Yunnan Cuisine

Yunnan cuisine (滇菜) is an amalgam of Han Chinese and Chinese minority cuisines. As the province with the largest number of ethnic minorities, Yunnan has a great variety of food, and it is difficult to make generalisations. Many Yunnanese dishes are quite spicy, and mushrooms feature prominently. Another important characteristic of Yunnan cuisine is the wide use of flowers as food.

Yunnan cuisine has become very popular in major cities such as Beijing where people hunger for a taste of China's favourite province.

Famous dishes include:

* Boluo fan 菠萝饭 (Pineapple rice, found in Xishuangbanna and possibly other Dai areas)
* Guoqiao mixian 过桥米线 ('Crossing the bridge' or 'Across the bridge' noodles, Yunnan's best known dish. Consists of a bowl of chicken stock to which diners add their own selection of paper-thin meat slices, noodles, vegetables and spices, much like a hot pot. Found throughout the province).
* Qi guo ji 气锅鸡 (Steam pot chicken, chicken steamed with tonic herbs in a special ceramic pot).
* Pu'er cha 普洱茶 (Pu-erh tea, traditionally grown in Simao)
* Yiliang Roast Duck 宜良烤鴨 crispy skin roast duck similar to Peking duck but uses honey on to crisp and colour the skin and roasted with pine branches and needles, which imparts a unique flavour on the duck.
* Rubing 乳并 (goat's milk cheese, from Bai cuisine in the area near Dali)