have already replaced braziers and fire pits as heating sources in winter nights, Yunnan people actually bake bait blocks, breast fans, tofu and sweet potatoes in the small sun, and even in the shopping malls in Yunnan today, there are heaters with baking tray functions … It can be seen that in the hearts of Yunnan people, heating and barbecue have long been inseparable.
Barbecue in Yunnan-It’s not just rough.
As we all know, abundant sunshine, spring-like temperatures in four seasons, reasonable rainfall and extremely rich and uneven topography make Yunnan a treasure province that never worries about poor products. And all the products here, whatever animals and birds, fruits and vegetables, even the mushrooms that people from other provinces can’t forget, and the insects that make everyone flinch, can all make the best use of them in the context of Yunnan barbecue, and each has its place.
Banna roast chicken, heat and seasoning are a must.
Photography/heavenly wand
In Mojiang County, Pu ‘er, there is a barbecue city known as the largest in Asia, with more than 100 barbecue shops, which is spectacular. In fact, it can form such a scale because it relies on a huge market, where customers buy meat and vegetables and take them to pay some processing fees for the boss to barbecue. And these bosses are all-embracing. They can barbecue all the food in the market in the most appropriate way. Therefore, in this magical giant dining facility, barbecue is just a form, and the richness of food products is its real confidence.
To go to Mojiang Shuanglong Barbecue City, you must buy food first!
Figure/Midnight Food Store, Caicai
Seeing the burning pig mentioned earlier, many people may think that the style of Yunnan barbecue is rough. It can only be said that Yunnan barbecue has its heroic side, but on the other hand, with the blessing of such rich products, Yunnan people actually develop the barbecue very carefully and fastidiously.
Yunnan people pay great attention to barbecue meat parts, comparable to Chaoshan people playing beef hot pot. For example, in mangshi, people’s favorite pork roast turned out to be the pig’s tail. The pig’s tail was burned on charcoal until its skin was brown, and it was cut into small pieces and put into an iron plate. Although there were more bones and less meat, the taste of the meat reached a certain extreme … Similarly, the pig’s gums, the pig’s sphincter, the back meat that the chicken needed to move because of frequent probes, and the fish chin all appeared in the barbecue menu of Yunnan people, in order to eat that bite.
Dehong mangshi Special-Roasted Pig Tail.
Photography/Wanrui
The perfection of Yunnan barbecue is actually in Zhaotong, the northeast of Yunnan, where a barbecue form that is popular all over the southwest was born, which is the smallest barbecue in China. In fact, a bamboo stick is only wearing a piece of meat the size of a fingernail. The reason why the skewers are made so small is to achieve the ultimate balance between the taste and the taste-veal with a good sauce and butter fat in Wangwang. Then sprinkle with yellow chili pepper noodles and sesame seeds, the meat will never get old, and the taste will be thick and thorough. So, one bite at a time, before you know it, hundreds of strings of meat will quietly go down.
Zhaotong, which is popular in the southwest, burns the handle.
Photography/Fan Xiaozhe, Figure/Figure Worm Creativity
In addition to the exquisite ingredients themselves, another major feature of Yunnan barbecue is the maximum use of local spices. Here we have to mention the Dai barbecue. Dai people have different professional barbecue methods for different foods, such as "combination" means net roasting, "combination nest" means stuffing spices into the stomachs of chickens and fish for roasting, and "combination elegance" means wrapping pig brains, wild vegetables and other foods with banana leaves and wood leaves for roasting … No matter which kind, a large number of spices and fresh fragrant plants are used. The most famous spices in Dai barbecue are citronella, grilled fish with citronella and so on.
It has become a representative food of citronella grilled fish in Yunnan.
Photography/Where to Eat in Shanghai (meishi388)
Finally, in addition to the unique spices used in barbecue, the real killer in Yunnan barbecue seasoning system is actually not the process of barbecue cooking, but the dipping water on the table.
Yunnan is a kingdom of dipping in water. Even if Yunnan people eat a bowl of vegetables in their daily lives, they can’t wait to dip in a bowl of water. Therefore, it is conceivable that how can Yunnan barbecue be separated from dipping water?
In the Kunming farmers’ market, merchants have prepared bowls of water.
Figure/vision china
There are many schools of dipping barbecue in water in Yunnan, and almost every one can be applied to barbecue. For example, for roasted tofu, the most basic dipping water is the combination of bittern rot and coriander or houttuynia cordata. Southwestern people generally like to eat spicy food, and Yunnan people are no exception. There are two kinds of basic peppers dipped in water, namely, yellow pepper noodles made of baked peppers dipped in water, or oily peppers made of dried peppers poured with oil. In northeastern Yunnan, where food customs are similar to those in Guizhou, people also like to eat paste peppers dipped in water. In different regions, there are many unique local dips, such as plum vinegar dips that must be matched with Dali rawhide … In short, there are numerous dips in Yunnan barbecue.
Simple baked potato and rich dip.
Photography/Wanrui
Of course, the best place to dip in water in Yunnan may be in southern Yunnan. The ethnic minorities in southern Yunnan, represented by the Dai people, have created countless unforgettable souls dipped in water with all kinds of fresh fruits and spices combined with all kinds of strange fermentation techniques, such as lemon sprinkling with fruits, pickled vegetable paste dipped in passion fruit, pickled vegetable paste that can make all the fatness disappear in an instant, sprinkled with bitter sausage and all kinds of meat, and whimsical Fengqing beer dipped in water …
With the blessing of these dips in water, barbecue is no longer a smoky, high-oil and high-fat "heavy-taste" food. Instead, it adds a touch of fresh elements. Probably in this always bright and beautiful province, everything will eventually become colorful.
Wen | Big jumping donkey
Text editing | Chlorella
Photo Editor | Wang Jiale
Toutu | vision china
Cover Picture | Where to Eat in Shanghai (meishi388)
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