One Year Away

Joseph

Every region of China has its local food specialties and Guilin/Yangshuo is no exception. We try to  eat the local specialties as much as possible, although so far we have avoided rodents, insects and dog.

The subtropical climate here makes ideal conditions for growing citrus fruits and we made sure to always have some refreshing oranges in our pack when we went biking or hiking.

This region is particularly known for its local pomelo variety and there are street-side vendors all over the place selling them.  On the way back to town one day we bought one from an elderly farmer. Penny has a thing for buying fruit from old people, and the older they are the less she bargains the price.  So we took the huge pomelo with us, parked by the side of the Li river and tried to peel it.  I had left my Swiss Army knife at the hostel so we had to use our hands.  The peel and pith is over one inch thick and very strong; it took our combined efforts and over 10 minutes to finally get it peeled.  I wish I could say that it was worth the effort but I found the taste quite bland, something like a watered down grapefruit.

The other local fruit specialty is the persimmon.  These are sold both fresh and dried.  I bought the dried variety from the ever present street vendors.  It wasn’t overly dried, the flesh was plump and tender with the seeds arranged around the center.  The taste was delicious and reminded me a little of apricot.

Being on the Li river, Yangshuo’s other specialty is river fish cooked in beer.  For lunch on Sunday we ate at a local restaurant and had the Beer Fish with a side of stir fried vegetables.  The fish is cooked in  a beer based sauce with tomatoes and chilies.  At about $15 it was pricier than our usual lunches, but the fish was tasty and we left happy.

In the center of town is an open air night market where at least a dozen mini restaurants setup shop.  They have a large table where they spread out all of their fresh ingredients, including live fish, chickens, frogs and snakes.  You tell the cook what you want to eat and he does the butchering and cooking for you on the spot. Everything is cooked in a wok over a powerful gas burner that sounds like a rocket engine.  Having just recovered from food poisoning in Shanghai I didn’t think it was wise to eat at the night market…but I was tempted.