During this tour in Yunnan, you will be exposed to one of the best cuisines of South East Asia! Eating is one of the main social activities in China and the variety of way of preparation and consumption play an important role in everyday life.
With its lowest and highest point of 70 to 7000 meters, the land is amazing and offers us an assortment of color worn by ethnic tribes.
Yunnan food is full of fresh and wild foods. During this trip, we will take you to amazing kitchens for a true “field” experience.
Daily program: Culinary Adventure in West Yunnan (9 days)
Day 1: Arrival in Mangshi - beginning of the culinary experience
You will be expected at the airport and then you will be taken to your hotel. After the check-in, you will attend a first meal, where will be served many local specialties. The outline of the itinerary of this culinary journey will be explained in more detail by your guide.
Day 2: Mangshi - Tengchong - "A tropical entrance"
You will start the day by visiting a unique tropical market. After taking a look and tasting the most exotic foods and beverages, a local barbecue specialist will join you. This first experience in a local market will be a landmark experience. Indeed, the market of Mangshi offers a selection of fruits and spices really very interesting.
You will try outdoor cooking where you can attend and participate in the preparation of local dishes such as grilled meat, salads and pasta dishes. After enjoying your meal (with a nice cold beer), you will take the car to Tengchong City, where we will take the time to visit a former British Trade Consulate, the Great War Museum and the only waterfall. of China. You will dine in an incredible local restaurant and in the evening you will have the opportunity to visit a traditional Chinese hot spring.
We will have our own BBQ workshop, this is one of the most popular culinary retreats outside the city.
Day 3: Tengchong - "The Burma Connection"
Visit this morning of Tengchong, including discovery of a workshop of pasta, rice and cakes. After having carefully examined the local products of this workshop and attended a demonstration of animal sculptures in rice pasta, we will taste a fresh rice cake. After finding all the fresh ingredients at the local market, we will realize this product in a cozy restaurant in the city to get a demonstration and a detailed cooking class on the famous “Tengchong Fried Rice Cake” Tengchong Rice Cake at a perfect texture for frying. It was reported from a famous emperor came to Tengchong and brought this dish.
We will have the rest of the afternoon to explore the history of this small traditional town that is still little known by other tourists. We will have a nice walk along a historical bookstore and some beautiful temples. We will also visit one of the workshops of traditional fermented tofu. The dinner will take place in another fantastic place. In the evening, you can enjoy the great hot springs to digest all this food!
Architecture in the cities around Tengchong is absolutely beautiful We will be invited by some villagers to visit their class and listen to their stories over tea.
Day 4: Tengchong - Lujiangba - "Coffee time"
We will go east to cross the Gaoligong mountain range in the Nu River basin. We will explore some traditional villages of the Dai minority (closely related to Thailand) in the heart of sugar cane, subtropical orchards (mango, lychee and dragon fruit). An elderly lady will show you her coffee fields and explain how this culture influenced the area. She will also show you how she roasts and grinds coffee with traditional Dai cooking tools. Shortly after, we will discover a 700-year-old Banyan tree, it represents the same functions as the village temple. The Dai have in this place animistic beliefs of the spirit of nature and the cult of ancestors.
We will attend the complete roasting process and grind the coffee and taste it of course!
After a delicious lunch in this authentic Dai place, we will follow a narrow road through the coffee fields in a pristine village at the edge of the forest. We will stay in a nice and clean guesthouse run by coffee growers. In the evening we will be invited by a local family for a typical dinner.
Day 5: Lujiangba - Baoshan - "Jungle Waterfalls and Jingpo Day"
We will go this morning in the forest for an exploration in the real jungle. primary We will walk for two hours to an incredible waterfall. We will follow a crystalline stream and will see the most beautiful hot springs of the region. We will take time to relax and unwind in these fantastic places. After a good picnic, we will walk back to Baoshan City.
The Gaoligong Forest will give us the opportunity to enjoy nature in its purest form. During this morning hike through pristine jungle we will see a beautiful waterfall and a beautiful natural hot water pool.
On the road, we will visit an old suspension bridge, above the Nu river. It is the last wild river in China, without a dam and aptly named “the river angry”. In Baoshan, we will be presented at one of the best restaurants in the province. It will be a real reward and we can assure you that none of the dishes can be made anywhere other than in Yunnan!
Day 6: Baoshan - Donglianhua - "Going Halal"
We will start by reaching the road heading east. On the road, lunch will be served in a predominantly Muslim city. From there, we will continue to another Muslim area, at the source of the Red River. The first city on the Red River is Yongjian, it’s a very special place. When Mongolians invaded Yunnan in the 13th century, Muslim Muslims began to live in this part of the province.
We will stay for the night in a rustic village in which there are beautiful wooden mosques. We will have dinner in one of these classes and Muslim women will invite us to their kitchens to help create dishes that mix Muslim and Yunnan cuisine.
Day 7: Donglianhua - Dali - "The time of cooking"
We will drive to Yongjian passing the Dai Valley. On the road, we will visit a famous Dai pagoda, quite far from any tourist affluence. When we arrive in Dali City in the morning, we will enjoy being in the field to participate in a workshop on Chinese dumplings. Step by step, we will follow the process: knead the dough until you make the sauce for the accompaniment.
Chinese dumplings are an integral part of all food courses in China.
After lunch, we will enjoy several activities around the streets of Dali. If you wish we can take you to an excellent tea shop to participate in a perfect introduction to the local tea.
We will then take a cooking class for a day “The Chinese classics”. The teacher will demonstrate the crucial cooking techniques and review some of the knowledge around Chinese condiments and how to use them. For dinner we will enjoy the fruit of our work and it will be even better with the accompaniment of a house wine!
Day 8: Dali - "A spicy farewell"
In the early morning, we will head to the village of Xizhou located near Lake Erhai. We will first try the famous “Xizhou Baba” or “Xizhou Pizza”. There are salty, sweet pastas topped with salted pork or filled with rose jam. You will have the chance to learn and make your own pizza. Then we will sit at a nearby cafe to enjoy these delicious pizzas with a cup of tea or coffee from Yunnan, for breakfast.
“Xizhou Baba” is the most popular roadside snack in the Dai Valley.
After breakfast, we will visit a very well preserved traditional Bai house with a history of almost 100 years to learn about the process of producing the local specialty “ru shan”, a local cheese made with very fines. This cheese is eaten fried and garnished with sugar or jam with rose or with local tea and nuts. You can make your own cheese.
It is not well known that you will find different types of cheese in China. This type of cheese is just a local specialty, and you will learn how it is made!
Lunch will be in one of the best restaurants in the Bai Valley. Their open kitchen and casual setting is a great place to indulge in some interesting local specialties.
In the afternoon, you will have the opportunity to cycle along Lake Erhai in Dali, crossing all kinds of traditional villages of Bai minority. The other option is to let your feet down in Dali and relax a bit before our exciting evening program.
We will meet at the end of the day for the final of cooking classes, we will learn how to make a Chinese hotpot. A workshop on delicious broths and a workshop on strong spices. We will make two kinds of soups and one of them will get the famous, very fragrant word, “Sichuan Hot Pot”. As a grand finale of this culinary journey, we will make our own sauces and boil all sorts of fresh ingredients in the soups.
Day 9: Departure from Dali - End of the culinary circuit in Yunnan
Transfer to Dali station or airport. End of our culinary trip to Yunnan.
