When it comes to Chinese food, I have my list of usual suspects: Cantonese, Hong Kong style cafe and occasionally Westernized. I’ve tried a bit of Szechuan and it’s a little too spicy. It was interesting to find something different in Yunnan food. Yunnan cuisine takes strong influence from Szechuan and a host of other cuisines. There is liberal use of chillies, mushrooms, fungus and flavorful meats.
I’ve not had Chinese food like this anywhere. One of my favorites was the deep fried taro roll with black sesame seeds. I suspect it might have been a dessert but we were served it as an appetizer. A few of our dishes were liberally laced with fresh and dried chillies, but they were easy to avoid. I enjoyed the wood ear fungus salad “mok yee”. The mushrooms and dried vegetable in the dry beef dish were nicely spiced. The twice cooked pork had some fatty roasted pork, some lean slices and tofu. There was also squash that was fried tempura style which was good. We were all full but just had to try the dessert, the pineapple rice. It was served warm. That too, was really good.
We arrived early so there weren’t too many people. Service was very attentive and we chatted with the chef owner. As the evening progressed, the service slowed a little but they were nice enough to flag us down when we forgot our leftovers.
There is so much more to try so I am definitely returning.
