Recently, I did a very romantic thing - I took a plane to Yunnan and went to eat flowers.
Yes, although Yunnan is very, very tasty all year round, Yunnan in the spring is experiencing a grand climax of eating flowers, and the delicious food is unparalleled.
You have to ask how good do Yunnan people at eat flowers? It is not an exaggeration to say that it is the best in the country.
Although there is a custom of eating flowers in all provinces, it is only a common variety of osmanthus and jasmine. And Yunnan is crushed in terms of flower material richness.
It's a wonderful greenhouse for flowers to grow all year round, and at least 300 different varieties can be eaten on the table. Varieties that have excellent terroir and are bitter when grown in the field are actually fat and fragrant here.
Guess what these flowers are?
In addition to the abundance of flowers, the flowers of Yunnan are also delicious and eye-opening - more than 3,000 years of flower history, derived from the eating method and fineness, is difficult to compare with other places.
They were willing to spend three or four days, soaking and disassembling the flowers, taking only the most delicious parts, and paying great attention to it. Cooking different flowers, Yunnan people have more brilliant seasoning ideas, which can satisfy all your romantic fantasies about eating flowers.
Although Yunnan produces flowers all year round, the short two months from March to May are the peak period for eating flowers, and the variety is the most abundant. Casually enter a small restaurant, many of them are seasonal limited varieties that have never been seen before.
Unfortunately, the flowers are too fragile, even if they can be transported to other places, Shen Yun has also gone to most of them. That said, if you want to experience a real feast of flowers, be sure to come to the local area. ；）
Come, come with us to Kunming, Yunnan, and eat spring in the most elegant way!
Before you start eating
Let the eyes pass first
Going to the vegetable market in Yunnan in the spring is like visiting the flower market, and the ingredients are incredibly beautiful.
The most eye-catching opening of the flower season is the Plantagenet. Don't look at it bright and cute, in fact, the plantagenet tree is full of thorns, and it is very laborious to pick each one.
Large white flowers, growing on tall trees, pink and pure, the taste is elastic and tough that you can't imagine.
Source: Zhang Xiaodian
Thai orchids are just plating in high-end restaurants, but they can also be eaten in Yunnan! Gorgeous and charming.
The green sea cauliflower, when it blooms, is full of white flowers. Because it is extremely sensitive to water pollution, it is difficult to see characteristic wind objects elsewhere.
emm, also known locally as "water-based poplar"
Next, the painting style becomes more and more confusing, and outsiders will begin to feel confused: is this also a flower? Can this also be eaten??
Well, more than half of it here is flowers...
Have you ever seen a taro flower? It is particularly troublesome to deal with, but it can't stand the locals love to eat, the price is not cheap, 8 pieces only have one or two, this one bought 85 pieces, more expensive than meat. （
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Bitter thorn flowers, blooming on the canes full of thorns, have a refreshing and slightly bitter fragrance.
Oh, this is the tang pear blossom, that is, the pear tree before the grafting, the fruit is sour, but the flower is delicious, with a beautiful aroma.
And this bare brown strip is actually a column of walnut flowers! The Buddha-figure looks like a green caterpillar and is harvested by hand after it falls naturally on the mountain.
Many old Kunming believe that this is the most delicious flower in this season.
Yunnan people's imagination of ingredients is far more than that.
Even the calyx of pomegranate flowers, the pollen of pine flowers... Such a tricky and strange part can also become an ingredient, really admire, admire.
After a walk around, I feel that on the table of Yunnan people, it is not unusual for any flowers to appear...
Yunnan people's flower-splitting dafa
Breathtaking
We ran to the indigenous homes, watched the local people's daily flower eating, and rolled around the major restaurants, and had to sigh: If the pretreatment of flowers is a discipline, yunnan people are all postdocs.
The flowers that everyone eats every day are actually only a very small part of the flower world, because most flowers cannot be eaten directly. Some edible parts are few, some will have a bitter taste, and even have slight toxicity, and the treatment method is quite complicated.
Only the people of Yunnan, who know the doorway the most, are willing to spend so much effort, spending several days to dismantle, dip, soak, rub, blanch...
Level 1: Dip
Generally, flowers with a slight bitter taste, such as locust pomegranate flowers, blanched water is almost the same.
But even if it is soaked, there is a doorway. For example, the bitter thorn flowers that Yunnan people love to eat are simply troublesome to handle: first wash repeatedly, then add water to boil, and then soak for 2-6 days!
During this period, I also had to change the water and rub it many times, just to get rid of the bitter feeling. But after frying, you know its charm - fresh with a little bit of bright acid. Indigenous friends say that when they were young, they would also make bitter thorn flowers and flour into pancakes and rice dumplings.
Level 2: Disassembly
Some flowers only eat specific parts, and the process of flower removal is very cumbersome.
For example, banana flowers, don't look at such a huge one, remove the old hard petals and core, only take the most tender petals to cook, the real part can be eaten is only one-third.
Remember the walnut blossoms mentioned earlier?
The picked walnuts will quickly turn black, so dispose of them immediately, removing the outer layer of ear pollen and leaving only the flower pillars.
This step alone is not easy, and it will take three more days and three nights to eat...
Level 3: Disassemble a flower from start to finish
Some flowers are not only slightly poisonous, but also quite troublesome to handle, but also have to dismantle two different parts of a flower, and have different ways of eating.
The representatives who are difficult to engage in are taro flowers.
Before treatment, wear gloves, because once the mucus of the taro flowers penetrates the skin, it will change color and turn black, and it is said that after becoming a small black hand, it cannot be washed off for several days.
Be patient when handling, tear off the skin little by little, then cut the buds into sections and separate the stems from the buds. It is simple to say, in fact, it is full of mucus, slippery, and has no experience and is very "controlled".
It is mildly toxic and, if not handled well, will be numb to eat.
After peeling, it is broken into a section of pink flower stem, which is the most common edible part. Isn't that good? Early...
Also hot oil under the pan repeatedly stir-frying, wow, the fragrant smell comes out, this can always eat it! - Not bad yet
Put it in the steamer and steam it for another 20 minutes... When all its mucus, bitter, is thoroughly purified after being fried and steamed, it can be officially added to the dish.
Eating taro flowers is not the most unusual, some cities in China will also eat, but in Yunnan, even the remaining taro buds will not be wasted.
The taro buds are hard and solid, so carefully peel them off and pull them out. Because the amount is not much, it is also troublesome to handle, and it is difficult to eat outside. Old Kunming would stay and say that the steamed eggs were chopped up and the flavor was good.
Decomposing a flower from beginning to end to this extent, there is no one but Yunnan people.
Even the most common flowers
Yunnan people can also eat unusual appearances
Yunnan people eat flowers, have the spirit of Shennong to taste hundreds of herbs, can find the most delicious parts of each flower, and the eating method and collocation are completely different, fine and exquisite.
Even a flower as common as jasmine can eat a face you can't imagine!
The first to eat, eat the petals of the original taste.
The most basic way to eat flowers is to blanch and quickly seek freshness. Especially the delicate petals, in order to retain the texture and aroma of the flowers themselves, the cooking and seasoning techniques are more gentle.
The delicious representative of the petals, the Thai orchid, itself has large and thick petals, blanched directly, and the taste is like a good fresh lily, crisp and sweet.
I have to sigh, Yunnan water and soil is really good wow! The same variety, foreign species will be a little bitter to eat.
It is also very suitable for pairing with crispy small nuts, one soft and one crisp, colliding with a wonderful taste, so beautiful that it is a bit unbearable to eat.
The texture of the locust flower is soft and tender, the aroma is sweet and sweet, and the seasoning will be more restrained, and the common one is to use the simplest salt oil sugar cold mix to eat its original taste.
There are also chrysanthemums, Yunnan day and night temperature difference is large, the chrysanthemums planted are particularly fragrant and fat, the accumulated sugar is more, there is no bitter taste to eat, but slightly sweet and sweet.
It is generally combined with the local aquatic plant - grass buds, which have a tender and crisp, quiet aroma, and are a summer cold dish that is not good.
It is also unique to Yunnan people to match the rice noodles across the bridge.
On top of the yellow chicken soup, sprinkle with a cluster of chrysanthemum petals, and a pot of rice noodles is served with gold and is very tempting. Unfortunately, when I went to other places, the quality of chrysanthemums was not good, and I could rarely eat them.
In the more luxurious version of the flower rice noodle, there are as many as 5 kinds of flowers that appear, and it is a pleasure to watch.
Extremely insulating steam pot with piping hot rice noodles on the table. The petals appear one by one, instantly ripening in the hot soup, stimulating a layered aroma and taste, and having a unique and elegant charm.
Second eat, eat the floral fragrance.
The most versatile basic trick is the Omelette Dafa. The eggs are fresh enough, the taste is also tolerant enough, and it is safe to match any floral fragrance.
For example, plantagenet, which smells a faint sweet fragrance, takes the omelette, and the ingredients must not be stingy, in order to eat the two aromas of eggs and flowers. The charred yolk egg syrup gently embraces the flower bones, golden and fragrant, with charming sweetness, and can directly dry a bowl of rice!
Locust flowers, the golden partner is still an egg, with a soft sweetness and gentleness.
Upgrade the stir-fry a little, and pursue the collision of aromas more.
For example, the jasmine flowers that are generally used to make tea are actually fried in Yunnan, but fried with leeks!
This is a combination that refreshes the three views: the ethereal fairy fragrance of jasmine flowers, the strong choking of leeks, the great vulgarity with elegance, colliding with each other, and the disc is full of fragrant, which makes people can't help but clap the case.
Under the terroir of Yunnan, even jasmine flowers are particularly fragrant, as long as you put a few of them, you have a distinct aroma.
There is also another way of thinking, which is to line fresh with freshness. Typically represented is bitter thorn flowers, which are stir-fried with broad beans from the same season, verdant and dripping, and the fragrance of the mountains is scattered.
Third, eat the taste.
Some flowers, themselves do not have too strong flavor, eat is the taste, so pay special attention to the combination of ingredients.
The slightly sticky sea cauliflower is steamed taro by locals. The sticky and slippery sea vegetables and the sticky taro complement each other, which is extremely harmonious.
Walnut blossoms are the complete opposite, with a special crisp bite, to be replenished with leeks, tamed together in a wok.
Some flowers are thick in texture, can withstand the onslaught of meat and peppers, and the meat is overflowing, which is more refreshing than eating meat directly!
Like plantain flowers, the way to eat is really amazing, used to cook braised pork! The thick plantain flowers fully absorb the gravy, and the taste is so wonderful, like a juicy onion, but with a bright and dangling meat flavor ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Plantain flowers can also be wrapped and roasted – this is the wisdom of the Dai people, wrapped in banana or citrus leaves, and roasted over an open flame.
As soon as the leaves are opened, a special milk fragrance rises in the air, with meat and eggs in it, which tastes like a plant version of parent-child beggars.
I also ate the unheard of old wow flowers (transliteration, I really don't know what the scientific name is), used to fry bacon, like eating high-grade oil-soaked mushrooms, with complex freshness and glutinous.
The large white flowers with full petals and toughness are actually refreshing after cooking, almost like the advanced version of the enoki mushroom, and they are more tender and juicy.
The taro flowers that have been cumbersomely treated in the front are suitable for smelting with eggplant. After the flower stem is stewed, it is soft and delicate, and the eggplant is difficult to distinguish between you and me, and the water is so tender that it "slips" into the throat.
There are also some flowers, the texture is magical, and it tastes like the texture of chewing out the meat.
Tang pear blossoms, stir-fried with leeks, collide with the wonderful meat aroma, coupled with a slight bite of texture, it is no longer like eating flowers, more like eating minced meat in sauce. Eating flowers for the first time is more exciting than eating meat...
Now when you come to Yunnan, you can still see this tree head flower, which is strictly speaking a wild vegetable. Good fellow, this delicate taste between ginger and taro is a bit out of the ordinary.
Finally, what about uneaten flowers?
Yunnan people also have their own tricks
Endless flowers, Yunnan people will use to boil sauce, make a variety of derivative products, and do everything possible to preserve the seasonal flavor.
For example, the most common local leek flower sauce, you have to use leeks just bloom flowers to make, different from the northern version, usually add dried bacillus, spicy pickled, the aroma is fresh and wild.
You can buy it in the Yunnan vegetable market, and the stall owners will be proud to say that they are all handmade
Despite the strong roles of dried bacillus and spicy seeds, the leek flower is still full of presence, the aroma is exuberant, the taste is like a tight little berry, and there will be a slight burst of juice under the bite.
Every local family will stock up on a few cans, and the stir-fry is amazing! The simplest fried shredded potatoes, with leek flower sauce, will be stained with a bright fragrance, which is the flavor code of the old Kunming people.
Flower cake is also a business card of Yunnan. The best flower cake should be designated with heavy petal roses from Anning Eighth Street, which smell sweet but not greasy, and the petals do not have a trace of bitterness.
Freshly baked, you can smell the delicate floral fragrance of perfume when you break it open, making people eager to bury their heads in it and sniff it.
In addition to the rose cake, there is also a more niche chrysanthemum cake locally, which has a more tranquil aroma.
Yunnan contracted 70% of the country's rose production, raw materials are fresh and cheap, boiling rose sauce is particularly fierce, the floral fragrance is particularly rich, only a little bit, can become the finishing touch.
There is a kind of yunnan native cheese - milk fan, which was originally a milky bombshell, and the version with roses was even more gentle.
A milk fan is a milk block that is boiled with yogurt and sour water, then picked up and dried with bamboo chopsticks.
You can often see such stalls on the street, slowly roasting hot milk fans with charcoal fires, and then smearing a spoonful of rose sauce with a large hand, and the milk and floral fragrance flow freely.
Holding and nibbling on the side of the road, the sense of happiness is too strong!
There are quite a few rose products, like the papaya water that Kunming people love, that is, ice powder flavored with rose sugar sauce, and rose drinks made of rose extract, which is a strong girlish feeling.
We ate for a few days, and we only touched the tip of the iceberg of this flower-eating holy land.
There are also mysterious practices such as mortar and ash baking, which have not had time to taste carefully, not to mention that among the ethnic minorities in Yunnan, there are also very characteristic flower dishes. For example, the Dai food "Milli Glutinous So" is rubbed into the stone catalpa flowers in glutinous rice flour, and the colorful flower rice that the Buyi and Zhuang people love to eat during festivals is also dyed from the sap extracted from a plant called "dyed rice flower".
For Yunnan people, flowers, like ginger, onions and garlic, are a daily life that is deeply integrated into life.
Take a walk around the home of old Kunming and find that all kinds of flowers and spices are planted at random on the rooftop, and you can pick them for cooking.
As a large province of property, Yunnan cannot count all the winds and things at four o'clock, and it is still willing to spend so much time and thought on a delicate flower. This kind of cherishing of ingredients and the taste of life is probably the elegance of Yunnan not speaking to outsiders.
Some small Tips related to FaFa:
✿ Now when you come to Yunnan, you can eat flower dishes almost everywhere, and some restaurants for tourists can also eat a huge flower feast by booking. The restaurants we screened this time are concentrated in Kunming, focusing more on the small restaurants that are affirmed by the locals, and the flower dishes and other small dishes are doing well, you can refer to it.
✿ Kunming is a city with very bright flowers, both sides of the road are planted with cherry blossoms, and it is recommended to go to Cuihu Park when you have time, because of the local full sunshine, the cherry blossoms will be stained with more red than pink, which is the unique color of Kunming spring.
✿ If you want to buy flowers, the most famous Dounan Flower Market is not recommended, it is far from the city, and the homogenization is serious. Locals prefer to buy flowers in the city, fork street No. 1 flower market is the old Kunming often go, close to the subway station, convenient transportation, flowers and affordable, buy flowers will also be wrapped in foreign language newspapers to have a look, need to mail can also be one-stop packaging and delivery.
This time the flower tasting list is here, what other interesting and delicious flower dishes have you eaten? Welcome to leave a message to discuss!