Yunnan cuisine

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.[7] This kind of diverse physiognomy and environment are incredibly beneficial to the growth of a variety of plants and animals, so that Yunnan vegetables have extensive materials, luxurious and unique, and most of them come from nature, with the characteristics of green, nutrition, ecology, and health care.[8] 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.[10]

Yunnan that resembles spring in four seasons, the flower is not only the plant of ornamental view, and also the cate on the table. A lot of rare flowers like chrysanthemum, white azalea, rose, lily, magnolia, osmanthus all can make the famous flower dish name of excellent to the point.[11] The precious medicinal materials produced in Yunnan, such as panax notoginseng, cordyceps sinensis, and gastrodia elata, are superior nourishing medicinal materials.[11] Yunnan all-year-round vegetables keep green, mountain grass wild vegetables can be found everywhere.[11] Said a local language, "Spring for flower, Summer for fungus, Fall for fruit, Winter for wild vegetable." It reflects the light pure, original, fresh, and sweet, unique flavor. A variety of fish, shrimps, and frogs breed in the plateau lakes of different sizes, which makes the diet take on the characteristics of extensive materials, various species, and strong local flavor, forming a batch of folk local dishes and specialties of Yunnan that are popular with the public.[11] Especially some specialty and special spices have a significant role in food flavors, such as Xuanwei ham, Zhaotong sauce, Qiubei chili, Lunan halogen corrosion, Qujing leek flower, with distinctive features such as high-quality spices and characteristic, brought a unique taste for Yunnan dish.[12] It provides the necessary for the development of Yunnan cuisine and an original material basis.

The cooking technique is an essential factor in cooking dishes. Many flavor dishes are unique in cooking utensils, fire, taste, and color. Yunnan is a big province of ethnic minorities. The ancient cooking methods of 25 ethnic minorities are combining with the cooking techniques of the Han nationality, which makes the Yunnan cuisine taste and colorful. Both of the Han people's steaming, frying, sauté (with starch extract), pot-stewed, quick-boil, boiling, stewing, and the integration of minority baking, pestle, heat-contact, cure, stone cooking, salt cooking and other cooking methods, with a robust ancient charm, reflecting the life and customs of Yunnan minorities.[13]

For example:

bamboo rice

Bamboo rice: Adding glutinous rice into bamboo to make bamboo rice with soft and glutinous fragrance.

Pineapple rice

Pineapple rice: Pineapple purple rice made with hollowed pineapple with fragrant pineapple flavor.

Steamed chicken

Steamed chicken: Steamed chicken made with Jianshui purple pottery special steam cooker with original flavor.