Yunnan Food - Lugu Lake and Lijiang

On arriving at Lugu Lake, we were famished. We had skipped lunch. The dentist seemed to be very hungry and was prepared to gobble up a whole suckling pig. Anyway, we stopped her. We had a proper meal/ bbq dinner in the open air prepared by another restaurant.

An Ming with her antics

Preparing the charcoal burner for our bbq at Lige, Lugu Lake

Pork. Rating = 5/10

Homemade wine (according to Doctor, she managed to sweet-talk a free jug out from the restaurant). Rating = 5/10

From left: Dr. An Ming (from Nanjing, works as a dentist), Bruce (from Beijing, works for CCTV), Joshua (from Shenzhen), Hagrid (from Shanghai, just graduated from law school). They were all solo backpackers and met Bruce at different times in Dali and Lijiang, who pulled them together to travel in his hired car to share cost. Rating for the companions = 10/10

Pork for barbecue. Rating = 5/10

Liangpi is a cold dish - savory, sour and spicy. Rating = 3/10

Fish. Rating = 5/10

This dentist has nothing better to do than to tease me with the brinjal/ egg plant. Rating for the brinjal = 6/10. Rating for the dentist = 10/10

Chicken. Rating = 5/10

Brinjal/ egg plant. Rating = 6/10

Overall rating for the dinner = 5/10

On the following morning, after coming back from watching the sun rose, we had breakfast at a restaurant. We had rice noodle soup.

The restaurant where we had our breakfast in Lige, Lugu Lake

The menu

The noodle soup came in a jug

The noodle soup. Rating = 4/10

At Lugu Lake, Bruce drove us to Luoshui where we would drop off Joshua. He would be trekking at Lugu Lake while we would be exploring the region around the lake in a car. We came to Zouhun (Walking Marriage) Bridge, where we had lunch. The dentist did not want to take lunch (for fear of the consequence of getting travel sickness later)

We had lunch at the blue-roof restaurant at Caohai/ Zouhun Bridge (Sea of Grass/ Walking Marriage Bridge)

Inside the restaurant

The four dishes were all greens, and surprisingly, they were excellent. Rating = 8/10

On returning to Tina's Guesthouse after visiting the Middle Tiger Leaping Gorge, I had fried ham rice. It was quite good.

Tina's Guesthouse restaurant

Fried Ham Rice. Rating = 7/10

As mentioned earlier, the breakfast food choices in Lijiang were limited. The breakfast food sold from this street cart was more or less universal in Lijiang.

Typical breakfast food in Lijiang

One of the most famous local Yunnan food is Guò Qiáo Mǐ Xiàn (Cross-the-Bridge Rice Noodle). I had one on my way back to Dayan from Black Dragon Pool (Heilongtan). Different sets of ingredients were sold, with different prices, from tens to hundreds of Yuan. Again, this was a rice noodle soup.

The Guò Qiáo Mǐ Xiàn (Cross-the-Bridge Rice Noodle) restaurant

The set ingredient that I ordered. The egg and the meat must be cooked first

Cross-the-Bridge Rice Noodle Soup. Rating = 5/10

Hagrid loved sashimi. He had heard of Bell Restaurant from others and went in search of it. We found the restaurant but the sashimi was very expensive for a whole fish. He just wanted a single portion for himself but the restaurant did not serve single portion. I don't take sashimi. In the end, he skipped the sashimi and ordered Qì Guō Jī (Steam Pot Chicken, another famous local Yunnan dish) and two other vegetable dishes. I did not know that vegetable dishes could be this good.

Hagrid making the orders at Bell Restaurant, Lijiang

Snacks before our main meals

Brinjals/ egg plants with the skin removed. Rating = 8/10

Cabbage. Rating = 8/10

Steam Pot Chicken (Qì Guō Jī). I took this photo after a few pieces of bony chicken had been eaten. Rating = 6/10