Kunming
The train ride from Chengdu to Kunming was pleasant- the midnight Chinese conversationalists restrained themselves, I suppose. The scenery was spectacular. The terrain is moutainous, and the train passes through a huge number of tunnels. You see lots of river valleys and deep valleys with sheer rock faces rising up on either side.
Kunming has nice weather, and much better air than Chengdu. In Chengdu, you could see the pollution in the air when you were looking at buildings or something no more than 100-150 feet away. Here, sure you see some haze when you look at distant mountains, but everything at in-town distances is quite clear.
The food here is pretty good, too. Although my predilection for spicy food means that Sichuan should be my gustatory mecca, in fact I found Sichuan food suffered for me in two ways. One, they make very common use of this spice called "hua jiao," which I detest. I'm sure I'd been through the process before, the last time I was in Sichuan- wondering what that distasteful flavor is, getting it in dish after dish, finally nailing down what it was called and what it looked like (sort of like a little cluster of black pepper berries), and from then on asking at every meal that it NOT be included. The other thing about Sichuan cooking was that they seemed to use a lot of fetid oil. When the oil they use is heated up, it just doesn't smell good. I don't know whether the oil is old, or if the oil has been burned, or what, but lots of the street food fenders just made the air around them smell bad. You sort of lose your appetite being around it. Funny, I didn't see that in Guandong or Guangxi provinces at all. Their food seemed a little more naturally flavorful than the Sichuan food, a little fresher. That being said, I did have a really nice hotpot my last day in Chengdu.
Yunnan food is pretty decent. I met a couple of long-term foreign residents yesterday and we went out for food and beers. We had grilled skewers of a variety vegetables (and meat for the meat-eaters) and a cold local beers, all while sitting on doll-sized stools out on a quiet lane. The fellow who had taken us their said the place next door had fried grasshoppers, so we had him go get some of those. That's something you don't get to eat everyday! I figured that was local enough, and odd enough, that if would make for a good non-vegetarian exploration. They weren't bad- nicely fried and there were some dried spices to dip them in. They were small, too, which helped- only about a half inch or a little longer. Sort of like if they popped back to life, they'd be no threat. Unlike the three inch long grasshoppers I had in Bangkok years ago, that took several bits to finish. If one of those could revive, you'd be looking for some sort of heavy object with which to subdue it again.
Kunming has nice weather, and much better air than Chengdu. In Chengdu, you could see the pollution in the air when you were looking at buildings or something no more than 100-150 feet away. Here, sure you see some haze when you look at distant mountains, but everything at in-town distances is quite clear.
The food here is pretty good, too. Although my predilection for spicy food means that Sichuan should be my gustatory mecca, in fact I found Sichuan food suffered for me in two ways. One, they make very common use of this spice called "hua jiao," which I detest. I'm sure I'd been through the process before, the last time I was in Sichuan- wondering what that distasteful flavor is, getting it in dish after dish, finally nailing down what it was called and what it looked like (sort of like a little cluster of black pepper berries), and from then on asking at every meal that it NOT be included. The other thing about Sichuan cooking was that they seemed to use a lot of fetid oil. When the oil they use is heated up, it just doesn't smell good. I don't know whether the oil is old, or if the oil has been burned, or what, but lots of the street food fenders just made the air around them smell bad. You sort of lose your appetite being around it. Funny, I didn't see that in Guandong or Guangxi provinces at all. Their food seemed a little more naturally flavorful than the Sichuan food, a little fresher. That being said, I did have a really nice hotpot my last day in Chengdu.
Yunnan food is pretty decent. I met a couple of long-term foreign residents yesterday and we went out for food and beers. We had grilled skewers of a variety vegetables (and meat for the meat-eaters) and a cold local beers, all while sitting on doll-sized stools out on a quiet lane. The fellow who had taken us their said the place next door had fried grasshoppers, so we had him go get some of those. That's something you don't get to eat everyday! I figured that was local enough, and odd enough, that if would make for a good non-vegetarian exploration. They weren't bad- nicely fried and there were some dried spices to dip them in. They were small, too, which helped- only about a half inch or a little longer. Sort of like if they popped back to life, they'd be no threat. Unlike the three inch long grasshoppers I had in Bangkok years ago, that took several bits to finish. If one of those could revive, you'd be looking for some sort of heavy object with which to subdue it again.
posted by John at 11:50 PM
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