Yangshuo is a scenic riverside town, surrounded by towering limestone karsts. It’s glorious. The surrounding countryside is lush, smothered with rice paddies and other agricultural endeavours. A lot of the produce ends up at the Yangshuo Farmer’s Market, which we visited in preparation for a cooking class!
The space is stuffed to the brim with pomegranates, wheelbarrows of citrus fruits, exotic berries and bunches of greens. There is also a wet market and butchery section, which was challenging; but it was a good example of the local way of food shopping.
Once we had bought tofu, greens, duck eggs and a big bag of fragrant garlic, we headed to the cooking school. With an awesome view of the river; we toiled over smoking woks, coughed our lungs out as we inhaled chili fumes, and tossed vegetables with vigour – all in preparation for a lunchtime feast.
Making steamed tofu with Chinese mushrooms and goji berries.
The end result was extremely delicious. We sat out on a stone terrace by the river, chugging beer and eagerly consuming our dishes – in my case: egg wrapped potato dumplings, tofu with mushrooms, Yangshuo style eggplant, stir fried lotus root and green vegetables with garlic.
Yum. Cooking is definitely the best way to get in touch with local cuisine, and I found it rather relaxing too! The following recipe was really easy to prepare and cook – do try it at home.
EGGPLANT – YANGSHUO STYLE
250g eggplant – sliced
4 tablespoons of peanut oil
1 red pepper – sliced
25g ginger – sliced
4 cloves of garlic – sliced
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce (vegans: replace as you please, try soy?)
1 tablespoon of water
Spring onions to taste – sliced
Heat wok (it’s ready when it’s smoking like a banshee) and add oil. Heat oil, then add eggplant and fry until browned and cooked. Move the eggplant to the side of your wok and reduce heat. Fry the garlic, ginger and pepper for 1 minute. Add the eggplant with the other vegetables, and mix with water, salt and oyster sauce. Add spring onions, then serve!
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Yum! We must cook this some time soon.