- I hope you're having an amazing day, it's Mark Wiens.
I am in Kunming, which is the biggest city
and the capital city of Yunnan province in China
and today I'm going to take you on a Chinese
street food tour, we're going to eat some
of the local specialties,
so I'm excited to share this entire day
of Chinese street food with you.
(electronic music)
- Morning guys,
I'm in a bit of a rush this morning.
- Let me introduce you to Jerry,
he's going to be taking us around today.
It is bright and cold this morning, it is about 8:45 am.
(market salespersons speaking Mandarin)
We have made it to the biggest market
in downtown Kunming, we've got to walk through this gate.
Oh, look at those mushrooms.
If I come down here I can actually
smell that mushroomey aroma.
There's truffles here, there's some Matsutake mushrooms,
oh yeah there's, ah, I remember seeing those before.
I don't know what most of these mushrooms are but
wow you can smell the mushroom aroma.
(market noise)
(foreign language)
- [Jerry] Special type of red--
- We're stopping first to eat, it's uh,
well, you can see that there are bees all over
and you can, so you can tell it's something sweet.
But it looks like rice, there's both
a pink version and a white version,
we've got both to try, uh,
I think it's a type of like fermented rice, sweet.
How is that?
- Beautiful.
- [Mark] Get a little bit of the meat and,
- [Jerry] Get the liquid, get liquid.
This is important.
- Mm, oh yeah.
It has a little bit of an alcoholic taste but it's sweet.
It's kind of like a, a rice pudding,
but you can still feel the kernels of rice
and then you've got the rice wine flavor of it.
Mm, oh they do have slightly a little
bit of a different taste.
I think the red one, is a little sweeter.
And then the white one is a little more sour.
(speaking Mandarin)
Okay they have some big huge pans
of spicy chicken feet over here and
people are kind of just rummaging through them
picking out chicken feet, um,
but she's also giving samples, so
she just handed me a sample of chicken feet.
Oh, it's a little cold.
But, for chicken feet,
you just sort of gnaw on it,
you eat all of that cartilagey
stuff and you can actually kind of crack
through the bones as well.
Chicken feet have never been my favorite,
but that sauce is pretty awesomely good.
It's like lemony, oh you can see lemon grass in here.
The flavor is pretty good,
but yeah it's kind of like a jellyish,
gelatinous skin in texture.
There are some little knuckles and
some little bones in that guy.
Chicken feet are not my personal favorite
but that sauce, that marinade was absolutely delicious.
That's the fish mint, right?
That looks amazing.
For chili oil, you need to make that chili oil.
(speaking Mandarin)
One of the great things about this market
is that you can just walk through
and people offer you samples.
Oh, that's delicious.
Those little crunchy shrimp, they're crunchy,
nicely salted, you can taste the chili flavor in there.
And it's almost like a, oh yeah,
it tastes like bell peppers.
(frying sound)
I saw, I actually heard the dumplings sizzling
and this is a type of, it's like a
half moon shaped dumpling.
He's grilling them, or cooking them over
the hot griddle and he, first he
takes the raw dumplings,
he lays them onto the hot griddle.
He poured on a little bit of oil
so they sizzle,
and so they both cook and fry sort of at the same time.
They're hot and fresh.
This looks delicious and smells fantastic.
I think it's mostly filled with,
I think I can smell some chives in there.
Oh, that's tasty.
Oh, it's a little bit greasy,
but, yeah that's mostly chive I think
and maybe
I don't know if it's egg inside of it
and then the wrapper is crispy and gummy.
Yeah, that's really tasty.
Mm, nice and salty and oily.
(foreign language)
- [Jerry] Okay, yes.
Oh, this is it, this is her shop.
She's selling pickles, she wanted to
see herself in the camera.
- Oh, she's so friendly, she's so nice.
And I think right next door we're
going to try some of the local roast duck.
- [Jerry] He's the owner of the duck stall,
she's the owner of all the pickles.
- [Mark] Okay.
Yeah, something I was really interested to try
in Yunnan is a local style of roast duck
which some people say, it compares to the
one of the most famous roast duck like from Beijing.
But this is the local one from Yinyang
and they're just little small ducks,
they're roasting them right here.
It's a busy shop.
The owner said you have to buy a whole duck
but we're going to try to get a taste test.
The owner is really friendly.
On second thought, we have decided that it
is very necessary to get ourselves a whole duck.
They're pretty small.
The ducks here are selling out so fast.
Very good, very good, they're selling out so fast here.
They're just, like this whole cabinet was full
when we arrived here and now there's only four ducks left.
She has very kindly given me a plastic glove
to taste a piece right now.
Absolutely beautiful, the skin is perfectly golden, okay.
Oh, oh wow.
- My god, even without salt, it's good enough.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh it's so incredibly moist.
That's unbelievable, it's moist,
it's not, it's not dry at all.
Um, the skin is crispy,
that's really properly good.
More ducks are coming.
(techno music and market sounds)
So as we're standing here eating the duck
we ran out of ducks and then they took
a fresh batch out of the oven
and now they're adding more ducks in.
And by the way, he told us
they sell about 700 ducks per day.
I'm in this just very tight little, little space.
That is just sensational
and there's nothing better than standing here,
watching them make it with the ovens
then freshly chopping it up and just snacking on it.
Wow.
That is really, a seriously good way to roast a duck.
It's actually mild in flavor but I think,
I think what's really keeping me here
is the actual ducks that they're using
which do not taste like overly fatty,
they taste a little more free range.
The meat is literally not dry at all.
Like duck can sometimes be.
Mm, just super.
(foreign language)
What a duck.
Talk about egg decisions.
There's about a dozen different eggs you can choose from.
From free range, from wild to goose, to duck
to thousand year, to transparent, to salted.
Yeah, they have it all, every type
of egg you could possibly want.
(foreign language)
You can choose your own pear?
- [Jerry] You can choose your own pear.
The smaller, the tastier.
More taste.
- [Mark] Jerry found some of these pickled pears
and they're supposed to be very good for you,
very healthy, especially good for your
digestive system and for your lungs
and Jerry told me that the smaller ones
are better, so I got a little small one.
This is like the size of a really small plum
but it's a pear, pickled it's just,
it's just soaking in its pickled juices.
Mm, oh.
It's a little bit of a salty pickle
but then sweet, oh, okay.
It's a little bit of a salty pickle,
the pear has a dryness to it as well.
- Get some sweet potato.
- [Mark] Sweet potato.
(foreign language)
And really juicy too.
Micah, Micah, how's that sweet potato?
I'm not the only one that is enjoying the market.
Micah's loving the market
and this market is huge, it's a sprawling market,
it just keeps on going and there's just
mountains of food to eat here.
Okay, cool.
- [Jerry] There you go!
- Cheers, Jerry.
Next up at the market, we're trying
a local Yunnanese beverage drink,
little rice noodles and then there's also
some kind of jelly which he adds to it as well.
With some syrup and then she mixes it all up and
this is the drink.
Cheers.
Also, not forgetting, you get an Angry Birds cup too.
Which is, which is a bonus.
Okay, that's, that's really really sweet.
A little too sweet for me,
but it tastes like that, like roasted brown sugar
type of sweetness, really really jellyish
jelly that you can suck up through a straw.
Totally different.
There's another noodle shop that's absolutely bustling
and there's a specific type of tofu rice noodle,
that is very common in Kunming that we've got to try
so we're, we're stopping here for one more
bowl of rice noodles.
(foreign language)
- [Jerry] Do like local now, yeah?
- [Mark] Yeah,
oh, you can smell the fermented soy beans.
- [Jerry] Best dish you can ever have.
- You basically come here and find an empty stool
wherever you can find a stool
and the most famous thing that you have to try here
and this is very common in Kunming is tofu noodles.
I've had tofu before, I've had rice noodles before
but I can't say that I've had tofu rice noodles so
this is the first for me.
Once you start mixing it, the tofu just kind of like
minces literally into your noodles.
Okay that just splattered into my eye.
So the noodles taste like they've sort of like absorbed
some of that broth, they're kind of like
like, um, swollen full of that broth
and you do taste the fermented soy beans in there.
The tofu just sort of melts in your mouth
you don't even, the
tofu is sort of in your subconscious,
you barely even notice the tofu.
Oh, hey Micah.
Okay, Micah wants to, Micah wants to come join in.
Okay.
Okay, Micah let's just taste the tofu.
Want to just taste a bite of only that tofu
to see how it is.
But you've got to like really pick out a little piece.
It's just like, oh,
it's so silky smooth
you don't need to chew it at all.
It just, it just disintegrates.
And you can see them up front
when you're ordering the noodles
they're also making these little dumplings
and so we got two different types.
This one is a full bowl and then
we also got this one over here which is
already almost done,
but this one is in soup with these dumplings.
So maybe I'll try this one first.
Mm.
They're really sticky and gummy
and kind of elasticy.
And then inside you've got like a
I think it's a little bit of sesame
and it's sweet, same type of dumpling
but then they're covered in soy bean powder
and brown sugar.
Mm, oh yeah.
The soy bean powder is a little bit dry.
Kind of sticks to the roof of your mouth
but then after that
you've got this sticky rice ball
and then that sesame flavor.
As you keep eating and get further
down in your bowl of noodles,
you'll notice how the tofu is actually so soft
that it starts to disintegrate
and it actually becomes the sauce, the gravy.
So it's like, that's like melted tofu down there
which is just like coating the noodles now.
For me it's kind of a lot of rice noodles
with a little bit of stuff.
But it's really kind of, it does taste pretty good
and it is a very affordable filling bowl of noodles.
(foreign language)
This is the most amazing
pan of brazed chicken I think I've ever seen;
there must be an entire flock
of chickens that are slow bubbling
brazing away in their juices.
We've got a bite of chicken right now, brazed chicken.
Got some bones in there.
Wow.
- [Jerry] It's really full.
- [Mark] I'm standing right next to the brazed pan
and he says they braze for, for two hours.
Oh, that's just a swimming pool,
that's a jacuzzi of brazed chicken, wow.
And that chicken tastes so good.
It's really an amazing flavor too.
Oh, here's the chicken feet.
(foreign language)
okay the owners here are so friendly
that we had to get a half a chicken.
Ah man, okay, this is brazed so
the skin is not crispy but there
is so much flavor in that meat.
You've just got to be
careful of the little bone shards
but the flavor is just insane.
The soy sauce is wonderful
and there's nothing better than
eating a piece of brazed chicken
while you're standing in the brazed chicken sauna.
Wow that was, that was absolutely stunning
and the people at this market are so friendly.
I don't know if we can ever escape this market;
there's so many good things.
A little bit of a quieter section of the market now
and we're just walking through, actually we're
on our way out of the market but Jerry said
this is something, this is a Yunnan specialty
that we can't afford to miss
and it's yellow soy bean porridge.
Jerry's going to season it up for us, the local style.
- This is garlic.
One is ginger, one is garlic.
Yeah this is ginger.
Put on pepper oil.
Coriander.
And the most important.
- And so to begin eating you just
kind of stir up everything, oh yeah it's very,
it's very thick, like a very thick gravy
and then you stir that, the yotiyo into there.
Beautiful, and that's like their,
it's kind of like actually you see people
you don't eat this with a spoon.
You just eat with the yotiyo, right?
You just dip in yotiyo, soak it up
and then you keep on eating it
and then you can kind of drink it like a gravy
if you like.
Mm,
oh that's delicious.
To give it like my very first,
thought comparison
it sort of tastes like biscuits and gravy.
It's a savory donut, it's fried also
so it's kind of crispy but then it's
kind of like fluffy on the inside.
I'm like surprised at how good that one is
because it seams very simple,
but it goes together really well.
Yeah, on a cold day
this would be something you want to eat.
Once you're down to the bottom of your bowl
you got to just pick it up and use your chopsticks
to just sort of shovel it into your mouth.
I really like it.
Three and a half hours later,
we are stumbling out of the market.
Oh, this is such an amazing market.
So much to see, it's so huge,
there's an abundance of, of, things
ingredients from fresh veggies
to meat, to fish and then all of
the cooked food is just, it's blow your mind,
there's so much available.
We're taking a little walk now
and it feels great to walk after all of that food.
But we're on our way to go eat.
(electro music)
(foreign language)
- [Mark] Yeah, that one looks great.
(foreign language)
We got a table, we got some clay pots.
We got two different clay pots,
one is brazed fish, which looks delicious
with chilies and yeah, that looks fantastic
and then we also got a brazed
or a clay pot rice, which is rice,
I think that's carrots on top with a
little bit of minced meat.
Jerry said that it's also okay
that we eat the rest of the duck
and chicken that we picked up from the market,
eat it right here, so that's, that's
going to be fantastic with that rice.
Oh, and on the bottom there's tofu as well.
It looks like, oh yes, oh
that looks delicious, okay one
of these pieces of fish first.
Oh, that's like brazed in chili oil.
Mm, it's kind of salty, you can taste the aroma,
like the fumes of the chili,
it's not that spicy and definitely feels
like the fish has been deep fried
before it gets brazed in that clay pot.
So it has that like crispy, crispy sogginess.
Yeah, that's tasty.
It has a really nice smokey taste.
And yeah, tofu just absorbs that flavor.
Oh, I think those are carrots,
and then that little meat almost
tastes like hun beef on top of there.
That duck is really something else
and even if it's a little bit cold right now,
it's still delicious,
but you can eat that with the hot rice.
It's definitely a fresh water fish.
I'm not sure exactly, it tastes kind of like a carp.
Could be carp.
But, yeah, it's good.
It's kind of oily,
but that chili oil, mm
which is, literally is just absorbed in the fish.
The tofu is delicious.
- Hello.
- [Mark] Nice to meet you.
- Hello, hello.
So Kunming barbecue is especially popular at night
and Jerry was telling me though that this place
usually it's really packed if you come a little later
at night but right now, they're
they're still kind of quiet,
but come a little, come a little bit later
and it will be packed, but you can already
smell the aroma of all the smoke coming out of here.
Okay, we're going to eat some
barbecue, Yunnan style barbecue.
I think there's both beef and mutton skewers
but I watched them as they made the meat skewers
and it's pretty interesting to watch them
because they don't ever,
what's different about how they grill
and how other people grill, or other grilled meat
is that they never let the meat sit
for a long period of time on the grill.
They just keep it moving all the time, so they like,
play with those skewers, they move them around they
bunch them up and then they put them
back together and then spread them out.
Hello.
And then they sprinkle it with sesame seeds
and they sprinkle it with some seasoning
some salt and then they sprinkle it with chili pepper.
And then, yeah, they keep on bunching them up
and spreading them out over the hot coals
and they never let them sit directly on the hot coals.
Oh, yeah, that's some good grilled meat.
It's smokey, you can taste the cumin on there.
The sesame seeds, the chili flakes.
Yeah that's tasty, oh yeah.
You can put these here,
stick it here.
What do we have here?
- [Jerry] Fresh water snails.
- Oh nice.
A special skewer, this one is buffalo intestines
and what you do is you take it you can roll it in
that dried chili, um, let's taste the buffalo intestines.
Mm, whoa, wow.
Okay that was totally unexpected.
I thought it was going to be rubbery and chewy,
instead it's like, crispy and it
kind of explodes in your mouth
with like oil that has a gamey
taste to it, it's pretty awesomely good.
Some type of snail.
Mm, a little bit chewy and bit leathery
but really good smokey flavor,
again you can taste the cumin on there.
Next up this is for the mushrooms and
it looks like there's some bell peppers in there
and also there's kind of a pool of oil.
The garlic is really, really strong.
Really fresh garlic flavor to that.
That's what makes it so good.
We've had some meat and now we're moving
on to some vegetables, we've got some
Chinese chives that are going right on the grill
and then brushing them with some oil.
Next up we have little bite sized nuggets of stinky tofu
and they sort of look like chicken nuggets
but they are stinky tofu.
Mm, they're not too stinky.
This is pretty good stinky tofu,
yeah, has just a slight
moldy
rotting flavor but not
very very
very very slight.
The more you keep chewing
the more you can't taste that stinkiness
but it's not bad at all.
Again the chives are done,
going to have some of these chives.
Fantastic.
(foreign language)
There's one more dish that we've got to
try before the end of this Chinese food tour of Kunming
and that is called drunken shrimp
and so we came to a place that serves it
just down from where we were just eating.
I think they're the same type of shrimp that
are eaten across Southeast Asia raw.
There's a Thai dish called dancing shrimp
which I think is similar to this.
And you can see it's just, so
it's basically just raw marinaded shrimp
and just like pure chili.
You do have to be a little bit careful chewing because
those shrimp are still kind of sharp.
Their heads are really sharp so,
you got to bite through all the shell.
But that sauce is insane, it's so
it's so, it's like pure chilies and garlic
and the sauce is delicious.
It's like herbal, it's very garlicy.
Oh, it's really tasty.
- [Jerry] Yeah?
- Yeah,
that sauce, it's all about that sauce.
- [Jerry] I have a little bit
of the cucumber salad first to warm up.
Oh, it is good.
- [Mark] The sauce is good.
It's a good idea, don't eat the head.
- Wow, the sauce is good.
- Yeah, the sauce is really good.
You could basically take that sauce
and use it with anything and that
thing would be delicious, that
sauce is incredible and on that
shrimpy, very spicy note I'm going to
go ahead and end this Chinese street food tour
of Kunming today,
it's been an amazing day.
Kunming is really a,
it's a melting pot of Yunnan and so,
or even of China, people come from
all over China to Kunming to settle down
because the weather is known to be good
throughout the entire year and
so it really has a mix of cultures
and foods that represent Kunming.
I have fully enjoyed this entire street food tour.
I want to say a big thank you to Jerry
for bringing us around and
also to my friend Frank from Zouba Tours
he set up everything, he arranged everything
and so a big thank you to Frank.
Oh, what a day of food.
I want to say a big thank you for watching
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Good night from Kunming, thanks again for watching
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