Yummy Eats - Guangxi, China

When it comes to food, the better way is to travel to the different destinations and have a taste of the most popular cuisine where the local folks go. 

China is the most populous country in the world with 1.35 billion people. It has 55 ethnic minorities living in the different regions offering a colourful and tasty palate of good eats.

I enjoy new experiences in savouring the pleasant surprises that I find along my recce journeys to China -- from a simple bowl of noodles to comfort food in the village home, from drinking the purest 'dri’s' (female yak) milk in the Tibetan mountains to tasting the natural wild finds and, from the distinct flavours of roast fowls to an imperial meal once enjoyed by the empress dowager at a simple hutong place.

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

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The best roast goose in Guilin

Chunji Roast Goose Restaurant at Diecai Branch (椿记烧鹅叠彩店) 

This spacious restaurant is very popular with the locals. You need to make reservation otherwise, you have to wait to get a table. The other option is to go there at about 5:30pm before the crowd picks up. 

The skin is my favourite part of the goose. It is crispy and non-greasy. The meat is succulent. 

The roast goose dish goes by weight of CNY42 per 500gm. For 2 – 4 persons, standard of quarter portion at about CNY55 (USD16)

The goose wings and feet are prepared differently and sold separately as a dish. If you like it spicy, try the wings. 

Spicy goose wings

Soup -- the clams, mushrooms, bean curd and greens tasted just as fresh as it looks here. 

Bean curd strips with red dates soup and freshly sliced gourd makes a good appetizer

This freshly made bean curd dish needs about half an hour to prepare and steam it to a smooth silky texture; contained in muslin cloth held by a square wooden bowl. The two different savoury sauces made a perfect combination to taste. 

Refreshingly light 

This dessert may not look interesting but it is deceptively yummy!

If you have a sweet tooth, this liusha pau (流沙包) is a real treat. I enjoyed the bun texture more than the sweet fillings.

The custard bun has a creamy and running texture filling; made from milk and salted duck's yolk. This liu sha pau frenzy started out in Hong Kong several years ago when they created a new dim sum item. 

The Yunnan Pu'erh tea shop in Guilin

After dinner, we took a leisurely stroll along the Lijiang River. There were several tea houses and tea shops along the river bank. I then popped into this particular tea shop that has very interesting furniture and Pu'erh tea. The owner, Mr Dang, has a fine collection of furniture. He enjoys drinking tea and invited us to join him for a cup of his special Pu'erh tea

Guilin Rice Noodles

This popular Guilin Mifen (桂林米粉) is part of the local culture here. The folks have it for breakfast though you can enjoy it at anytime.  

You can find numerous shops and stalls selling the different kinds of Guilin noodles, either in soup form or the dry version. The soup noodle variety is perhaps the more popular of the two.

The soup ingredients differ in tastes -- the recipe is a closely guarded secret with each shop owner. For many, it has been handed down through generations.

The basic spices used are garlic, chives, chilli and preserved vegetables. With so many different meat varieties to choose from, you are spoilt for choice. There are the pork, beef, horse, snail and other interesting varieties.  

There are two different types of rice noodles – the round shaped and the flat shaped. I prefer the latter though both are equally delicious

Comfort food off the beaten path

It was past lunch hour. I stopped at this eatery to have a bowl of the popular Guilin noodles. The prices here range from CNY3.50 (USD1) for a small bowl to CNY4.50 (USD1.30) for the big bowl. 

Comfort food -- additional toppings of your choice with chillies, pepper, chives, onions...

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The popular round-shaped soup noodles with pork, sausage, garlic and chives at CNY4.00 (USD1.20)

Famous Guilin noodles -- the flat-shaped,  prepared dry with sliced pork, chives, garlic, chilli, peanuts and preserved vegetables. 

Yongfu Cuisine

Yongfu cuisine is simple yet delectable. Local cooks focus on using the freshest local produce available from the surrounding mountains and rivers. It is largely prepared and cooked to obtain tenderness in tastes, sealing in the natural full flavour.

This eatery dishes out scrumptious food for the adventurous food lovers -- the small river fish soup is the most popular. The fishes were caught from the nearby river, kept alive inside a tank. The soup tasted so incredibly fresh and naturally sweet; no fishy smell or taste at all! Only ginger and chives were used to prepare this dish. 

However, you have to be a fish lover to enjoy this small fish as it has tiny bones but the flesh tasted as just delicious! 

According to the locals, this fish soup is not often readily available.This sizeable pot of fish is good for 6 persons; costs about CNY200 (USD60). 

The assistant cook cleaning up the freshly caught live river fish

Fresh catch! Look at the bright shiny colours and the clear eyes! 

Wild greens served piping hot!

Stewed duck dish at a local restaurant. Interestingly spicy!

Stir-fry greens -- seasonal long beans, carrots and bitter gourd

Wild mushroom and pork soup cooked in black clay pot for over two hours. 

Stir-fry greens -- luscious fresh seasonal bamboo shoots and red chilli with sliced pork


Yao Ethnic Village Food

Most Yao ethnic folks living at the foothills of the mountains continue to forage for wild herbs, tubers, fungi, mushrooms and, game food in the nearby mountains and rivers They cultivate and process their own rice and crops, raise some fowls, pigs and buffalo for farming and, make cured ham or sausages.

Food though simple is naturally flavourful.  

Everyone chipped in to prepare a sumptuous meal. The good cooks helped in the kitchen, the rest of us helped with the cleaning and washing of the wild tuber ('san yao'), wild greens, sweet potato and tuber (yam).  Wild tuber ('san yao') -- their family member helped to forage for them in the mountains. They grow to more than one metre below the ground and it takes a skillful and experience farmer to find them! 

This wild tuber has medicinal health properties

The family member picked one of their free-range chicken to cook up this most sumptuous hot pot meal. It may look simple but the soup along with the wild greens and wild tuber ('san yao) tasted incredibly flavourful!

Homemade bean curd and preserved vegetables. Stir-fried bean curd with chives and stir-fried preserved vegetables with homemade sausage. 

Stir-fried bean curd, pork with cured ham and preserved vegetables. The rice has a distinctive flavour. It is home-grown and naturally processed. 

It was indeed an eventful day to have had spent the day with our most hospitable and welcoming Yao ethnic family and to learn about their lives. 

Lipu Taro 

Lipu County is just over an hour drive from Yangshuo County. This county produces the best quality purple-coloured taro. 

If you enjoy taro, you have to try the many dishes that are prepared using this variety of purple-coloured tuber. According to the locals, there are about seventy different kinds of taro dishes; the Lipu taro pork dish is the most popular. 

Cream of taro soup with wild greens.

Stir-fry wild purple-coloured leafy greens

Candied Lipu taro balls (拔丝荔浦芋头). This is the most popular and a must-try tasty taro dessert here. It takes a passionate cook to prepare -- the taro is cut into bite-sized, dip-fried in specially prepared batter to golden crisp texture. The artful blend in preparing the precise mixture of sugar, water and vinegar is in the coating with sesame seeds together with the fried taro pieces that stick together and, the unbreakable fine web that stretches when you pick one up with a pair of chopsticks or your fingers to savour it with the inside of the fried taro still piping hot! Amazingly finger-licking delicious! We could not resist having more of them and ordered takeaway. 

I am not a big fan of taro until I tasted them in Lipu County; went to the largest wholesale agriculture market to learn about this remarkable variety of purple-coloured tuber that I began to enjoy the Lipu taro. 

Yangshuo fresh river fish hot pot meal  阳朔斑鱼片火锅

There is only one eatery in Yangshuo town that I have been returning to on each trip there to savour the grouper-liked fresh river fish. Even if you are not into fish at all, you have to try this. Served sashimi-style and no bones! Skillfully fillet, all bones are removed to make the broth, including the head and tail. Nothing goes to waste. There are only fried bean curd cubes and one kind of vegetable to go with this hot pot meal. Fresh, simple, naturally sweet and delicious! 

There were several generous plates of thinly sliced fish served depending on the size of the fish you have picked. It took about three seconds to cook. The flesh was firm, did not disintegrate and the skin tasted so crunchy.

Farmer’s meal in the scenic countryside of Yongfu County

Where there are farmlands, there will be comfort food available. Farmers here raise their own fowls; grow their own rice and seasonal crops. They offer their fresh local produce, cook up exciting dishes to travellers looking to take a rest in between their journeys. 

The best duck soup hot pot meal -- fragrant and tasty! The variety of duck raised here is absolutely succulent; only ginger and some spices were used to bring out the natural full flavour of the duck! Yummm!!

Fried omelette with chives dish. The owner/cook prepared a simple dish using the free-range chicken eggs that we got from the village farm.

Simple yet remarkably delicious! Homemade bean curd dish with chives that we would love to have more but did not have enough. The owner cooked a soup from the wild greens and free-range duck eggs we brought from a village farm. 

If you are not a rice lover and have never tasted home-grown rice cooked in cast iron pot, on a wood fire stove. You got to try it!  This is one of the most unique flavoured luscious rice I have tasted. The best part of the rice lies at the bottom of the cast iron pot -- a light brown-coloured layer that sticks together when you scrape off from the bottom. Some love to enjoy the top layer but the bottom layer of rice is a definite yummm!!

Although I have had tasted the different variety of rice grown in the different countries from the natural white rice to the brown, from the red to the wild black ones, this rice tasted amazing! 

Food in Yongfu County may not be strikingly attractive or presentable at first sight, but they are fresh, simple and tasty. I would certainly want to return when I can to enjoy it while this region remains in a pristine state. 

Popular snacks 

Water chestnut cake

This light, tasty dessert is very popular with the locals. It is a available all year round; a refreshing snack to enjoy anytime, anywhere though it would taste much better during the water chestnut harvest season when fresh water chestnuts are used. 

This is made with fresh water chestnut, water chestnut flour, cane sugar and water; set in a tray to steam. They are cut into slices to enjoy.  Another way to enjoy this snack is to add a little oil into a pan and lightly pan-fried both sides of the sliced water chestnut cake.

I enjoyed the steamed variety of the local produce in season -- sweet corn, purple sweet potato (with skin on), purple-coloured taro, chestnuts and peanuts. Tasted naturally sweet and fragrant! 

Aiyebaba (水糍粑又称艾叶粑粑)

This snack is interesting and has a unique taste. It can be enjoyed sweet or savoury. If you love glutinous rice, then this snack is to die for. 

The fillings used inside this ‘aiyebaba’ steamed cake is either sweet; stuffed with peanuts and sesame or prepared savoury using meat and greens. The woodworm leaves are chopped finely, mixed together with glutinous rice flour and knead to form a smooth dough. The prepared fillings are then placed onto the dough, rolled into a ball and pressed in the desired shapes. They are then placed on one of these fragrant leaves --  the bamboo leaves, grapefruit leaves, maize leaves or 'xianggao' leaves (香高叶子).

The green colouring used in the glutinous rice flour dough is from the natural aromatic ancient medicinal plant known as woodworm plant or the botanical name, artemisia absinthium. The Chinese called it, “aiye” (艾叶). This medicinal plant is known to aid in digestion. 

This 'aiyebaba' is savoury, steamed on bamboo leaves. 

This 'aiyebaba' is sweet, steamed on 'xianggao' leaves (香高叶子)

Enjoying fresh local produce is something I can never resist when travelling, to try them and where possible, to take them along with me to savour them on the road. The better way is to enjoy them in their natural form, using fresh ingredients (fresh or naturally dried) found in and around their regions; how the locals prepare, cook and enjoy them, the same way they have been doing for generations. 

This journey to Guangxi, especially to Yongfu County has been one amazing learning experience; to have the fortune to savour all the natural produce at its best and to drink the pristine spring mineral water from the source. Very fortunate indeed. 

(March/April 2014)


Yongfu County -- Special thanks to Mr Tang, the deputy of Tourism, Mr Zhao of Tourism and Professor Liu of the Cultural Department; for without their kind assistance to take me around on an informal tour, this section of travel experience would not have happened.