yunnan food

went to try out a new Yunnan restaurant near our place. Yunnan cuisine is like in-between Thai or Vietnamese food and Chinese cuisine. It combined the spicy and sour tastes of Thai food and the stir-fry, steaming and braising techniques commonly used in Chinese cooking. they used many kinds of exotic fungus and mushrooms that were delicious. To me, Yunnan food is closest to Southeast Asian food. we even found tamarind juice as a drink. imagine drinking assam! it was quite pleasant and refreshing actually.
one must-try Yunnan specialty is Guoqiao Mixian or "Crossing the bridge" rice noodles. It's a simple but tasty dish. thin slices of chicken and fish is added to boiling hot broth, followed by many other ingredients like vegetables and rice noodles. the dish is kept hot by the clay pot.
we tried a dish that was similar to satay but minus our kind of satay sauce. thin pieces of meat marinated in chilli and garlic, skewered and grilled.
the claypot chicken soup was light and excellent. the soup was double-boiled in the pot which has a spout in the middle for the steam to come thru.
the plum sauce roast chicken was excellent. the chicken is marinated and served with an appetising plum sauce.
there's an interesting dessert dish from the Bai ethnic minority. thin sheets of cheese wrapping red bean paste and deep-fried. we thot the red bean tasted like red dates. it was a tad sweet but I like the cheese. some of the other dishes reminded me of Northeast Thai dishes. They even have stir-fried bamboo worms (moth larvae) and silkworm pupae. I will try these entomological dishes the next time!